 
|
|||||||||||||
              
|
Sunday, December 26, 1999 By Woodene Merriman, Post-Gazette Dining Critic
Giuseppe Grappolini takes his olive oil seriously. Very seriously. His family has lived among the olive trees in Loro Ciufenna, a village on the edges of the provinces of Florence, Siena and Arezzo, Italy, for more than 1,000 years. Today he conducts seminars for people such as food writers who want to learn more about the oil pressed from those olives.
First, his tasters must prepare themselves. The day before the tasting, no eucalyptus or mint-flavored sweets, fried food, cakes or dishes that contain garlic or rich sauces are permitted. In Italy, that's tough.
Two hours before the tasting, no tobacco, alcohol, sweets, chewing gum, coffee, perfumes, deodorant or lipstick is permitted. Tasters must be in good health.
The best time for tasting is 10 to 11 a.m., but 4 to 5 p.m. is OK, too, Grappolini says.
Tasters put a tablespoon of olive oil in a little vase-like container that Grappolini invented and warm it in the palms of their hands (like warming cognac). Then they open the lid, put their noses inside, sniff three times -- no more -- and sample.
Between sips of olive oil, they can clean their palates with still mineral water and eat a bit of bread that contains little salt. The aromas of oil do not agree with salty bread, according to Grappolini.
Only four olive oils are tasted in one session, starting with an olive oil with the lowest intensity of aromas and working up to the oil with the highest intensity of aromas.
It's a little like a wine tasting, but with different descriptive words. An olive oil taster looks for gentle, harmonic and spicy tastes and aromas, consistency and color, which can range from brilliant green to dark green, depending on how ripe the fruit was when the olives were pressed.
"Unlike wine," Grappolini says, "age cannot improve olive oil." But consumers can preserve the quality of the olive oil they buy. His suggestions:
|
||||||||||||
Store olive oil in the refrigerator, in the same place where you keep salad ingredients. It should not be too cold. Stored this way, olive oil will be usable for two years. A good olive oil will last up to three years, but will lose quality.