Tips for buying a good olive oil

consejos para comprar aceite de oliva

The scientific community, government institutions and the press are making known the enormous health benefits of extra virgin olive oil. Most households, aware of this reality, even households without an olive-growing tradition always have a bottle of good extra virgin olive oil in their kitchen. However, much of the extra virgin olive oil sold is not of the quality it indicates. This is not harmful to your health, but it is a scam to your pocket, when you buy a bottle with a lower category than it indicates. In more common words “we are given a cat for a hare” many times.

To buy a good olive oil we recommend you to read our next article: Where to buy olive oil

In our online shop and in our physical shop we offer you only quality olive oils. Here you will find a great variety of olive oils; picual, cornicabra, royal, arbequina, and brands: Oro Bailen, Castillo de Canena, casas Hualdo…

Buy olive oil from a cooperative or oil mill

Whenever we can, we should buy an oil of which we know its origin. Between the oil mill and the cooperative, I would always opt for the cooperative, as the latter is not engaged in oil speculation and has to sell its oil every year in order to be able to pay the cooperative members.

Here we are going to give you six good tips so that you are not fooled in your purchase of extra virgin olive oil:

1. Check the origin of the extra virgin olive oil.

This is easier said than done. Look at the label where it has been bottled and produced. It is also highly recommended to search for its origin and provenance on the internet, to ensure that all the olive oil sold under this brand is self-produced.

We recommend buying always in cooperatives or small oil mills, which only grind their olives and do not buy olive oil from other origins. Major brands and bottlers buy and package oils from a wide variety of sources, including oils from countries outside the European Union with not very strict quality controls. The headquarters of a company may be located in a physical place in Spain, but this has nothing to do with the fact that the origin of the olives with which they make their olive oil is the same place.

With the Denominations of Origin (Baena, Sierra Magina, Sierra de Cazorla, Montes de Toledo, Valencia, Priego de Córdoba, etc) we do not guarantee that the product is from a specific place, which is what the Denomination attests to.

Photo 1: Expiry and origin of Sierra Magina olive oil

2. Buy extra virgin olive oil of the year:

This is even more difficult if you are going to a large area, as the person in charge does not have any information and therefore cannot provide you with it. To get an extra virgin olive oil of the year the best option is to contact the producer, or go to shops specializing in olive oil where they should provide this information. from our store in Las Rozas de Madrid, giving information about all our products is a point that differentiates us from the competition.

3. Check the dates of preferential consumption of olive oil:

Although the dates of preferential consumption are indicated from the moment the oil is packaged and these can be given between 8 months and 24 months in Spain. We recommend always buying an olive oil with preferential dates of consumption as far away as possible, in order to obtain the freshest oil possible.

We also have to bear in mind that small producers give it little date of consumption to offer a better quality of the product, so we can find oils in perfect condition that may be on the verge of expiring.

4. Buy extra virgin olive oil in dark glass bottles, cans or bag in box:

Extra virgin olive oil, like any natural product, loses properties and aromas over time, as oxygen, light and temperature deteriorate it. For this reason the plastic or more technically called PET is the worst container for oil, and where it is best stored is in the bag in box, glass, especially the dark, and the can.

The bag in box is a new packaging invented by Australians some 40 years ago. Later it arrived in Spain and today many wine cellars are using it. The oil mills have also begun to use it to store their extra virgin olive oil.

According to the University of Cordoba, the bag in box is the best container for storing extra virgin olive oil, even better than the can and the dark glass bottle.

5. Look for an extra virgin olive oil with aroma and taste:

Whenever you open a bottle, the extra virgin olive oil should give off a fresh aroma. When tasting it, it must have some bitterness and fruitiness, characteristics that are always found in a quality and year-round extra virgin olive oil.

Do not buy an oil without flavor and flattened, that is to say without aroma nor anything of bitterness, because it is probable that it is an oil of several years ago and adulterated. In terms of aroma and flavor must also take into account each variety is different, and there are extra virgin olive oils of the year with a very mild aroma as the empeltre.

The itching and aroma is given by the minor components and antioxidants, components that provide most of the benefits of olive oil.

6. Do not buy extra virgin olive oil for long periods of time:

Above all if you are going to buy it bottled in PET, that is to say plastic, because this package does not conserve the oil enough deficiently and it is a pity that at the end of the year it has lost many of its qualities. In addition, if you think that by buying large volumes you are going to buy cheaper, think that there is a large fluctuation in prices throughout the year.

Photo 2: Gift basket with a selection of the best olive oils

Buy organic olive oil

In our shop in Las Rozas de Madrid or in our online shop you have at your disposal a great variety of organic extra virgin olive oils. All of them can be sent to the address you indicate.

The differences between quality extra virgin olive oil and organic on the palate are not detectable, and from the point of view of how they are treated olive trees, are increasingly smaller, as modern agriculture increasingly uses more organic products, even if they do not bear ecological seal their oils. It must be borne in mind that passing the controls and being able to carry the ecological seal, entails some extra costs.

Buying cheap olive oil

There is a great variety of prices on the market, prices that can vary by 1,000 %. However, oils so cheap that they do not even cover the price of the raw material cannot be extra virgin olive oils.

Spend a little more money and enjoy a real extra virgin olive oil.

In our shop we don’t compete with cheap olive oils because it doesn’t make any sense. To be able to compete with these products, we would have to look for fraudulent companies that offer us manipulated oils. Our main objective is to give 100 per 100 extra virgin olive oil, of quality and of the year.

Buying olive oil in bulk

The sale and purchase of olive oil in bulk is only permitted to large packagers. With the problem that Spain had with rapeseed oil, where thousands of people died, the government of Spain prohibited the sale in bulk. However, in other countries of Europe and the world is still allowed.

The great disadvantage of selling in bulk in shops is the easy handling of the oil, because the seller will be selling it and will have to fill the container with the oil you want.

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