 
Severe scientific analysis of foods take place with the study of their chemical-phisical parameters which, through their action on our sense-organs, gives us the perception of their tasteand parfum. For extra virgin olive oils, however, we don't have an instrument yet, to impartially analyse and discover the countless aromatic fragancies of the product: so we need two tests.A chemical -phisical analysis, to evalue both the percentage of fats and the acidity level of oil (expressed through the percentage of oleic acid), and an organoleptical test which, using exact parameters to list qualities and lacks of the product, reveals the sensations it visually, olfactory and gustative offers (i.e. sweet, bitter, piquantÉ"fruttato"). This sensorial analysis is the result of long experience and of a precise ritual that the taster has to follow to perfectly catch the real characteristics of the product. Here following you can find some simply rules you have to know by heart for a correct tasting: -In the 30 minutes preceding tasting you should not smoke, not use parfum, cosmetic or soap chich could compromise the olfactive valuation. You should not eat anything for at least 60 minutes beore the test and, above all, you should be sure to be in condition not to compromise the test -Look carefully at oil against the light, moving the bottle to evalue oil's fluidity - Pour a little spoon of oil in a little glass -Warm the glass with your hands to free and exalt aromatical volatile substances, then taste oil. At first you should slowly breath in the air, then faster and faster until you vaporize oil in the hollow of the mouth and take it in direct contact with the papillae of the tongue -Let your mouth rest, moving the tongue toward the mouth -Breath in again, with your tongue against your mouth and half-opened lips -Repeat tasting of oil more times, keeping it in your mouth for, at least, 20 seconds -Expel oil The moving of tongue against the mouth allows to evalue all the retro-olfactive sensations caused by oil. It is recommended not to quickly expel oil, on the contrary you should quietly memorize all the sensorial stimulations and lead them to the standard evaluation parameters. There are more than 30 descriptions for olive oil's sensorial profile ( named, flavor), all are bound to particular elements as: cultivar quality, geographical area, climatic conditions, olives maturity, crop technology, times and places of olives conservation, tecniques in extraction and conservation of oil. All these elements can be influenced by events that can affect oil taste, let's see together some of them: Flavor influenced from: -Cultivar quality: bitter, sour, sweet, "fruttato", herbaceous, fresh or dried almond, lively, artichoke, piquant - Climatique conditions: freezed (oil from freezed olives, woody taste), dried ( oil of olives which have suffered dryness, dry taste) -Geographical area: ensemble of aromatique flavours typical of a geographical zone -Olives maturity level: astringent (oil extracted from sour olives -Crop technology: net (oil from olives left on the cropping nets for a long time, gum-dried flavour) -Times and places of conservation: wine or vinegar-flavour, mould -moisture, inflammation (oil from fermented oilves) -Extraction technologies: vegetation water, "fiscolo" (disks made of rope used to press olives and extract oil), metallical (typical flavours dued to long contact with water, dirty disks or metal containers) |
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| (Notizie tratte dalle pubblicazioni dell'Associazione Nazionale Città dell'Olio) | |