The Olive Oil Chronicles

Sept 2 edition

In the spirit of our family's dark chocolate tournaments, Nathan and Dad and going to try to keep track of our adventures in olive oil. Photo credits go to Nathan. Welcome to the Olive Oil Chronicles - picture above used without permission. 

There are many (easily 20 or 30) different kinds of inexpensive but excellent Spanish olive oil - about $5 per liter - and we are going to try many of them. Look for a picture of the olive oil wall in a future post. But  today's battle pits Ybarra extra virgin vs. Borges arbequina extra virgin.

The Borges was considered by our tasters to be a pleasant and refreshing olive oil. It is quite mild, with a silky and smooth taste that is very olive-y but without bitterness. Very good for dipping bread into, and also good for cooking. If you note at the bottom of the front of the bottle, you can see that this olive oil rates one drop out of three in terms of "intensidad." It is also "suave y afrutado", which means mild and fruity. So a good choice as a basic mild olive oil. 

The Ybarra was very different, in that it is not suave/mild at all. The initial taste of this olive oil is quite bitter, and then after a few seconds the taste is very peppery and spicy. Jon thought it was really good, although on the edge of being too bitter. Other family members thought it might be too spicy for them. Since this is the beginning of our systematic study of olive oils, we don't have a good sense of whether this Ybarra will be among the spiciest that we taste or somewhere in the middle. But stay tuned to find out.