The Light.- Once the juice of the olive is extracted, we must keep it in containers or places where they are not exposed to light, especially sunlight because this will also cause temperature changes. Always avoid exposing containers to light and sudden changes in temperature. The ideal is to keep the product in dark or black containers where light does not penetrate and keep it around a constant temperature of 15ºC.
Air.- This is another enemy of oil since it accelerates the oxidation of the product, in the same way that it is a product very susceptible to capturing and retaining external odors. Therefore it is best to keep it in airtight containers.
Containers.- As mentioned before, you should use containers as opaque as possible and avoid contact with metal containers since contact with iron can cause rancidity (old taste ) in the oil.
The color of extra virgin olive oil can vary from green to yellow and is closely related to factors such as the variety of olive, the point of maturity of the same or the time it has been packaged.
When the fruit is greener it contains more chlorophyll and pheophytins which gives the oil a greener color and when the olive is riper, it increases the content of carotenes and xanthophylls which gives it a more yellowish color.
Therefore, instead of taking into account the color, we should look more at the packaging date when choosing our extra virgin olive oil.
However, we must bear in mind that the degree of acidity is not detected in the color or flavor but must be fixed by a laboratory through specific tests.
It is common for us to confuse acidity with an intense, acidic, sour or bitter flavor but these characteristics have to do mainly with the variety of olive and not with the acidity of the product.
Therefore, let’s look at the label and keep in mind that “the lower the acidity, the higher the quality of the oil”.
To guarantee this quality, all our oils are called “EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL” so you will not be able to find other types of oils on our site.
Many of the producers reflect on their labels the packaging date instead of the expiration date so we can know which harvest the oil is from. The ideal would be to consume oil from the last harvest.
Both the harvest of the olive at its optimum moment and the time that elapses from when it is collected until the oil is extracted in the mill, are factors that play a very important role in the quality, taste and smell of extra virgin olive oil. Therefore, the shorter the time elapsed between the harvest of the fruit (olive) to the packaging process itself – bottling, the less properties the oil will have lost. To guarantee this quality, all our oils are packaged in the place of origin or very close to the olive plantations themselves because we work with small producers in small mills (extraction mills) where rapid extraction is guaranteed and we avoid mixtures with other oils.
Unfiltered extra virgin olive oil.- It is not strictly as its name suggests since it is not literally oil that has not had any filtering. The ground olive has only been subjected to a decanting process and a very light filtering without removing vegetable and water remains from the olive itself, thus having a cloudy colour. The advantage that this oil has is its intensity of flavor and that it preserves even more of the properties of extra virgin olive oil. Another advantage is the certainty that it is oil from the last harvest since over time all the impurities are deposited little by little at the bottom of the container and the oil ceases to be cloudy. The drawback is that having traces of water and olive particles, its oxidation is faster and loses the properties more quickly. They are advisable to eat at the time of olive harvesting for their intense flavor and for their magnificent properties.
Filtered extra virgin olive oil.- It is the same oil as the previous one, it is not refined oil and of course without chemical treatment or subjected to high temperatures, but that through a more meticulous decantation and filtering process, the water and the small particles resulting from the mass of the olive have been extracted.
Lacking water and small olive particles, conservation is better because oxidation is much slower.
If we choose to buy oil for several months, for example for the whole year, the ideal is to stockpile filtered oil and apply our own conservation rules. In this way we will guarantee an excellent extra virgin olive oil for the whole season.
For all this we must be wary of very cheap oils or offers in this type of product. “If it’s very cheap, don’t trust it.”
Depending on the variety of olive we can find more spicy or less spicy, bitter oils, ones with strong roots to the olive or softer tastes. It also depends on the use we give it, there are oils that go better with salads, others for dressing cheeses, for frying or to have at breakfast with toasted bread (Old miller’s breakfast). It all depends on our taste and our experience with extra virgin olive oil.