faizan-ali
It's very difficult to explain to Westerners how deeply corrupt our societies are relative to the rule of law we/they enjoy in the West.
All societies up until maybe 200 years ago for some, yesterday for others, also agreed that women were lesser. Pretty strong consensus there actually.
Sigh.
The question I still have is: is olive oil healthier than seed oils (which aren't really that bad based on current evidence)?
Olive oil (and all cooking oils in general) are the opposite of wine - once bottled they start degrading and any additional exposure to air, light, heat degrades them further.
What degrades specifically? Usually it's the nuanced flavors and health benefits of good extra virgin, it'll usually be fine for cooking but you're losing out on the purposeful decision of using olive oil over vegetable oils (gross)
Online is always an option :) The Olive Truck Tuscan blend is a personal favorite: https://bestoliveoils.org/search
The owner is this awesome Turkish dude who drives around California in a mobile olive press and makes oil from olives on the spot!
BUT BUT BUT make sure it's NOT the "global blend" - they got in a lot of trouble in California for trying to pass it as good oil. It's trash. Blends are usually made to maximize profit which minimizes the flavors and benefits of good oil. Look for their oil from California in the glass bottle.
If you're in California, the Bariani brand is affordable and awesome.
You can totally inspect your olive oil yourself. First a primer: Extra virgin olive oil is the highest grade. This is unregulated and mostly nonexistent in most US grocery shelves.
Here's the criteria I recommend:
- Source. Most Italian olive oil is repackaged Tunisian, Turkish, Spanish olive oil. Which isn't a bad thing but consider why they're not consuming it themselves (Italy and Greece do not produce enough to meet domestic demand). You'll see this by abbrvs like Source: "TN SP TK" (Tunisia, Spain, Turkey). Look for single source oils. Consider Californian oil (if in the US). A country does not produce better olive oil than another, it's all up to individual producers. Some of the best oils I've had are from Australia, California, Chile
- Smell! Does it smell like wax/waxy crayons/Crayola? It's probably a bit rancid/old. Not necessarily bad for you but lacks the health benefits (it's not extra virgin at this point if it ever was). It should smell fruity/grassy/green. - Taste: It should be bitter, fresh, and tickle your throat (that's the antioxidants!). It shouldn't leave your mouth feeling greasy.
- Harvest date: Oil degrades quickly. If there isn't a harvest date, it's probably not great. Should be harvested within the last 2 years, ideally within 1 year.
Extra virgin has the maximum taste and health benefits. Most grocery store oils are simply olive oil - not the highest grade but still significantly better than seed/nut oils.
Source: I'm an olive oil somm
I built http://fogcity.events/ to help me find tech events around the Bay, hope it's useful to you too.
- EVOO = Extra Virgin Olive Oil. The extra virgin label is an indicator of the highest quality i.e. no chemical/heat used, just olive fruit crushed into juice (oil). Many factors are at play here, like time of harvest, delay b/w harvesting and crushing. This is not a regulated label in the US so only chemical and more importantly sensory analysis can guarantee the EVOO designation.
- Which leads to "3rd party lab verified": show us the results Bryan! I am a panelist at one of these labs and would love to read the results :) But from my experience in the industry, the mention of this probably points to him actually having done testing and having received the label.
- UV resistant: Excellent. Exposure to light and heat severely degrades the taste and health qualities of oil. - Single source: Usually an indicator of quality since the miller and bottler are one and the same, so lesser chances of contaminants/quality failures.
- "Taste is peppery and smooth": Peppery is an indicator of quality - the peperry sensation is known as pungency, which along with fruitiness and bitterness is 1 of 3 indicators of EVOO. But smooth is not! I would argue that smooth indicates a mediocre oil. But sensory characteristics are arbitrary so we don't really know for sure what he means.
- Price point: Slightly above average for high quality EVOO. This price point usually indicates some commitment to quality - making high quality EVOO at a cheaper price point is not really possible, especially given the droughts in olive growing regions this past year.
Sources: I'm an olive oil somm, panelist on a California sensory analysis panel that tastes and grades olive oils.
His product specifically? Let's look at the details: - "May 2023 harvest date" - Not bad! Most olive oils in your grocery store were harvested 2-3 years ago. This is not the most recent harvest (Oct-Dec 2023) though but you will still get incredibly fresh and healthy oils going back 1-1.5 years from the day you buy. Anything older has significantly lost health benefits.
- EVOO = Extra Virgin Olive Oil. The extra virgin label is an indicator of the highest quality i.e. no chemical/heat used, just olive fruit crushed into juice (oil). Many factors are at play here, like time of harvest, delay b/w harvesting and crushing. This is not a regulated label in the US so only chemical and more importantly sensory analysis can guarantee the EVOO designation.
- Which leads to "3rd party lab verified": show us the results Bryan! I am a panelist at one of these labs and would love to read the results :) But from my experience in the industry, the mention of this probably points to him actually having done testing and having received the label.
- UV resistant: Excellent. Exposure to light and heat severely degrades the taste and health qualities of oil. - Single source: Usually an indicator of quality since the miller and bottler are one and the same, so lesser chances of contaminants/quality failures.
- "Taste is peppery and smooth": Peppery is an indicator of quality - the peperry sensation is known as pungency, which along with fruitiness and bitterness is 1 of 3 indicators of EVOO. But smooth is not! I would argue that smooth indicates a mediocre oil. But sensory characteristics are arbitrary so we don't really know for sure what he means.
- Price point: Slightly above average for high quality EVOO. This price point usually indicates some commitment to quality - making high quality EVOO at a cheaper price point is not really possible, especially given the droughts in olive growing regions this past year.
Sources: I'm an olive oil somm, panelist on a California sensory analysis panel that tastes and grades olive oils.
It finds the best tech events in town by going to various websites, my private Gmail, and a few Slacks/Discords I'm a part of and uses LLMs to normalize all the unstructured event data.
Some friends recently pushed me to publish it - it has a permanent audience of 1 :) http://fogcity.events/