How to choose an excellent extra virgin oil..
+ When we talk about a certain foodstuff, at times we are obliged to specify clearly what "good" means and what "quality" means.+This is because we tend to identify with the word "good" the meaning of "quality". "Good" means - in most cases - that it gives pleasure, that it suits your taste, but it does not always indicate the quality of the product. Every individual has his own scale of values (or tastes). That which for one may be good for another may not be. For example: if we buy olive oil, with a numbered bottle xxx, of guaranteed origin and therefore of high quality, it might not also be pleasing to our palate. We may therefore judge it "not good". But that does not necessarily imply that that type of olive oil is not of high "quality". When samples of various olive oils are being compared the classic phrase one hears is: "This oil isn't good because it's bitter and it tingles in the throat, and also it's yellow instead of green; whereas that other oil is soft and velvety."
+Certainly it's very difficult to refute this common idea.
+This is because: - the food industry is more interested in lowering prices than in raising the quality of olive oil; - traditional methods (not always correct) of harvesting and storing olives, still have a market for impersonal oils which tend towards a flatness of flavour; - it is easier to judge a product according to the opinion of the mass market rather than to make the effort to recognise the product's own particular criteria.
+It is clear, however, that with such oils we can never highlight the special qualities of the oil characteristic of an area... (Why do we not produce champagne in Toscana? Evidently the quality of land, the climate and the culture of working the natural products have some importance!) So often we are happy just to give satisfaction to our palate, without considering that we are what we eat. Actually that tingling sensation and that bitterness are indications of quality in the oil. Our bodies deteriorate and age on account of the oxidation of cells. Olive oil of quality is a natural antioxidant. It is due to the presence of poliphenols, natural antioxidants, and life-savers for us humans, that we feel that "tingle" in the throat. It shows that we are consuming an extra-virgin oil of excellent quality. The newer the oil is and the less it is altered, the more the poliphenols will be evident
