We're Doing Olive Oil Wrong

Meet expert Cristina Stribacu, founder of LIÁ, which produces a single-estate, extra virgin olive oil in Messinia, Greece. She is a frequent judge in international olive oil competitions, as well as an educator on the subject of sustainable agriculture. “A more Messinian person than me cannot exist,” she jokes, surrounded by the olive groves that are her life’s work.

1. Don’t buy blends. There’s a reason the price is low. Always try to buy oils that come from one farm, even if it is a farm from Spain, from Italy, from all over the world. I don’t care. Behind it, there is a real farmer; most of the time they have a small production, and they sell all within one year. They never keep olive oil for the next year. (Labels should explicitly state “Single Estate” or “Estate Grown”)
   

2. Smell your olive oil. When you pick a bottle, please do the same things that you do with wine. You pour wine in a glass, and the first thing you do is smell. Because only from your nose can you detect if it is good or not. If it smells too oily, this is virgin olive oil. Extra virgin olive oil will always have green notes, flower notes, hmm?
   

3. Taste test it. The second positive characteristic of olive oil is the bitterness. If you eat olives off a tree, your mouth will be sick from the bitterness. So, the bitterness should appear in the product, but delicately; not a strong bitterness. And the third positive characteristic is that Extra Virgin olive oil must be spicy. It should feel spicy, in the back of the throat. Spices are important because they are also connected with a high level of antioxidants. I talk all the time about antioxidants and polyphenols, because I truly believe that we need extra virgin olive oil in our daily diet in order to have balance.

4. Don’t listen to TikTok-ers. I completely disagree with this trend, TikTok-ers that tell you, take a shot of olive oil in the morning. They invite people to take two spoons of olive oil in the morning, and they will live forever, like the Blue zones in the Mediterranean. This is a huge mistake. Extra virgin olive oil needs to be consumed in combination with food, because this is the only way that our body absorbs the vitamins of our vegetables.
   

5. Buy glass bottles, not plastic. This one seems obvious, but a plastic bottle is too porous to protect it from heat, light or moisture. Also, don’t store it in the refrigerator. Extra Virgin olive oil forms crystals and begins to solidify when exposed to cold temperatures. Keep your bottles in a cool, dark cupboard or pantry.