Olive Oil

glatt · 05-20-2013, 11:18 AM

My wife and I went to a local olive oil store over the weekend. Ah Love Oil.

Yes. This is a store that sells only olive oil (and balsamic vinegar.) You walk in and see shelves filled with about 30 different types of oil. In front of each group of bottles is an open bottle for tasting. There are tiny dixie cups, the size of ketchup cups in a fast food place. You are supposed to pour a little oil into a cup, and drink it straight from the cup to taste it. They also have little cut up pieces of bread you can use for dipping if you like, but they try to steer you away from that because you can't taste the oil as well if you try it with bread.

All this took a little looking around to figure out. The store was fairly crowded, but nobody was tasting the oil, and the staff there didn't come up to explain it to us. But we figured it out, and I selected a bottle that looked promising from the description, poured myself some oil, and sipped it. And it tasted exactly like oil. So I tried another kind, and it also tasted exactly like oil. So then I tried a variety that was described as having a slightly peppery aftertaste, and it also tasted like oil, but with a slight burn at the end. My wife had basically the same reaction as I did. It was all just oil. After a few samples,though, we started noticing very slight differences between the oils, and continued to try different ones. After sampling about a dozen oils, we felt like we had to buy a bottle, so we settled in on a bottle that seemed the most normal. It was $20. The cheapest oil was $11, and the most expensive was $50. These are for 500 ml bottles.

The store sells their own store brand of oil in multiple varieties from different countries, and they also sell branded oil from other manufacturers. All the oil is dated. Some was harvested in 2013, but most was from 2012. You're supposed to only consume the freshest olive oil, according to this place.

It was an interesting experience. We may go back there again someday, but it wasn't a mindblowing experience. What I need to do now is try a teaspoon of that fancy olive oil against the grocery store olive oil we already had in the pantry. I'm sure there's a taste difference, but I'm not sure if it's worth the extra cost.

05-20-2013, 11:18 AM	#14
glatt ™ Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Arlington, VA Posts: 27,717	My wife and I went to a local olive oil store over the weekend. Ah Love Oil. Yes. This is a store that sells only olive oil (and balsamic vinegar.) You walk in and see shelves filled with about 30 different types of oil. In front of each group of bottles is an open bottle for tasting. There are tiny dixie cups, the size of ketchup cups in a fast food place. You are supposed to pour a little oil into a cup, and drink it straight from the cup to taste it. They also have little cut up pieces of bread you can use for dipping if you like, but they try to steer you away from that because you can't taste the oil as well if you try it with bread. All this took a little looking around to figure out. The store was fairly crowded, but nobody was tasting the oil, and the staff there didn't come up to explain it to us. But we figured it out, and I selected a bottle that looked promising from the description, poured myself some oil, and sipped it. And it tasted exactly like oil. So I tried another kind, and it also tasted exactly like oil. So then I tried a variety that was described as having a slightly peppery aftertaste, and it also tasted like oil, but with a slight burn at the end. My wife had basically the same reaction as I did. It was all just oil. After a few samples,though, we started noticing very slight differences between the oils, and continued to try different ones. After sampling about a dozen oils, we felt like we had to buy a bottle, so we settled in on a bottle that seemed the most normal. It was $20. The cheapest oil was $11, and the most expensive was $50. These are for 500 ml bottles. The store sells their own store brand of oil in multiple varieties from different countries, and they also sell branded oil from other manufacturers. All the oil is dated. Some was harvested in 2013, but most was from 2012. You're supposed to only consume the freshest olive oil, according to this place. It was an interesting experience. We may go back there again someday, but it wasn't a mindblowing experience. What I need to do now is try a teaspoon of that fancy olive oil against the grocery store olive oil we already had in the pantry. I'm sure there's a taste difference, but I'm not sure if it's worth the extra cost. Last edited by glatt; 05-20-2013 at 01:41 PM.

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