Olive oil tasting

Olive oil tasting is disciplined attention to aroma and flavor in a fat. The ingredient is Olive oil. USDA AMS grades extra virgin as a voluntary U.S. standard, not an FDA identity: virgin olive oil with excellent flavor and odor — median of defects equal to zero, median of fruitiness greater than zero — and free fatty acid, expressed as oleic acid, not more than 0.8 grams per 100 grams, plus further requirements in the standard ¹.

Color is not the grade. Green is chlorophyll, not virtue.

What “excellent” means here #

Fruitiness must be present (median greater than zero). You should smell olive, not a neutral greasy blank.

Defects must be absent (median equal to zero). Rancid (waxy crayons, stale nuts), fusty, musty, winey-vinegary — those are defects. A peppery catch in the throat can be a fresh oil’s bite, not automatically a flaw; a stale oil is a flaw. Oxidation is how good oil becomes rancid.

Free fatty acid is a lab number on the grade, not something you taste as “acidity” in the wine sense. Acidity in canning is pH. Do not mix those vocabularies.

U.S. Virgin (not extra) allows some defect (median between zero and 2.5) and a higher fatty-acid ceiling (2.0 g/100 g). Blended “U.S. Olive Oil” is refined plus virgin, with its own limits ¹. Lampante is not a salad oil.

How to taste #

Use the general skill on Tasting: small amount, nose first, then mouth, then aftertaste. Warm the cup in the hand so aroma lifts. Fat coats; it also carries defects. Seasoning with oil is fruitiness and bitterness, not salt.

This is not a food-safety process. Rancid oil is a quality failure. Infused oils and low-acid jars are a different, stricter conversation on Food safety.