Best Olive Oil That can take the Heat

[tonymark]

Ok. Are you coming on sat?

I may come by late.  I am glad you want to use Rob's oven.  How much dough are making?

TM

[varasano]

we each made 6. so we have 12 for 5 people. We can always hit Krystal on the way home

[shango]

Geraci from Sicily is very good.  It is expensive though....(14$ per btl.)

[scott r]

Jeff and Peter, I think something has changed with the collucio.  I just picked up a bottle of the Collucio and the Frantonia.  At one time both of these oils tated very similar.  Now the frantonia tastes like I remembered and the collucio lacks flavor (and has a new weird piercing flavor).  I also noticed that the price has gone down on the collucio at my local suppier.  At one time the collucio I got was from san marzano imports, the same people who brought us the la bella san marzano's.  I have noticed that they have switched to carrying a different brand.

Good call Jeff, stay away from the collucio.  The bottle I tried was from this years import.

[shango]

Perhaps the collucio has gone rancid....did you check the expiration date?

[varasano]

the expiry is 11/25/06. I'm not sure how they date these so I can't tell when it was made.

Either way, it was really not appealing.

The LaBella are not really san marzano. They are made in CA. I posted on this before. In tiny off tone print they say San Marzano Brand

I hate that stuff.

[scott r]

Jeff, that is REALLY sleazy.  Are you sure they are from California.  I know they may not be from the san marzano region, but they do say imported from Italy all over them.  They even have all sorts of info on the can about the packers (in Italian) with an Italian address etc.  Italian phone numbers, even an Italian web site.  They definitely don't taste like a California tomato to me.

Here is their web site.

http://www.viscardi.it/

[Pete-zza]

scott,

You are correct. I once did an extensive online search to find the exporter of the LaBella tomatoes and found the same company you found. The LaBellas are from Italy although I don't think we know yet whether they are the authentic San Marzano varietal or simply grown in the town of San Marzano or in the region often described as the "San Marzano" region. That doesn't mean the tomatoes are no good. My recollection, in fact, is that you are quite fond of them.

I believe Jeff is confusing the LaBellas with the tomatoes that are grown from San Marzano seeds in the U.S. and sold by a company called SiLtd., or something similar. Those tomatoes are shown here: http://www.cybercucina.com/ccdocs/products/SM5012.html. I have seen the latter tomatoes sold in many places, often at the same or higher prices that the best imported San Marzanos with DOP classification. The label can be quite misleading because there are Italian words repeated all around the can.

Peter

[varasano]

Something is not right about La Bella, BIG TIME.

Look at this logo and read the text on the site VERY CAREFULLY

http://www.sanmarzanoimports.com/

They actually never say that the tomatoes are grown in San Marzano anywhere that I can find on the site. They extol the virtues of the seed and the region. They give this weird certificate that looks like it's just a HAACP certificate which every processor of food must have:

http://www.sanmarzanoimports.com/sanmarzano_imports.htm

The fact that they put this up at all is an INTENTIONAL attempt to fool us. Then on the link that you quoted Pete, they have their ISO 9001 certificate. They are hoping we all think these two meaningless certificates are the DOC certification, which they ARE NOT!!! A zillion businesses have these.

THIS IS ONE SLEAZY OPERATION!!! They could have the best tomatoes in the world (I tasted them and they were ok once, very acidic and watery the next time), but I wouldn't buy these on principle.

[David]

The President of La Bella San Marzano Imports claims :

"I don't call them San Marzano,I call them La Bella San Marzano"       

http://www.sanmarzanoimports.com/star_ledger.htm

Fool me once...............

[varasano]

Ok, this is how sleazy and stupid these guys are. The link you sent in David, which I've seen before and may have been posted before, is from their own website.  They link to the article themselves in their news section where they say they were 'featured in the news'. They scanned in pieces of the article of differing sizes. In legible type, they talk about the merits of San Marzano tomaotes and a legitimate supplier, La Valle, Then they show a picture, which was not in the article of their own brand and San Marzano label, then in tiny, tiny almost illegible print, they print the part of the article that slams them for being a fraud. It's super weird that they did that, but in keeping with their style that they again tried to put one over.

Jeff

[David]

Yeah,that's where I picked up on the article Jeff.I just assume that they don't expect people to read too deeply into it and / or even possibly wish to confuse the two companies!I guess any association they can muster up is good for them.I wonder if the Atlanta story featuring thier Brand was another cut and paste job?Surely this infringes on some Trade Description policy?