COLAVITA OLIVE OIL

[TONY]

Usually I buy what ever olive oil is on sale at my local grocery store.  While shopping for San Marzano tomatoes at the local Italian deli the clerk recommended Colavita olive oil.  I bought some and wow what a difference......it was very good......a very refined light flavor.......I threw the rest of my Bertolli's (half bottle) away!!!!

[JimBob]

I spent the weekend trying different olive oils, one being the colavita oil.  Comparing it to a local grocer's brand I found it to have more of a slightly bitter aftertaste.

[TONY]

jimbob,

That's weird.............the bottle I bought (extra virgin) tasted very light and smoothe with no after taste at all.

Tony

[Farace]

How was the olive oil stored? I've found that it doesn't take much for olive oil to go "off" and get a little rancid. I'm a little frustrated as how best to keep a bottle in the kitchen; if I put it in the cabinet above the stove where most of our other cooking liquids (oils, vinegars, etc.) go, it doesn't seem to survive very well. Of course, if it's put in the fridge, it gets solid. Ideally I'd like it someplace a little cooler than room temperature, but nearby (I don't want to run to the cellar every time I want a splash of olive oil!). I'm new, so I don't know if this topic has arisen before. I did do a search and didn't find anything relevant.

I have, at times, bought a brand-new bottle of oil and found the taste to be off, which makes me wonder how the store or deli has stored it.

[Pete-zza]

I researched this matter before. What I learned is that for best results, olive oil should be stored in a cool, dark place away from heat and in an airtight, non-reactive container. This is so the olive oil does't oxidize and become rancid and/or develop acidic and other undesirable flavor components. Unlike wine, olive oil does not get better with age. It is best used around 2 or 3 months after pressing, and thereafter gradually starts to degrade. The ideal storage temperature for olive oil is around 57 degrees F, but it will tolerate a storage temperature of up to 70 degrees F.  Under these conditions, a container of olive oil will be usable for around 15 months; an unopened container of olive oil will last around 2 years or more.

The shelf life of olive oil can be extended by about 6 months by refrigeration. Under refrigeration, most olive oils will thicken and become cloudy (at around 36 degrees F), however the refrigeration is not harmful to the oil and the oil can be readily used once it is brought back to room temperature.  Higher quality olive oils tend to be more tolerant of temperature and light conditions than lower quality olive oils. Also, oils other than olive oils tend to degrade over time faster than olive oils (which tend to be the most stable), so such other oils should be properly maintained to retain freshness and quality.

Peter

[Farace]

Peter, thank you for clearing that up. It makes a lot of sense, especially concerning the bottle on my kitchen counter. I guess I should also look suspiciously at bottles that, although unopened, may have been on a grocer's or deli's shelves for long periods of time? (That's where I was headed regarding the difference between the two reactions to the Colavita: Perhaps one wasn't stored properly or was too old.)

[TONY]

Bottom line;  buy only what you can use in a few months (small bottle) from a place that has a fairly good turn over.  Beware of bottles that have dust on them!

[Pete-zza]

Farace,

Unfortunately, most bottles of olive oil sold in supermarkets and specialty stores don't have a date on them. Some of the better online sources of olive oil do however give the dates for many of their olive oils. Tony is right. It is best to buy your olive oils from places that have high turnover of their inventory and, unless you have a good way of storing your olive oils, you should not buy a great deal more than you can use over the short term.

Another point to keep in mind about Italian olive oils is that they aren't all made from Italian olives. A good part of the olive oil exported from Italy actually comes from olives grown in Spain, Greece, Turkey and Tunisia--not only Italy. Sometimes the sources of the olives used to make the olive oil are identified on the labels on the bottles (e.g., "estate grown and bottled in...."), but sometimes the sources are disguised by using the vague phrase "Imported from Italy". A favorite oil among our members is the Bertolli Classico olive oil. The label on the bottle I have says that the "...product contains select high quality olive oils from Italy, Greece, Spain & Italy". Low price is often a giveaway that the product is a blend of several olive oils. That doesn't mean the oil won't be any good. It won't be top shelf but it will be functional for most uses. Olive oil made from organically-grown olive oils will generally carry higher prices than the non-organic.

Peter

[piroshok]

Peter
I have  always used olive oil nearly all my life and did not know any other until I came to Australia then I was introduced to other oils as my diet changed somehow with some Asian influences.
But I still by a number of 5 litre tins and keep them in a darkish are of the kitchen never had any olive oil going bad either.
I know what you're saying regarding origin of imports and mixing of produce Until 1999 I used to be a commodities and wheat trader, I  was shipping wheat from  one side of the world to another. To give you an example I shipped good tonnage from Ukraine, Russia, India, and Argentina to Italy. Origins don't really matter but price, quality and harvest do as one harvest may be ruined or unseasonal wheather may lower the quality of wheat very easily millers have to go beyond their borders to compensate quality.

[Farace]

I've been buying my olive oils from a local Italian deli. Unfortunately while they do quite a business in sandwiches, not too many folks buy their groceries there. I have, indeed, bought bottles with dust on them. Now I know better! They do get in some interesting looking olive oils (the most recent that I bought is unfiltered and very heavily sedimented; it also says it's 100% a product of Italy). I guess I should get them when they first appear, rather than months later. They also carry their own store brand, and I have to wonder how many cases of that they have (hopefully not stored down back by the fryolators!).

I've used Bertolli in the past and found it a good basic olive oil. I don't always want something that's going to jump out and announce itself, so we often have a couple of bottles in the kitchen, one basic one and one "premium" bottle.

[scampi]

Olive oil trivia...the largest producer of olive oil in the world is Spain. They produce 215 million gallons annually. It takes 42 to 65 pounds of olives to make one gallon of extra-virgin olive oil.

[Pete-zza]

With all the discussion on the forum about olive oils, and which ones are best to use on pizzas, what many do not realize is that in Naples most of the pizzerias use seed oils, such as sunflower and soybean oil, rather than olive oil. According to an earlier post on another thread by Marco (pizzanapoletana), long ago, when the pizza was exclusive to Naples, the only two fats available in the city were rendered pork fat and olive oil from the Sorrento peninsula. The olive oil from the Sorrento peninsula is very mild, but it is now too expensive, so most pizzerias have turned to sunflower oil both for a mild taste and especially for cost. According to Marco, Da Michele, which Marco deems to produce the best dough in Naples by any standard, tops the pizza with soya seed oil, mainly for the mild taste.

My recollection also is that many Neapolitan pizza makers don't put fresh oil on the pizza after baking. This is deemed unnecessary since the pizzas are baked so fast that the oil doesn't have a chance to break down or deteriorate in flavor during the short bake time. Since I bake my pizzas in a standard home oven, which takes longer than in a high-temperature wood-fired oven as used in Naples, I often use small amounts of olive oil on the pizza both before and after baking, mainly for flavor. I try to avoid the olive oils that are intense or herbaceous in flavor and character, because they tend to overwhelm the more basic flavors of the tomatoes and cheese. Many times in the past I have used the Colavita olive oil, and have always found it to be a very good olive oil.

Peter