The techniques for tasting extra virgin olive oil are easy. First of all you need a glass cup, preferably blue and bell-shaped.
Why blue? Since the visual aspect is not important in the evaluation of an extra virgin olive oil, we tend to carry out the sensorial analysis using blue glasses that cover the color.
Let's start with the preparation of the tasting: pour a small quantity of extra virgin olive oil into the glass, cover it with a possibly washed hand and warm it with the palm of the other hand. Then, remove the hand covering the glass and bring it to the base of your nose, inhaling three times intermittently, so as not to get used to the smell. In this phase try to memorize the olfactory sensations resulting from the inhalations (we are talking about olfactory analysis).
Subsequently, put a quantity of extra virgin olive oil of approximately 8 – 10 drops in your mouth and heat it for a few minutes - so as to encourage the evaporation of the volatile components -, and inhale air through your mouth decisively and strongly, being careful that the extra virgin olive oil does not go down the throat. This technique, called stripping, allows the extra virgin olive oil to be oxygenated and its aromas to be captured more intensely. Finally, swirl the extra virgin olive oil in your mouth for the time necessary to bring it into contact with all your taste buds (this is the taste analysis).
Thanks to heating, oxygenation and rotation you will be able to perceive the strengths and weaknesses of extra virgin olive oil more accurately. At the end of these operations, the extra virgin olive oil will be distributed throughout the oral cavity and in particular on the tongue, from the tip to the terminal part, and from the margins to the dorsal part.
In this phase, you will have to pay more attention to the type of sensory stimuli and the order in which they present themselves: from tactile ones which include fluidity, consistency and greasiness, up to purely gustatory ones, which concern the perception of different flavours. such as sweet, bitter and spicy. Once this is done, you can expel the extra virgin olive oil from your mouth and finally evaluate its taste: if bitter, spicy, fruity, sweet, etc.
17Until the next publication on the positive attributes and peculiar sensations, and on the negative attributes and unpleasant scents of extra virgin olive oil!;-)
