True extra-virgin olive oil hasn’t always been easy to find; you can spend a lot of money and still end up with mislabeled, subpar stuff. But the USDA has finally instituted the country’s first-ever standards for grades of olive oil.
Although it’s voluntary to follow the standards, their existence is bound to help Western olive oil shine. Fresh, pure flavors are part of what qualifies an oil as extra-virgin, and, not having far to travel, our oil is often the freshest around.
Plus, a new super-high-density planting approach in California (which produces 99 percent of U.S. olive oil) is now turning out high-quality oil at a much lower cost, while using less land and water too. Better, cheaper, fresher, correctly labeled, more sustainably grown extra-virgin olive oil: That’s delicious news.
Recipes:
Turkey White-Bean Soup with Olio Nuovo
Roasted Garlic Toasts with Olio Nuovo
Finding and storing the good stuff:
Taste it first. Try the oil before buying if you can (some stores allow sampling), not only to make sure it’s fresh but also to get exactly the style you like.
Buy fresh. Choose bottles labeled with the harvest date. Unlike wine, olive oil degrades as it ages—it should be consumed within 18 months.
Look for the seal. The California Olive Oil Council (COOC) does the most rigorous quality check in the U.S.; its seal guarantees that an oil is extra-virgin.
Take care of it. Find a cool, dark place to store your oil. Heat and light will break it down and turn it rancid, so next to your stove is not the best storage spot.
TYPES OF OLIVE OIL
The USDA recently adopted these international standards for olive oil grades: