How To Understand Olive Tastings and What to Look For
Olive Tasting can seem pointless, daunting, or confusing. But it can become an experience you remember for a lifetime.
You may be familiar with wine tastings, olive tastings are similar but includes more elements. With wine tasting you explore dryness, fruitiness, or tartness, with olive tasting you explore butteriness, pepperiness, and zanginess. Okay, maybe that last word is made up, but it refers to an actual thing we discuss in olive oil.
How do you start an olive tasting? Most places provide little plastic cups, grab one of those. Fill it halfway up, maybe a little less depending how brave you're feeling. Next, take a sip. Is it thick and butter? Is it thin and peppery? Does it have a little zang of lemon? It can be hard to determine these things the first time but as you continue you'll begin to taste the difference.
Some olive tastings will include bread and different spices to showcase different combinations of flavors with the olive oil.