What should you watch out for when buying olive oil?
Ideally, you should be able to taste olive oil before buying it. This is possible, for example, in markets, where fresh products are sometimes offered for tasting. We regularly do this with our extra virgin olive oil at various locations throughout the country. However, this is not always possible. That’s why we put the different labels together, hoping that you will make the right choice in the store!
Extra virgin olive oil
Do you want organic, vegetable, healthy and the tastiest oil? Then there is only one option: the extra virgin olive oil. This is the hors catégorie, which Gkazas falls under. It is olive oil from the first pressing (without heating) with mechanical presses. This results in the highest quality, because no chemical process is involved. The acidity should not exceed 0.8 percent and the really good pressers even try to stay below 0.5 percent. This results in a rich taste and an olive oil in which all natural vitamins and minerals have been preserved.
Virgin olive oil
We leave the hors catégorie and descend the ladder. The non ‘extra’ variety is called virgin olive oil and this is mainly because of the slightly higher acidity. This may reach a maximum of 2 percent. The aim is to keep the taste, color and aroma as authentic as possible. But this is not always achieved. The olives are of lower quality or already a bit riper when pressing and therefore a bit more acidic. It is clear that this (often cloudier) oil cannot match the extra virgin type in terms of taste, aroma and content.
Refined types of olive oil
On paper, this is a qualitatively weak type of olive oil. A lot cheaper and therefore of significantly less quality. This is due to the refining of the olive oil during the first pressing. Refining involves removing some ‘impurities’ from the oil, but this makes it lose some of its flavor and aroma. This refined oil is often mixed with other virgin olive oils to give it some flavor and aroma. In addition, other oils such as sunflower oil and soybean oil are often added. This is allowed as long as the acidity does not exceed 2.5 percent. Often the whole is an industrial process in which several pressings take place and the biological basis (the love for the product) disappears. In short, we see this olive oil as cursing in church.
Baking versus on the table
We still have another tip. It is not for nothing that we are Dutch people who are always looking for ways to save money. We always recommend extra virgin olive oil. But if you really want to save on your olive oil, use a cheaper oil for frying. Only use the extra virgin olive oil in your salads, with bread and for other things where the oil really needs to add flavor.
What should you pay attention to?
In short, extra virgin olive oil is the best olive oil. It is true that it is more expensive than other varieties, and is not always available in every supermarket. In fact, there are producers who are allowed to use this label and are in the supermarket, when in reality their olive oil is maximum virgin. Something with regulations that we will not go into here… Therefore always check whether it has the correct quality marks. In our case, these are the EKO quality mark and the European organic quality mark. With Gkazas Olive Oil you are in the right place anyway! Take a look at our webshop or on our Facebook page, there you will see that Gkazas Olive Oil is available in many different forms and in many different places.
Also read: Extra virgin olive oil: how healthy is it really?
