Understanding the label

"What does it taste like?" is the first question that everyone asks when choosing a bottle of extra virgin olive oil. The labels on the bottle and the shelf description can help here.

Quality levels Start by looking for the quality level. Extra virgin olive oils will have more taste and flavour than ordinary olive oil or olive pomace oil. Here are the official phrases which must be used on bottles of olive oil to describe the quality level.

Extra virgin olive oil:
"superior category olive oil obtained directly from olives and solely by mechanical means"

Olive oil composed of refined olive oils and virgin olive oils:
"oil comprising exclusively olive oils that have undergone refining and oils obtained directly from olives"

Olive pomace oil:
"oil comprising exclusively oils obtained by treating the product obtained after the extraction of olive oil and oils obtained directly from olives"
or
"oil comprising exclusively oils obtained by processing olive pomace oil and oils obtained directly from olives"

Styles of oil Extra virgin olive oils may have a sweet and delicate style or they may be quite strong and aggressive. Some have a touch of bitterness or pepper in them, while others are very peppery indeed. The choice is purely a matter of personal preference. Olive oil snobs sometimes say that stronger oils are more sophisticated but in the countries of origin sweet and gentle oils are admired just as much.

Unfortunately, the European Union regulations covering olive oil offer a very narrow range of descriptive words for use on the bottle label and you will need to look for clues on the neck label, if any, and on the shelf. Here are some common descriptive words:

Lighter oils:
Delicate, sweet, subtle, gentle, mild, mellow, ripe and rich

Stronger oils:
Green, pungent, intense, bitter, piquant and aggressive

Countries of Origin Most of the olive oils and extra virgin olive oils on the supermarket shelves are blends of oils from different producing countries. They are usually labelled with the words "packed in" together with the name of the town in which the packer is based. There is nothing wrong with blending oils - it is the only way that big producers are able keep their prices low but is important to buy a brand with a good reputation.

There will also be a few oils on the shelf which come from specific countries such as Spain, Italy or Greece. These bottles must contain at least x% of oil from the specified country to be labelled as such.

DOP (Protected Designation of Origin) This is a relatively new labelling system for oils which come from particular regions within the producing countries. It guarantees that the oil in the bottle comes from the region it says it does. However, this is all it guarantees as the quality standards set by some of the DOP regions are no higher than those for extra virgin status. These oils will carry an official DOP label as well as their own.

Useful phrases There are a number of optional phrases which some producers use on their bottles. They can help to give an indication of what style of oil is in the bottle.

Early or late harvest:
Early picked olives give a stronger taste and flavour than you would find in an oil made from the same olives picked at the end of the harvest.

First cold pressing":
This overworked phrase now has a specific meaning. It can only be used on extra virgin olive oils which have been produced at a temperature below 27C using a traditional granite millstone and hydraulic press.

Cold extraction":
This is the phrase which is used on extra virgin olive oils produced at a temperature below 27C using percolation or centrifugation systems.

Unfiltered:
These oils have not been subjected to any filtration process. They tend to be thicker in texture but there is no difference in taste and flavour from their filtered counterparts.