This is how you find the tastiest olive oil in the supermarket

When I find myself in a Mediterranean climate, I take two things home: spice blends and olive oil. I have a medium addiction to Mediterranean cuisine and one of the most important ingredients is olive oil. But I can hardly fill my suitcase for a year, so I have to make do with supermarket bottles at home. Although I have no idea what to put in my shopping basket. So I never have to worry about it again thanks to our neighbors from online food magazine FavorFlav, because they offer a small course.

Extra virgin

If you use olive oil for dipping or for a dressing, always go for extra virgin. You shouldn't cook with your nice oil, that's a waste and not tasty at all. With extra virgin olive oil, you can taste the olives much better. It's delicious when used raw, but when you cook it, it tastes bitter.

Extra virgin olive oil is literally the juice of the olive. When you press an olive, oil comes out. This is called the first cold pressing. The oil is not heated and no chemicals have been added. After a second pressing, you get virgin olive oil. A ‘regular’ olive oil is a mix of extra virgin oil and refined oil.

Country of origin

The label on a bottle of olive oil is often written in Italian, but that doesn't mean it's an Italian oil. The bottle states where the oil really comes from. Italian oils even have a D.O.P. certification that you can recognize the quality by. This certification means that the oil comes 100 percent from that region. A Tuscany D.O.P. for example comes entirely from Tuscany. If the bottle states that the oil comes from the European Union, that's a bad sign. That is a blended oil. You want a bottle that contains only Italian, Spanish, or Greek oil.

There is a lot of difference in taste between olive oil from different countries. Ultimately, it even varies by region and type of olive, but Italian olive oil is light and a bit grassy, Spanish is nutty, and Greek is strong and fruity. Which one you like best depends on what you prefer.

The bottle itself

Besides the label, you can also look at the bottle itself. Olive oil spoils faster when exposed to light. A good oil is therefore in a dark-colored bottle, because the maker does not want it to spoil quickly. The large glass tanks you sometimes see in specialty stores are best avoided.