Why extra virgin olive oil can and should be bitter. Why is olive oil bitter

Olive oil has been produced since ancient times. Even then, people appreciated the product for its excellent properties. It saturates, is used in various recipes beauty, heals and heals. But many are interested in why it is bitter olive oil. The answer to this question can be found in the article.

Virgin olive and Extra virgin olive oil

You should purchase this particular product if you are interested in which olive oil is better. It is absolutely natural. All valuable components are preserved in it, moreover, they are completely absorbed by the body. It can be included in your daily diet.

With everyday use, it will be possible to replenish daily allowance and restore your health, improve the condition and defenses of the body. The product is mechanically pressed at a temperature not exceeding 27 degrees. It is not processed, not purified, no additional components or dyes are added. Why is olive oil bitter? This is due to the taste of the fruits from which the products are prepared.

Types of the best oil

To find out which olive oil is better, you should familiarize yourself with its types:

Extra virgin olive oil is the best product for health. It is an extra virgin olive oil made from the best olives. The fruits have no defects, they are not spoiled, not frozen. The products are great for treatment and food.
Virgin olive oil - created after cold pressing of olives. The product is also useful, but there are fewer valuable components in it. Its cost will be lower. Acidity is more - 2 g per 100 g.
Ordinary virgin olive oil - acidity is 3 g per 100 g. The product is created using biological reagents.

Why is Extra virgin olive oil used in treatment? This is due to the fact that the product is natural, and it has a low acidity, which is 0.8%. A healthy oils should have an indicator of up to 1%. for frying and heat treatment they are not used. Should olive oil be bitter? Real products should have this property, it is considered the most useful.

A quality product is created on the basis of careful quality control. It is important that indicators comply with norms and standards, in addition, there must be certificates of conformity. Finding oil with low acidity in stores is not easy. It is obtained by pressing the best fruits, but little product is obtained. But the olives are poured with water and squeezed again. Such oils are considered useful, they are suitable for dishes, and not for treatment and cosmetology.

Refined olive oil

This oil is traditional, as most people are used to using refined products. This category is one of those. The product goes through a lot of processing, after which it disappears bad smell, bitterness, so it is ideal for frying.

This type of oil does not emit carcinogens, so it is useful to use it. The cost of the product is less compared to the above products. In the treatment of this oil is not used, because it has less valuable substances due to processing. It is created after the second pressing of the fruit.

When buying, it is important to look at the labeling, price, acidity. You should not buy cheap products, because natural oil there is a minimum. The rest is additives, so there will be little benefit. Why is olive oil bitter? The reason for this is the bitter taste of olives, which persists even after pressing.

pomace olive oil

Products belong to the third category, its quality is lower than the previous ones. It is created from cake after pressing, when it is necessary to obtain the remaining oil. There are few of them, so refined oil and other components are added. There are two kinds of product:

Olive-pomace oil. Products include a mixture of cake and refined oil. But it is purchased for cooking. Bitterness and burning does not appear during heat treatment.
Refined olive-pomace oil. The product should not be purchased for food, as its quality is low, so there will be no benefit.

Why is unrefined olive oil bitter? The reason is the bitter taste of olives. Even after processing, it is preserved. Usually, with cooking, bitterness disappears.

Bitterness

Why is olive oil bitter? It has to do with the taste of olives. In addition, it can tickle in the throat. In fact, olive oil is bitter - this is normal. A real cold-pressed product should have bitterness. You should look at the packaging and composition. If the acidity is up to 1%, then this product is useful, but you should not fry it. It is used for salads, dressings.

Fresh olives have a tart taste. After cooking, there will be no bitterness in the dish. The food will be tasty, but many valuable properties will be lost. Therefore, for frying, stewing, you should choose refined oil. All dishes with it are tasty and fragrant.

Thus, olive oil is bitter - this is normal, because fresh fruits have a bitter tart taste. After cold pressing, this property is preserved. It is advisable to use the product immediately, do not store it only for special occasions. The oil will be useful only after opening the bottle.

Benefit

The healing properties of the oil were noted by Hippocrates, Aristotle was the first to use it in the treatment of people. And Cleopatra for health used one spoonful of the product on an empty stomach. The benefit is as follows:

Availability of useful fatty acids, the main of which is oleic.
Reducing blood cholesterol levels and improving the functioning of the digestive tract.
Treatment of heart diseases.
Oil is absorbed by 100%.
Skin treatment and stretch marks removal.

To improve your health, be sure to include this product in your diet. Olive oil tastes bitter and is considered normal. If you try it for the first time, it may seem strange, but over time the body gets used to it.

Application

Due to its useful properties, the product is used in various fields. It is in demand in cooking, cosmetology and traditional medicine. Olive oil is used for cooking: it is added to salads, side dishes, sauces and soups. It has unusual taste. Should olive oil be bitter when eaten? This is considered normal as fresh olives taste like this. But in combination with other products, a bright taste is obtained.

A popular industry where oil is used is cosmetology. Valuable oil product will be an excellent nutrient for healthy and youthful skin. The oil is used to obtain cosmetics- creams, gels, shampoos.

In folk medicine, oil occupies a special position. Since ancient times, it has been used to treat various diseases due to its medicinal properties.

Choice

How to choose non-bitter olive oil? You need to pay attention to the fact that Refined olive oil is written on the package. Such a product after long-term processing does not have bitterness. When buying, it is important to pay attention to the following nuances:

Bottle. It shouldn't be plastic. The goods must be taken only in dark glass.
Label. It is important to familiarize yourself with the composition. It is necessary that the oleic acid was not less than 55%, and even better 83%.
Acid number. This indicator indicates the presence of free fatty acids. The higher it is, the lower the quality. If you buy Extra Virgin, then no more than 1.5, and even better 0.5.
peroxide number. In Extra Virgin, it should be no more than 20 mmol / kg. This indicator indicates the oxidation of fats in contact with oxygen. The lower the number, the higher the quality.
Determination of the mass fraction of moisture. The lower the indicator, the more valuable substances. An excellent indicator is 0.1%, and even better - 0.06%.
Best before date. Only fresh oil should be purchased. If it is stored for 6 months, valuable components are lost. Do not choose oil that is more than 1 year old.
Color. It depends on the time of harvest, the ripeness of the olives, the presence of impurities. It is advisable to buy golden oil, which may have shades. You should not buy a gray and strongly yellow product.
Category. Extra Virgin is considered to be the best, since the beneficial properties are preserved in the product. It has not been chemically treated and is made from the best varieties olives. It is used for cooking and cosmetology.
Abbreviations. There are other signs that will allow you to choose high-quality oil. For example, DOP (denominacion de origen protegida), created from the best varieties of fruits, is also bottled where it was made. Such a product is manufactured to the highest standards, it is constantly tested.
A country. This information must be indicated on the label. It is desirable that the product was made in Spain, Greece, Italy, Turkey, Israel, Syria.

Given these nuances, it will turn out to choose a quality product. It will be good for health. And low-quality products, as you know, can bring great harm.

Harm and contraindications

The product may not be for everyone. In order not to cause negative reactions, it is better to exclude it from the diet. Olive oil also has negative nuances:

With cholecystitis and cholelithiasis do not use the product, as it has a choleretic effect.
Oil is considered high-calorie: in 1 tbsp. l. eat 120 calories. This rule will suffice.
Frequent use of the product in excess leads to serious complications: dizziness, low blood pressure, headaches.
The oil is considered a laxative, so mild diarrhea may occur.

For the oil to have therapeutic effect, it is necessary to use it with valuable components. For example, a combination with fresh vegetables and fruits will be excellent. Only without heat treatment is oil considered healthy.

Olive oil is a product that was discovered over 140 centuries ago. At the dawn of civilization, people knew that the olive tree and its products can work wonders. It perfectly saturates, serves as a component for many beauty recipes, heals and heals. The beauties of ancient Egypt and Greece used oils to make their skin and hair an object of admiration and seduction. They were used by the leading luminaries of science of those millennia, such as Hippocrates and Aristotle. But why is olive oil bitter? Does its taste differ from that which was many thousands of years ago?

All knowledge and popular advertising lead many modern people to the idea that it is time to change the usual vegetable oil from sunflower to a product made from olives. Then the figure will regain its former harmony, skin elasticity, hair an enviable shine, and the body will improve. And it's all true.

The trend towards a healthy lifestyle and proper nutrition is becoming more and more popular, and this is good news. And so you decide to change your diet and go to the store for the cherished expensive bottle. Arriving home, and, having tried a spoonful of the product for the first time, you have a shock, panic and one single question, is olive oil bitter?! Moreover, bitterness is strongly felt, and you are sure that you got an expired and substandard product. What to do? Hurry to the store and scold the seller, pour out and forget about trying proper nutrition? Don't rush until you read the information below.

Types of olive oil

In order to understand the issue, you need to know what types there are, and there are three main ones.

Virgin olive and Extra virgin olive oil

This olive oil is the most best product because it is completely natural. All useful material they are stored in it as much as possible, and by our body they are absorbed by almost 100%. That is, all useful substances daily use product for food will replenish the daily norm and heal the body, improve the external condition and raise the body's defenses.

The products are pressed using temperature, but it does not exceed 27 degrees mechanically. Virgin olives are not processed, cleaned, or added to it with any components, dyes, or additives. This is a treasure trove. But Virgin olive has its own varieties.

Extra virgin olive oil is the best health product you can find. vegetable oils. The oil is obtained after the first cold pressing from the best olives. The fruits do not have defects, they are not spoiled, not frozen, they are not carrion. This one is like an elixir that is used for healing and for food in fresh. The output of the product after pressing is minimal;
Virgin olive oil - obtained after cold pressing of the fruit. It is also useful, but there are fewer components necessary for our body. The price of such oil will be lower. The acidity is higher - 2 grams per 100 grams of product. Such oil can be more often found on the market, since the first category is rare, of high quality and expensive;
Ordinary virgin olive oil - the acidity of this product is even higher and amounts to 3 grams per 100 grams. This oil was obtained using biological reagents.

On a note! Why exactly Extra virgin olive oil is used for treatment. The point is that it is the most natural product and it has a small acidity, which is 0.8%. And healing oils should have this indicator up to 1%. They are not suitable for frying and other heat treatment of products.

The best butter is prepared under strict quality control. All indicators must comply with norms and standards, have certificates of conformity. It is very difficult to meet real Extra virgin olive oil with low acidity. Such a product is obtained only by pressing the most the best fruits, but it turns out a little finished oil. It is labeled Extra virgin.

But olives can still give a lot, and therefore they are filled with water and again subjected to extraction. Such oils are also useful, but all indicators will be more suitable for cooking than for use in treatment and cosmetology.

Refined olive oil

It's over traditional version. And all because we are used to using refined products. This category is exactly what you are. That is, it went through a series of treatments, after which the unpleasant odor was eliminated, bitterness and for frying, heat treatment of products - this is the best option.

It is also worth noting that this category does not emit carcinogens, so it is useful to use it. Oil costs much less than the categories that were described earlier. For treatment, this option is not suitable, since there are fewer useful components in the product after undergoing a series of treatments. Refined oil is obtained after the second pressing of the fruit.

Important! When you go to the store, be sure to pay attention to the labeling and cost of the product, as well as acidity indicators. You should not buy the cheapest product, since there is a minimum of natural Extra virgin olive oil in it, the rest of all additives and benefits from the product should not be expected.

pomace olive oil

This is the third category, which has a quality lower than the previous two, and is obtained from the cake after pressing, from which the last drops of oil are pressed. There are few of them and refined oil and other additives are added to the product. But again, there are two types of this product:

Olive-pomace oil is just a mixture of pomace and refined oil. But it can be bought for cooking, oil does not form bitterness and burning during heat treatment;
Refined olive-pomace oil is a pomace-only product and should not be purchased for food, as it is of the lowest quality and will not be of any use.

So, you now know what types there are, but the main question of why olive oil is bitter remains unanswered. About this next part.

On a note! Manufacturers put different labels. If you see the word Bio, then check the composition for acidity and you can safely buy this product, as these are the most best oils which are cooked under strict control.

Bitter Olive Oil: Should You Worry?

You bought or brought to you from sunny Italy olive oil, and it is unpleasant, so bitter that it even tickles in the throat. Did they give you a fake? Not at all. Yes, as strange as it may sound, olive oil is bitter and that's okay.

Moreover, if the product has a specific bitterness, then you should rejoice, as you are holding real cold-pressed olive oil in your hands. Look at the packaging and ingredients of the product. If the acidity is up to 1% and there are markings that we have described to you above, then this product is healing. You don't need to fry it. This is for salads, dressings, fresh consumption.

If you have already begun to cook, then wait for unpleasant bitterness in ready dish also not worth it. The food will be delicious, but there is a lot useful properties will disappear. Therefore, for frying, stewing, take refined oil, and then you will not worry about a bitter aftertaste.

On a note! If you ever have to taste olives, not marinated in a jar, but fresh from the tree, you will find that they have a bitter, tart taste. Of course, oil that was only cold-pressed will retain that bitterness, and you should understand that this is normal and good.

But it is best to use the product with bitterness immediately. That is, you should not keep the bottle for special occasions, or as a present for better times. The oil will only be useful for the first time after opening the bottle. At this moment, it really can work wonders and heal your body, making it attractive in appearance.

Now you know that real olive oil is bitter, and you can safely use the product and start eating right.

Olive oil is most often counterfeited and diluted with cheaper ones such as soybean (which is not mentioned on the label); choose only trusted brands.

Being rich in monounsaturated fats, olive oil can help reduce your risk of heart disease and even improve insulin levels and blood sugar control, which protects you from type 2 diabetes. However, as with most food products Not all olive oil is created equal. The difference between a high quality product and a low quality product is huge, and even among the best varieties, rancidity is a serious problem.

Good butter has gone bad: how to recognize rancidity and other defects

When you spend money on a quality bottle of olive oil, you want to make sure you get what you pay for. However, there are many factors that affect quality, from how long the olives were stored before being processed to how long the oil was left on your kitchen counter.

According to The Olive Oil Times, Paying attention to these four potential defects, you will be able to choose a quality product:

1. Rancidity - Olive oil is highly perishable, but is generally considered "best before" for two years from the date it was bottled (the "best before" date). However, the best indicator of freshness is the harvest date, which will tell you when it was actually produced. Choose only oils that have this information on the bottle.

So the first step is to find an oil that has been harvested recently. Further, many other factors, including storage temperature, exposure to air and light, antioxidant levels, and chlorophyll content, will also affect how resistant it is to rancidity.

Eventually, all olive oil will go rancid, but if you're like most people, you probably leave the bottle right on the table, opening and closing it several times a week (or even a day). Any time oil is exposed to air and/or light, it oxidizes and deteriorates faster.

Extra virgin olive oil, in particular, also contains chlorophyll, which speeds up decomposition and makes it rancid even faster than partially refined olive oil, according to oil expert Dr. Rudy Mörk. So how do you know if it's rancid?

It smells like pencils or plasticine
It tastes like rancid nuts
It looks fat on the tongue

Unfortunately, as reported by The Olive Oil Times, "The sad truth is that most people in the US ... are used to the taste of rancid olive oil."

2. Musty oil- The oil gets "stale" when the olives are stored for too long (even days) before they are crushed, which leads to fermentation in the absence of oxygen. A musty taste is incredibly common in olive oil, which is why many simply assume it's normal.

However, it should not smell like fermentation, like sweaty socks or swampy vegetation.

"A good way to understand how stale butter tastes is to try olives," according to The Olive Oil Times. “Choose from a handful of Kalamata olives that are not purple or maroon and hard, but brown and soft. Eat them. THIS is the taste of mustiness.”

3. Moldy olives- If the olive oil tastes dusty or musty, the reason is probably that it was made from moldy olives, this is another common defect.

4. The taste of wine or vinegar- If there are hints of wine and vinegar (or even nail polish) in the olive oil, it's probably because the olives have been fermented with oxygen, which has given them that harsh, undesirable taste.

Extra virgin olive oil is most often counterfeited.

The four defects listed above are examples of what usually results from poor processing or handling. However, olive oil is often counterfeited, according to the United States Pharmacopoeia Convention (USP) food database.

Even "extra virgin" is often diluted with other cheaper ones, including hazelnuts, soybeans, corn, sunflower, palm, sesame, grapeseed and Walnut. But this will not be stated on the label, and most people will not be able to understand that it is not pure.

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If you live in an area where olive oil is produced, buying from a local producer is ideal as it allows you to know exactly what's in it. If not, try an independent shop that can tell you about the manufacturers, or at least look for a brand you trust on the shelves of your local supermarket.

Refrigerator test: poor quality indicator

Earlier this year, The Dr.Oz Show aired a "refrigerator olive oil test" segment that said you can tell its purity if it hardens in the refrigerator. The American Davis Olive Oil Research Center decided to test the theory and found that in fact this is a very unreliable way.

The center's researchers chilled seven samples and found that none of them hardened after 60 hours in the refrigerator. While some have hardened areas due to varying levels of saturated fat in the oil, none of them have completely hardened. This way you can save the effort and not try it at home.

All olive oils contain Not a large number of saturated fatty acids that solidify in the refrigerator, said Paul Vossen, UC Cooperative Knowledge Extension Advisor. where they are grown. Solidification is not indicative of freshness, purity, flavor, extra virgin grade, or any other quality parameter."

Cooking with olive oil? Stop!

Olive oil is ideal to use cold, such as salad dressing or homemade hummus. However, it is important to understand that it is NOT suitable for cooking.

Due to the chemical structure and the high amount of monounsaturated fats such as oleic acid, cooking makes extra virgin olive oil very susceptible to oxidative damage.

consumption of oxidized rancid butter will not benefit your health, therefore, when you need something to cook on, Coconut oil- perfect choice Because it is one of the most used vegetable fats, it is stable enough to withstand heat-induced damage.

Remember that olive oil is great for cold dishes, but cooking with it is almost guaranteed to damage it because it is sensitive to high temperatures.

Once you have found the right olive oil (by choosing a trusted brand and looking at the dates on the bottle), how you handle it can affect its shelf life.

Store in a cool, dark place - darkness is most important because light oxidizes the fats in olive oil
Buy smaller bottles to ensure freshness
Replace cap immediately after each use.

To further protect extra virgin olive oil from oxidation, Dr. Mörk suggests adding one drop of astaxanthin to the bottle. You can purchase this extremely powerful antioxidant in softgels. Just pierce them with a pin and squeeze them into the oil. The plus side of using astaxanthin instead of another antioxidant like vitamin E is that it is naturally red in color whereas vitamin E is colorless, so you can tell that the oil still has astaxanthin in it by its color.

When the olive oil begins to turn pale, it will mean that it is time to throw it away.

In general, it is best consumed within a year of harvest, although most will last up to two years from harvest in unopened containers in a cool, dark place.

Oils with more bitter, spicy taste contain more polyphenols and are generally better than ripe olives, which have a milder flavor. The latter should be used within a period of six months to a maximum of a year.

This is another reason to buy smaller bottles - it's easier to use in a shorter period of time. If you buy large quantities of olive oil, you may be tempted to keep it even if it has gone rancid. published .

olive extra oil Virgen can and should be bitter

Some housewives believe that bitterness is an indicator that olive oil has deteriorated over time or under the influence of external factors. In fact, this is not true at all. Bitterness is an essential feature of high quality extra virgin olive oil, extra virgin olive oil.

We explain why the bitterness in the taste of olive oil is a good sign and an indicator of the quality of the product.

Why is olive oil bitter

Olive oil is produced from olives that have reached optimum maturity and are harvested from a healthy tree. However, two different varieties olive trees can produce fruits that will vary in aroma, color and, of course, taste. Olive oil of different characteristics can be obtained even from olives of the same variety and harvest, but with different degrees of ripeness.

At the same time, premium olives have something in common - they are pleasantly bitter. Bitterness is an absolutely natural taste characteristic for olive oil. This is a guarantee of the quality of extra virgin olive oil of the first cold pressing, which is considered the richest in composition and amazing in taste and aroma.

The degree of bitterness may vary. It is influenced by many different factors, including the variety of olives used in the extraction, the condition of the soil and the weather conditions under which the crop ripened. Depending on these features, olive oil can have both a pronounced bitterness and a subtle one.

How is bitterness assessed?

When bottling olive oil in bottles, its complex laboratory testing is carried out. The oil is tested according to two parameters: according to its chemical composition and organoleptic parameters. The latter includes the definition of the taste of olive oil. To do this, you need to taste it.

During the tasting, experts determine the taste and aroma characteristic of each oil. The color of the oil, contrary to popular belief, does not affect its quality at all. That is why olive oil is tasted in glasses made of dark blue glass so that the color of the product does not mislead experts.

As a rule, tasters describe the taste of quality olive oil in terms of "balanced", "rich", "round", "oily", "ripe", "sharp", "bitter", "sweet". More specific descriptions are sometimes used, such as "herbal", "almond", "apple", or "reminiscent of green leaves". quality oil gradually unfolds in the mouth.

Who appreciates the bitterness of butter

In European countries with strict regulations and requirements for the quality of olive oil, the quality of the product is assessed by special officially accredited tasting commissions.

Spain, the world leader in the production of high-quality olive oil, has developed a culture of production and consumption of this oil. Officially, the quality of a product in a sunny country is assessed by tasting commissions, but the tasting itself as a process has ceased to be a formal procedure and has turned into an exciting entertainment. Real gourmets can attend a professional olive oil tasting, where they will be taught to "read" the taste and aroma of the product and talk a little more about its production.

Different flavors from ITLV

Under the ITLV brand, several oils of the first cold pressing Extra Virgen are combined at once, each of which has its own unique taste and aroma:

Extra Virgen ITLV - the taste of this oil is the result of a specially created blend different varieties olives. Therefore, this oil has a very soft, balanced taste and a pleasant aftertaste.

Extra Virgen Elegante is an extra virgin olive oil made from a single variety of Arbequin olives. It is characterized by a soft, light and velvety taste with a hint of almond and hints of green apple. The oil has a pleasant enveloping aftertaste.

People trying for the first time extra virgin olive oil is often asked why the oil is bitter. Some mean the bitterness of taste, others, a burning sensation in the back of the throat and on the tongue. They also say "oil tears up the throat."

Burning in the throat- features of olive oil first cold pressed. She speaks of high quality, proper production and storage of the product. At first, the burning sensation will be felt strongly, but over time you will get used to it. The stronger the burning sensation in the oil, the more useful antioxidants and amino acids it contains, and the more beneficial it is for our health. The acidity of such oil usually does not exceed 0,8 % .

The burning sensation caused by olive oil helps determine the quality. If you bought an oil labeled Extra Virgin, but did not feel a burning sensation, then this oil is of poor quality. Either it was not stored properly, or it is not Extra Virgin at all.

If open oil store for a long time, it will stop tearing the throat, but will become less useful. This is due to exposure to oxygen. The oil just oxidizes. So, buy as much oil as you can consume in a month. Do not keep the oil open longer.

Olive oil flavor depends on the type of oil and olives from which it is squeezed. Some varieties have a bitter taste or aftertaste (bitterness is sometimes described as pungency), some have a mild sweetish taste.

Good olive oils often have flavor descriptions. So, if you do not like bitterness, you can choose a mild flavored oil. An oil with a sharp and tart taste will be bitter, but a soft and sweet one will not.

For refined olive oils Pomace there is no taste at all, since after the process of chemical and heat treatment, almost all useful substances and amino acids, including those that caused bitterness and burning, disappear. This oil has no taste and smell, does not change the taste of the dish. But it has a high combustion temperature, which means it is great for frying, but does not benefit the body.

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