The Real Olive Oil Story

The olive tree is surely the richest gift of Heaven,” Aldous Huxley wrote.”

This article is dedicated to a friend, Paolo, who prefers to keep his last name anonymous due to the magnitude of organized crime in Italy.

His passion for olive oil, strong as ever, has been passed from generation to generation from his family. Cultivated with care, processed with tradition, the best olive oil in Liguria, Italy, from trees over two hundred years old, is only sold to old family friends or presented as gifts to the most cherished friends.

Relationships forged through the decades, honored at the present. An old time heritage, practiced in Italy as part of the honor, humility, and a custom refined through the”old” country traditions. A sons commitment to carry on his honorary responsibility as a badge to his forefathers.

His modern day mission is to spread the truth about, “The Real Olive Oil Story”.

This is his story as told to me.

One of Italy’s smallest regions, Liguria stretches west in a narrow ribbon along the coast from France. Mountains separate it from Piedmont to the north, Emilia Romagna to the east and Tuscany to the south. Even if you’ve never been there, you’ve probably seen its northeastern border in all those movies where glamorous jet setters hop into their sports cars and motor from Monte Carlo to Rome: the quaint customs booths any foreign film lover knows well are outside Ventimiglia.

Like so much of Italy, Liguria is a land of contrasts, home to belle époque seaside resort towns in the style of Cannes and Monaco; dozens and dozens of sandy strands, rocky coves and pebbly beaches; the country’s largest commercial port and largest naval port; some of its most desolate stretches of coast, where lush forests of lemon trees, herbs, flowers, almonds and pines send forth heady sweet-smelling breezes; terraced hillsides that produce an olive oil considered more delicate than those grown in Tuscany. Whether you travel by train or by car, the spectacular journey along the Ligurian coast goes through tunnel after tunnel, always bursting forth from darkness into warm sunlight, the aquamarine sea glimmering at your side.

Olive Oil dates back centuries and legend says that, before dying, Adam asked God for the Oil of Mercy, and after he was buried, a cedar, a cypress and an olive tree grew from the three seeds that were put into his mouth.

Homer, the Greek poet, referred to Olive Oil as “Liquid Gold” and the king of Babylon’s Hammurabi Code dating back to 2500 B.C. mentions rules regulating the olive oil trade. Since Ancient Times olive oil has been used for many different purposes. Our ancestors used it as antidote against poisons and later on as medicine to cure arthritis, rheumatism and gout. Athletes smeared olive oil over their bodies to strengthen their muscles and women used olive oil as skin moisturizer. It was also used as a weapon when boiling oil was thrown at enemies in times of conflict despite the fact that Olive Oil had always been regarded as a sign of peace. Its branches, emblems of benediction and purification, were ritually offered to deities and powerful figures: some were even found in Tutankhamen’s tomb.

Some of the finest Olive Oil is derived from olives grown in the Liguria region of Italy. The Benedictine Monks modernized the methods of cultivation and since then Liguria olive trees have been called ‘taggiasche’, named after the Taggia Monastery which housed the Monks.
The taggiasca “cultivar” (crop) is one of the 2000 crops existing world-wide and it’s the only one in Liguria. In the 16th century, when overseas navigation started, olive oil was among the most traded goods. By the end of the 19th century, the industrial economy gradually replaced rural and trade economies and the olive trade went through a period of decline. At the end of world war II, a number of olive oil mills became active again and Ligurian town of Imperia quickly regained its leading position in the olive oil sector, thanks to a small number of people who strongly believed in the future of olive oil.

The rare ‘Taggiasca Olive’ used in Extra-Virgin Olive Oil can be considered, in today’s terms, an organic crop in accordance to European rules of farming and harvesting. The trees producing this olive are cultivated on the Ligurian hills, between 150meters(492 feet) and 700 (2296 feet)meters above sea level. Here they are unreachable by the insects that damage crops and so the plants have no need for any chemical treatment. I will in no way spray my trees with chemicals,pesticides, or fungicides. I rather lose the entire crop, like I did last year, I didn’t make any oil. I note that my olive oil is a labor of love, tradition, and passion. Profit is a minor concern, we in the family like to do our own oil so we know what the quality and integrity of the oil.

The olive trees are fed exclusively by the natural elements. The harvesting is done by hand/stick and this permits the selection of the finest quality olives. The cold press method used is known as the ‘ciclo continuo’, a new procedure that avoids oxidation or deterioration to the oil. It is only after this process that a very low acidity olive oil is obtained – which of course means the purest, cleanest taste. The above-mentioned process takes to one to two hours to produce 50/60 liters of oil. (13.2 to 18.8 gallons)

The olive oil from the Ligurian Coast is famous worldwide for its excellence and digestibility.
It comes from olive groves which prosper in the particularly mild climate of our region. Olive oil which is completely pure and unadulterated and its the result of our tradition of generations who have worked with passion to satisfy the demand.

Our olive oil is the product of stone grinding the taggiasche olives and a subsequent cold pressing. This particular oil does not undergo any rectification or filtering, it can in time, decant and leave a slight deposit. The deposit indicates the purity of the oil.

The way in which the olives are picked is very important. It has to be done using specific methods in order to obtain a good-quality oil. The best way is definitely the milking off (”brucatura”) method, that is to say, picking the olives off the branches by hand, sometimes with the help of small, comb-like tools. Unfortunately, this system has a considerable impact on the cost of growing, since picking proceeds very slowly. Another method is by “abbacchiatura”, that is to say beating the branches with rods or canes. This consists of making the olives fall into nets spread under the trees.

This method has the drawback, it damages the youngest branches of the trees. The traditional method of gathering the olives from the ground or the nets after the ripened drupes have fallen naturally is not advisable, since the quality of the oil obtained from these olives is poor. In the province of Imperia, the size of the trees and the terraced layout of the agricultural land make mechanical picking almost impossible. In the last few years a beating system using combs operated by compressed air has in any case spread. The size of the compressor, however, is such that the operation is rather difficult where the strip of land is not sufficiently wide. In addition, the contorted shapes into which the branches of the trees grow, makes it difficult to move the pipes and rods.

Immediately after picking, care must be taken in transporting and storing the fruit removed from the trees. It is necessary to avoid crushing and squashing, since this could trigger off harmful biochemical processes. The fruit has to be processed as soon as possible, best of all within 24 hours. This will avoid some of the most common organoleptic flaws of oil caused by overheating and mold as well as rancidity. Upon arriving at the oil mill, first the olives are sorted to remove any leaves, branches and pebbles, then they are washed in special machines.
The next stages are crushing (”frangitura”), malaxing (”gramolatura”), extraction of the oil and separation.

Traditional Olive Press: Discontinuous System

Pressing or milling (”molitura”) is carried out by means of millstones (molazza), that is to say the large granite wheels (they once used to be made of local stone, often so-called “colombina”), that crush the stones and flesh of the olives to help release the oil. Then comes the malaxing phase, in which the paste is stirred to help the small drops of oil combine with one another.

Extraction

The paste is placed inside round bag-like containers (pressa) which have a central hole, in the shape of filtering panels made of vegetable fiber or nylon called “fiscoli”, which are piled onto a cylinder and placed inside the press. The oil mixed with vegetable water then drips out of them. It used to be necessary to wait for the oil to come to the top by spontaneous surfacing. Nowadays, however, the product is centrifuged in a machine (separatore) that causes mechanical separation in order to avoid the formation of peroxides, and undesired enzymatic activity

The virgin oil obtained in this way (1st press) is then allowed to settle or filtered to eliminate the dregs, that is to say all the residues suspended in it, since they could cause a series of anaerobic fermentation processes that would produce organoleptic flaws in the oil. Seeing as this particular oil does not undergo any rectification or filtering in can, in time, decant and leave a slight deposit. This deposit indicates the purity of the oil.

Continuous Extraction System

In this case, the olives are smashed by hammer-type or similar crushing devices. The paste then automatically passes into the malaxing container (”gramola”) where it is stirred. This is a delicate phase, since it is necessary to avoid overheating, as this would catalyze a process causing the oil to oxidize. The partly processed product obtained in this way is then conveyed to a horizontal-axis centrifugal extractor that separates the olive-pomace (solid phase) from the mixture of oil and vegetable water.

Then a centrifugal separator separates the oil from the vegetable water. Extraction by centrifuging may be partly replaced by extraction by percolation. This procedure exploits the principle of the different tensions of the liquids. The malaxed paste comes into contact with pulsating steel blades to which the oily phase adheres, not the watery phase. The extracted oil then drips off the blades due to gravity. This system gives rise to a yield of about 60 to 70 % of oil obtained from the semi-processed product. The residual paste has therefore then to be sent to the extractor.

This process is defined as ‘continuous’ since no manual work is required to transfer the semi-processed product from one machine to another. There are in any case, other systems that try to combine the advantages of the traditional method (using millstones) with the handiness of the continuous system.

The break down: this operation has the scope of breaking down the pulp to extract the oil. There are different types of mills, with wheels, cones, and spiked discs, hammers. The first type represents the most traditional method and is made up of a round granite bath in which circle a variable number of granite wheels, which crush and grind the olives into a pulp. This kind of mill has the defect of being limited in output and much higher in costs. To remedy this a finisher can be installed, which after the pressing render down the pulp homogeneous for the successive stage in elaboration quickening the process.

Kneading

Consists in a continual slow mixing of the pulp. This process is fundamental for the extraction of the oil.

Extraction by Spinner

The pulp after the kneading, enters the spinner, this process is named as Settling. The settler extracts the oil from the pulp by the spinning process with addition of water at a temperature of around 25° C.(77 °F) These machines serve to separate the liquid from the solids using an extremely high velocity and the different specific weight in the various phases of separation (oil, water, sansa (pip)). This system has some advantages over other existing systems: a complete automation’s with the consequent simplification of the various processes, major hygiene, higher speed in extraction with lower costs
The separation spinner: during the last phase of working the oil extracted from the decanter is separated from any impurities and water that might remain. Since 1927 the spinner has been used for the purification of the oil extracted, to reduce the impurity to a value inferior to 0.05%, bettering the quality and the length of preservation.
Classes of Olive Oil

The classification of olive oil, Italy follows the European regulations, which call for and describe nine types of oil, of which only four can be placed on the retail market for consumption.

Virgin olive oil is classified as, oil obtained from the fruit of olives using only mechanical or other physical processes and under conditions – with particular reference to heat- that does not cause any alterations of the oil, and which has not undergone any treatment other than washing, settling, centrifuging and filtering, and excluding oil obtained using solvents or re-etherification processes and any mixtures with oils of other types.

These oils are classed according to the following designations:

• Extra virgin olive oil: olive oil with an absolutely perfect taste and the acidity of which, expressed as oleic acid, may not exceed 1g (0.035 ounces) per 100g (3.5 ounces).
• Virgin olive oil (the term “fine” may be used at the production and wholesale stages): virgin olive oil with a perfect taste and the acidity of which, expressed as oleic acid, may not exceed 2g (.07ounces) per 100g (3.5 ounces).
• Ordinary virgin olive oil: good-tasting virgin olive oil and the acidity of which, expressed as oleic acid, may not exceed 3.3g(.116 ounces) per 100g (3.5 ounces)
• Lampante olive oil: imperfect-tasting virgin olive oil, the acidity of which, expressed as oleic acid, exceeds 3.3g (.116 ounces)per 100g (3.5 ounces).

The Digestibility of Olive Oil

By comparison with other oils, olive oil has a higher factor of digestibility, and is therefore more easily absorbed by the mucous membrane of the intestines (the less time a foodstuff remains in the digestive tract the more digestible it is). Let us illustrate briefly the mechanism by means of which lipidic substances are digested.

In a normal diet, fats make up 20 to 40 % on the average of the total daily intake of calories, that is to say they account for about 500 to 1000 calories. In order for the intestine to be able to absorb these fats and then use them, they have to be modified, that is to say they have to be broken down by the digestive enzymes released by the exocrine glands of the pancreas, which reduce their size and separate them into their basic components.

In order for this to take place correctly, the fats must first be emulsified by the bile salts, which in practice have the task of turning the lipids in the right direction, so that it will be easier for the enzymes to break them down.

The digestibility of each type of fat depends on the length of its chain and on the type of fatty acid present in the triglyceride molecule. In particular, the speed of hydrolytic digestion is influenced by the presence of significant quantities of saturated fatty acids (e.g. stearic acid).

Thus, the prevalence of a given type of acid will determine the nutritional qualities of a fatty substance and therefore its metabolic fate.
The fact that olive oil is easily digested is due to the presence of oleic acid in position 2 of the triglyceride, providing a 2-monoglyceride. Because of this, it is easier for it to be broken down by the bile and therefore for it to penetrate through the mucous membrane of the intestine.

Cholesterol and Olive Oil

The distinction between “bad” and “good” cholesterol refers to the lipoproteins that carry it. The concentration of LDL’s (Low-Density Lipoproteins), that carry the cholesterol to the tissues, increases when there is an excess of cholesterol. HDL’s (High Density Lipoproteins), on the other hand, carry this excess to the liver, which will then take care of eliminating it through the bile ducts.

For this reason HDL’s have the effect of protecting against atherosclerosis: the higher the HDL concentration, the more cholesterol is removed. Polyunsaturated fatty acids (typical of seed oils) have proved capable of lowering the cholesterol concentration in the blood, but have the same effect on both LDL and HDL. Oleic acid, which is monounsaturated (contained in olive oil in a concentration of 75%), only lowers the LDL level, while it raises the HDL level.

Cooking with Olive Oil

The greater resistance of olive oil can also be seen at the high temperatures reached while cooking, and even more so when frying. The creation of toxic substances (polymers, peroxides and therefore aldehydes, ketone’s and hydroperoxides) is facilitated by the presence of the double bonds in polyunsaturated fats.

This does not mean that we should eliminate fatty acids with several points of unsaturation, since these are essential for maintaining excellent membrane permeability and fluidity. Rather, we should simply reduce the quantities of them that we eat. The recommended intake of polyunsaturated fatty acids in a balanced diet amounts to about 3% of the total calories, increased to 4.5% in pregnant women and to 5 to 7% while nursing. Olive oil meets this requirement very well, since it does not contain the excessive quantities present in seed oils.

What is more, oleic acid, of which only olive oil contains high quantities, apparently has an impact, in a certain proportion, on the transformation of linoleic acid into arachidonic acid, which is the most active from a physiological point of view. Alongside its fatty-acid component, olive oil also contains important substances such as tocopherol (vitamin E), polyphenols and squalene.

The last two are the main substances responsible for its high anti-oxidant capacity, since unlike seed oils olive oil only contains small quantities of tocopherol. It has been seen, moreover, that an excess of vitamin E might very well facilitate the growth of tumors.

The Main Properties of Olive Oil and Oleic Acid

The most important properties of olive oil and of oleic acid can be summarized as follows:

1. They have a protective effect in hepatitis and in diseases of the bile duct;
2. They have a cholecystokinetic effect;
3. They facilitate the absorption of calcium by the intestines (limited by saturated fatty acids);
4. They stimulate the activity of the pancreas;
5. They improve ulcers and gastritis by reducing the hypersecretion of acid and hypermotility;
6. They limit the damages caused by an excess of saturated fatty acids (atherosclerosis) and polyunsaturated fatty
7. cids (premature aging of the cells);
8. They are more resistant to oxidation at room temperature;
9. They are more resistant to the high temperatures reached for long periods during cooking and frying.

How to Taste

For a good taster it is essential to have well-developed and trained senses of taste and smell.

Tasters have a very important role in evaluating oils. In this profession experience and practice make perfect, and it should be considered a genuine “art”. In olive-growing areas there are associations that organize specific courses for learning tasting techniques periodically. This has helped to increase the value attributed to this natural product, now considered essential and indicated by dietitians and nutrition specialists as a basis for a correct diet.

In order to achieve the best possible results when tasting an oil, it is important to follow a few rules:

• The middle of the morning, between meals, is considered the best time of day for carrying out this test.
• The breathing passages must be free
• The taster must have a perfect bill of health. A upset stomach, tiredness and so on can lead to inaccurate evaluation.
• No strong-flavored food (e.g. onions, garlic, chocolate, coffee and so on) should be eaten on the day preceding the test, and smoking must be avoided for at least one hour before tasting.
• Do not use scents, shaving lotions or similar products at the time of tasting.

A short time must be allowed to elapse between tasting one sample and the next, since the sense organs must be allowed to rest in order not to condition the following test. It is customary in the oil-making industry to chew a small piece of apple, however it would be better to avoid any food, to rinse one’s mouth with water and wait. With reference to olive oil, its not advisable to use bread, since this could leave a slight taste of fermentation or toasting very similar to some flaws that may be present in the product.

The room must be noise-free, since noise can cause the taster to lose his concentration, and above all there must be no smells, which would interfere. This is because oil has a high capacity for absorbing and dissolving many chemical substances that give rise to smells also contained in other foodstuffs. For this reason great attention must be paid to the place where oil is stored.

Conclusion

Paolo has maintained the richest gift of all. He has honored his family traditions and maintained the friendships of all he cherishes. Respect that has earned him a place into the hearts of his relative and friends and the few people outside the tight knit that he sells some of the finest olive oil ever created.
Attention to detail and a true love of his art, olive oil, has satified his soul that most artist will never ever enjoy. He does it because he truly enjoys the making and sharing of his art, not for monetary value, but for the history and accolades from the ones most important to him.

What an honor for me to be able to relate this true story from Paolo. I met him on a stock trading forum discussing the different aspects of trading stocks.

Hopefully, I honor him and make him proud by spreading the word of “The Real Olive Oil Story”.