Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Liquid gold
At Oliveto, a gourmet olive oil store in Roanoke County, quality is a top priority.
Photos by Kyle Green | The Roanoke Times
A plate of Herdade Paco do Conde Cobrancosa Early Harvest olive oil sits next to a loaf of ciabatta bread at Oliveto, which opened in December at The Shoppes at West Village.
"I don’t think I thought I was ever going to really open a business," said Elizabeth Merian, of Oliveto.
Glass bottles for olive oil and balsamic vinegar sit on a shelf at Oliveto. Owner Elizabeth Merian visited her first olive oil shop while vacationing last summer in Maine.
Gourmet olive oil pours out of a spigot. The proper way to taste olive oil is to sip it, straight-up, out of the tiny plastic cups on hand at the store.
Food writer Lindsey Nair
- lindsey.nair@roanoke.com | (540) 981-3343
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Elizabeth Merian is confident that the Roanoke Valley is ready for a store like Oliveto, where she sells high-quality, small-batch olive oils and vinegars from around the world. But I'd be willing to bet some folks wonder what's wrong with buying less expensive oil at the grocery store, so long as it is healthy extra-virgin olive oil.
The answer to that question is twofold.
First, a visit to Oliveto is a highly enjoyable and educational experience. It's nearly impossible to walk away without buying something that made your eyes fly open with surprise and delight when you tasted it in the store, whether it was wild mushroom and sage-infused olive oil or a bright and zippy white balsamic vinegar infused with Thai lemongrass and mint.
Second, you know that "extra-virgin" olive oil you picked up at the grocery store? Even if you bought one of the more expensive brands, you could be getting either a lesser grade of olive oil or something that's been cut with cheaper seed oils.
"That's the reason for a business like this," Merian explained. "There are better importers than others."
Corruption, adulteration
The olive oil industry and the fraud within is such a complex topic that a person could write a book about it. In fact, a man named Tom Mueller did just that - his book, "Extra Virginity: The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil" was published in December.
The work grew out of a lengthy article he wrote for The New Yorker magazine in 2007. The article starts off with an alarming anecdote about a 1991 incident involving a tanker that was pumped full of 2,200 tons of hazelnut oil in Turkey before sailing for Italy, where the cargo had mysteriously become Greek olive oil on official documentation.
During a subsequent investigation, it was found that this "olive oil" eventually ended up being bottled and sold by some large Italian olive oil producers, including Nestle, Unilever and Bertolli. They were never found responsible; a middle man, Domenico Ribatti, later served 13 months in prison despite claiming he was a scapegoat. According to Mueller, corruption in the industry was so bad that the European Union created an olive-oil task force to investigate and prevent fraud in the late 1990s.
In an interview with The New Yorker earlier this month, Mueller said fraud continues today.
"In America, olive-oil adulteration, sometimes with cut-rate soybean and seed oils, is widespread, but olive oil is not tested for by the [Food and Drug Administration] - FDA officials tell me their resources are far too limited, and the list of responsibilities far too long, to police the olive-oil trade," Mueller said.
So long as the adulterants are not unhealthy substances, it's easy to argue that government dollars would be better spent elsewhere. But what about all of the small olive growers who are trying to do it honestly but are being undercut by companies selling cheap imitations? And what about our rights as consumers to know what we're purchasing and ingesting?
Another problem is lower-grade olive oils that are passed off as extra-virgin olive oil. True extra-virgin olive oil is produced by the first pressing of the olives, without using chemicals and without the introduction of heat above 80 degrees (hence the term "cold-pressed"). A very small percentage of olive oil on the market is truly extra-virgin, which provides the most monounsaturated fatty acids and antioxidants.
According to The Olive Oil Times, a Newport, R.I.-based Web publication dedicated to olive oil news and information, a number of recent developments, including Mueller's book release, could ultimately result in improved standards for both U.S.-made and imported olive oil.
Meanwhile, Spanish police just arrested 19 people accused of passing off palm, avocado, sunflower and other cheaper oils for olive oil in a multimillion-dollar fraud scheme. So until regulations tighten, Mueller recommends that we buy olive oil directly from a mill.
"Barring this," he said, "try to visit a store where you can taste before you buy; an increasing number of olive-oil specialty stores exist throughout America."
Oil tasting
Elizabeth Merian visited her first olive oil shop in Bar Harbor, Maine, while vacationing with her family last summer. She soon dreamed of opening a similar store in the Roanoke Valley.
"My husband just kept pushing," she said. "I don't think I thought I was ever going to really open a business."
She sweated over a location, considering downtown Roanoke before settling on a space in The Shoppes at West Village on Virginia 419 near North Cross School. Oliveto, which means "olive grove" in Italian, opened in early December.
The decision to open the store depended heavily on whether a California company called Veronica Foods would agree to supply Oliveto. The company is owned by Veronica Bradley, a third-generation olive oil supplier who travels the world in search of the freshest and best olive oil. She is just as selective about clients and will not supply any other stores within a competitive distance.
Oliveto is stocked with about 20 different oils and 24 white and dark balsamic vinegars from Veronica Foods, including a range of varietal extra-virgin olive oils; four nonolive gourmet oils (toasted sesame, white truffle, roasted almond and porcini mushroom); infused olive oil, infused white balsamic vinegars, traditional 18-year balsamic vinegar from Modena, Italy; and a variety of infused dark balsamics.
With the exception of those four nonolive gourmet oils, Oliveto's products are all priced at $13.99 for a 200-milliliter bottle, $15.99 for 375 milliliters and $27.99 for 750 milliliters, which is about the size of most wine bottles. The bottles are all filled and sealed at the time of purchase.
Each product is held in a stainless steel fusti, or tank, with a small spigot. Bread cubes are provided for tasting, although the proper way to taste olive oil is to sip it, straight-up, out of the tiny plastic cups also on hand.
Actually, Merian explained, you should hold the tiny cup in your hand for a few moments to warm the oil, sip it, then slurp it around in your mouth. This technique, called strippaggio, coats your taste buds with oil and allows aromas to waft into the nasal passages.
You may feel a little silly doing it at first, but the technique will open your eyes to the vast array of flavors and aromas olive oil can have. As with wine, you'll begin to detect notes of fruit or grass, for example, and you'll realize that good olive oil tingles in the throat when it's going down, not unlike a mild chile pepper.
Because Merian can prove the origin of her oils, their chemistry, and when and how they were pressed, Oliveto allows customers to focus not on the truth in labeling, but on what is ultimately most important: the taste.
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