Cultivar, harvest date, acidity and polyphenols, and what separates a single estate oil from a blend.
Olive oil infused with Calabrian chilli, sold as olio santo. What separates an infusion from a flavoured oil, and why the base oil is half of what you are buying.
The Pugliese cultivar behind Italy's most robust oils. What coratina tastes of, why the numbers run so high, and what to do with an oil this bitter.
Commercial garlic oil is acidified for a reason. What the hazard actually is, why homemade garlic oil is different, and how to make it safely.
Dried herbs infuse safely and fresh ones carry the same hazard as garlic. Which herbs give up flavour to oil, and how to make an infusion worth having.
Taggiasca olives from the Riviera give a mild, sweet, low-bitterness oil. Why the region makes so little of it, and why a robust oil ruins pesto.
The cultivar behind Castelvetrano table olives also makes a well-regarded oil. What nocellara oil tastes of, and how it differs from the olive you already know.
Free fatty acid percentage is a legal grade threshold, not a taste. What 0.8 percent means, why lower is not automatically better, and what actually predicts quality.
The fraud is real and it is mostly not what the headlines say. The three actual practices, what the studies found, and what a buyer can practically do.
Best-before dates tell you almost nothing. What a harvest date is, why producers omit it, and how to work out an oil is old without one.
The compounds behind the peppery catch at the back of the throat. What raises them, why they fade, and what the EU health claim actually permits.
Puglia produces around half of Italian olive oil. What the regional style is, which cultivars dominate, and what Xylella has done to the groves.
The island style built on nocellara del belice, biancolilla and cerasuola. What the DOP zones cover and what a Sicilian oil should taste of.
A small Ligurian olive giving a sweet, low-bitterness oil. Where the name comes from, why it is expensive, and how monocultivar taggiasca differs from a regional blend.
The style Tuscany is known for, the cultivars behind it, what the IGP covers, and why a genuine Tuscan oil tastes aggressive rather than smooth.