I have been trying to improve my diet a bit recently. After years of reading about how great this Mediterranean diet is I began looking into it a bit. A lot of what was involved was stuff I was already doing. One thing I learned quickly is that not all Olive Oil is the same. Of course some of it might be outright counterfeit, and some of it is just lower grade than what you were really looking for.
Some background: The olive is a fruit, so olive oil is a fruit juice. As such it will never get better than the day it was made. So if the olive oil you are buying does not tell you when and where it was pressed it may not be the best olive oil possible. There are a couple of different olive oil specialty stores in the local malls, so I went to them and tried some of their different EVO's and some of it was OK. I bought a few bottles and enjoyed it. Yet when I went on the foodie websites and read the books they seemed to promise more. More robust flavor, more fruity, buttery, peppery, after bite. Often these sites provided sources to EVO that was priced higher than Federal match primers when Obummer was dealing coke from 1600 PA ave. While I do want the good stuff, at some price it is just too much.
As I continued to study I read about some if the new ranches in Texas that make good EVO but don't have the cult following yet. https://texasoliveranch.com I ordered an assortment from this guy. Today I cracked open his Picual EVO, WOW! It lived up to my expectations. Their website calls the Picual Buttery, Slightly Sweet, Peppery, Fruity and I really have to agree, perhaps most of all with the "peppery" description. Texas Olive Oil Ranch Picual has at least ten times the flavor of the EVO's that the gourmet stores in the malls are calling robust. At $30 for 500 ml it is not cheap but they do give free shipping on orders over $90.
For me it is a lot easier to eat better when the better food tastes better than the poorer choices, and for me this is some real good stuff.
Do I have any complaints? Of course I have a complaint. The package arrived and I opened it, the bottles were wrapped in bubble wrap. That was nice, but the bubble wrap was covered with Styrofoam peanuts. I hate Styrofoam peanuts, I hope some day they get the air bags Amazon uses to fill packages.
Some background: The olive is a fruit, so olive oil is a fruit juice. As such it will never get better than the day it was made. So if the olive oil you are buying does not tell you when and where it was pressed it may not be the best olive oil possible. There are a couple of different olive oil specialty stores in the local malls, so I went to them and tried some of their different EVO's and some of it was OK. I bought a few bottles and enjoyed it. Yet when I went on the foodie websites and read the books they seemed to promise more. More robust flavor, more fruity, buttery, peppery, after bite. Often these sites provided sources to EVO that was priced higher than Federal match primers when Obummer was dealing coke from 1600 PA ave. While I do want the good stuff, at some price it is just too much.
As I continued to study I read about some if the new ranches in Texas that make good EVO but don't have the cult following yet. https://texasoliveranch.com I ordered an assortment from this guy. Today I cracked open his Picual EVO, WOW! It lived up to my expectations. Their website calls the Picual Buttery, Slightly Sweet, Peppery, Fruity and I really have to agree, perhaps most of all with the "peppery" description. Texas Olive Oil Ranch Picual has at least ten times the flavor of the EVO's that the gourmet stores in the malls are calling robust. At $30 for 500 ml it is not cheap but they do give free shipping on orders over $90.
For me it is a lot easier to eat better when the better food tastes better than the poorer choices, and for me this is some real good stuff.
Do I have any complaints? Of course I have a complaint. The package arrived and I opened it, the bottles were wrapped in bubble wrap. That was nice, but the bubble wrap was covered with Styrofoam peanuts. I hate Styrofoam peanuts, I hope some day they get the air bags Amazon uses to fill packages.
