FAQ's: Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO)
Here you will find everything related to our Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO)
Origins of Papa Vince EVOO
To bring friends and families closer together around the dinner table with all natural and quality products grown, harvested, and provided by a family business with the sole intention of introducing people from around the world to wholesome and healthy foods for clean eating and better living.
Papa Vince EVOO is produced in the town of Santa Ninfa within Sicily, Italy. The Papa Vince family grows and tends to the olive trees on their grove with a passionate caring for their work.
Papa Vince himself learned the art of making Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO) when working as an apprentice for the Knight of De Stefani at the Medieval Castello of Rampinzeri, Santa Ninfa, Italy. He passed his knowledge to his family which has continued his work and wishes to share it with all people. Papa Vince used to tell his family that olive trees were moody, yet extremely generous. If you care for them properly through their lifetime, they would consistently deliver for you the sweetest harvest yielding extraordinary, delectable EVOO.
Papa Vince is available for purchase from the Papa Vince website, as well as sold on Amazon.
"Extra Virgin" Defined
Extra virgin is the highest quality and most flavorful olive oil classification.
In chemical terms it is described as having a free acidity, expressed as oleic acid, of not more than 0.8 grams per 100 grams.
Extra Virgin must be produced entirely by mechanical means without the use of any solvents (refined chemicals), and under temperatures that will not degrade the oil (less than 86°F, 30°C), (this is why you want cold-pressed).
At Papa Vince we inform our customers that our Extra Virgin Olive Oil is just what we squeeze from the olive. Nothing is added and nothing is taking away. If you think in human terms a virgin is untouched. So is Papa Vince EVOO.
The extra virgin olive oil must be untouched by other elements such as refined chemicals, odor or color enhancers which are used in the process of making “Regular” olive oil and other grades of olive oil.
Beware when they use the word refined” they are saying that petroleum based chemicals are needed to refine the olive oil during production process. This should never be the case with an Extra Virgin Olive Oil.
Simply stated, extra virgin olive oil is simply pressed fruit juice without additives.
Some simple ways to distinguish quality and untouched EVOO from chemically altered and refined products claiming pure authentic EVOO can be spotted by the packaging and taste.
True EVOO must be stored in a dark-colored glass bottle. It should never be stored in plastic or clear bottles. Additionally, when tasting true EVOO it is very clear to experience a beautiful, peppery kick in the back of your throat and tongue after tasting the product by itself. Sometimes, it can take between 30 seconds to 1 or 2 minutes to experience the peppery kick, but it is the mark of true, untouched EVOO. This peppery kick is the mark of the antioxidants within the olive juice. EVOO should not be tasteless, heavy, or have an oily aftertaste and feeling to it.
Extra Virgin Olive oil tasters describe the positive attributes of a quality EVOO in the following terms:
- Fruity: Having pleasant spicy fruit flavors. A characteristic of fresh ripe or green olives.
- Ripe fruit yields oils that are milder, aromatic, buttery, and floral.
- Green fruit yields oils that are grassy, herbaceous, bitter, and pungent. Fruitiness also varies by the variety of olive.
- Bitter: Creating a mostly pleasant acrid flavor sensation on the tongue.
- Pungent: Creating a peppery sensation in the mouth and throat
Harvesting
A harvested crop means that every crop is different and never tastes the same. Weather conditions have a severe impact on the quality and taste of the olives. Quantity of rain, sunshine and degree of frost have a huge impact on the quality and taste of each seasons crop(harvest).
Therefore, with a harvested EVOO like Papa Vince, you should expect variations from year to year. Papa Vince EVOO harvested from October thru January. The 2015/2016 crops have a significantly high peppery taste. This peppery kick has been more mild in others harvest years.
Because Italy is in the Northern Hemisphere the olives are harvested in late Autumn early Winter. Olives ripen in late October. Olive Oil production begins in October and proceeds through January. From February through September there is no production of olives or olive oil in Italy or for that matter the rest of the Northern Hemisphere.
If someone is producing olive oil in the off season they are using old olives. Surely you can produce olive oil in the off season but not without using old, inferior olives that lose their taste and nutrients.
Keep in mind that Australia, Chile, and others in the Southern Hemisphere produce their olives in different months than the countries of the Northern Hemisphere.
Therefore look for olive oil production in the southern hemisphere from March 20 thru June 21.
No. Take, for example, locally produced honey. Most of it is a “harvested” batch and one batch of honey will taste different from the next. Note most of the supermarket olive oils are consistent tastes and NOT harvested. Thus you will not be able to taste a difference from one year’s harvest to the next. In this case a consistent taste does not necessarily mean a good thing.
If it always tastes the same it probably has been altered in the chemical food labs to be consistent.
Filtration
EVOO is olive oil that has not been filtered.
In other words it still contains sediments from the olive. Thus, it will be cloudy and often have sediment at the bottom of the bottle.
Many purists prefer this simply because it has been handled less. In other words it is straight out of the press and less processed. The sediment contains more of the nutrients and antioxidants of the olive. Many believe the unfiltered sediment adds robustness to the EVOO as well.
Papa Vince, a true EVOO, has not been processed or filtered chemically in any way, standing true to EVOO untouched standards.
Storage
EVOO should be stored in dark glass or stainless steel containers. It should be kept inside your air-conditioned home, but kept away from heat sources and ovens.
EVOO should not be kept in half-empty containers for very long because the oxygen in the bottle will break down the good nutrients of the EVOO.
Six big enemies of EVOO’s proper storage are heat, light, oxygen, plastic containers, metallic containers, or clear glass bottles because sunlight breaks down EVOO’s natural nutrients.
EVOO does not need to be refrigerated, but should be kept within a cool, dry environment around 74 degrees farenheit.
The shelf life of Papa Vince EVOO is approximately four years.
Nutrition
EVOO contains a super powerful polyphenol.
A polyphenol is an antioxidant. Hydroxytyrosol is the name of the super powerful polyphenol. It is one of the most beneficial components in olives and extra virgin olive oil.
Hydroxytyrosol is extremely rare to find.
Researchers are discovering that hydroxytyrosol is a highly potent antioxidant associated with healthier breast tissue, colon function and cardiovascular health. After ellagic acid, hydroxytyrosol is believed to be one of the most powerful antioxidants and one of the strongest free radical-scavenging compounds available.
In nature, hydroxytyrosol is found in olive leaves, olive fruit, and olive oil. Olive oil has been prized for centuries and even used as currency for trade.
Biblical kings in Israel placed great worth on their olive orchards, guarding them fiercely against anyone who would harm their harvest. Much of the shipping in the Mediterranean during ancient times involved the trading of olive trees, olives and oil.
One of the reasons EVOO is so healthy for you is that quality EVOO should contain healthy fats.
Our bodies need “healthy” fats. Unfortunately most of us eat too many foods in our diets that contain “unhealthy fats”.
The main type of healthy fat found in PV EVOO is monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs). Want to emphasize here that MUFAs are considered healthy fats. You should replace the bad fats that are known as saturated and trans fats with unsaturated fats such as MUFAs and polyunsaturated fats (PUFAs).
Chemical Alteration
Real EVOO should be made from fresh olives taken directly from the vine that are squeezed to make a quality EVOO. The squeezing process should be without any chemicals added in the refinement or pressing process.
EVOO is one of the only oils that can be consumed in its crude form with no refining.
Another fact that is rarely mentioned in the food world is that EVOO is the only edible oil that “can” be made naturally without the use of petroleum “refined chemicals.
In other word you squeeze an olive and naturally what comes out of it is olive oil. You don’t have to add chemicals. Absolutely nothing. All the other edible oils require a refinement process which means adding petroleum chemicals in order to produce the oil.
Papa Vince EVOO is 100% organic and has zero chemical alteration.
Whenever you see the word “refinement” that means the addition of chemicals, usually petroleum based chemicals.
Therefore most of the “edible” oils you find on the supermarket shelves are petroleum based edible oils.
Hmm. How many people in the food industry will admit that?? For example take Grape seed oil. If you squeeze the grape seeds by themselves you will not produce an oil. You must add chemicals to the grape seeds in order to produce grape seed oil. This is true for vegetable oil, safflower oil, sunflower, canola, hazelnut etc. etc.
