Biodiversity in Olive Oil

There are more than a thousand varieties of olives growing across the world – and you already know that. You buy your mixed olives because they’re a decadent snack. And you love how each olive has a distinct taste. But when you buy olive oil? You forget that. And so 30% of all of the world’s olive oil comes from one variety: Picual. Another 10% comes from Arbequina. Is it because these two olives are more delicious than their 1,000-plus cousins? No – it’s because they yield so much more oil than their cousins. In other words, they make relatively inexpensive olive oil. But if you’re spending then money on extra virgin oil, don’t you want to also spend the money on lower-yield oils that taste delicious?

How to taste olive oil

I debated offering crackers or something to put the oil on, but in the end, I thought … we’re meant to taste oil, not crackers. So put a bit onto the end of your spoon and suck it into your mouth vigorously, to spread the fats throughout your palate.

What you’re tasting

Three oils pressed the same way, using the same tools, by sixth-generation olive oil maker Leopoldo Buendia of Kasbah in Chimalhuacán, Mexico. The three olives used to make the olives were all grown by Leopoldo and their family, and those olives are

-              Picuda

-              Menuda

-              Redonda

I wish I could tell you which is which. But the bottles were shipped to me through a hotel in Tijuana, and that hotel assumed the oils were for their restaurant. So they unpacked and unmarked them. It was a lot of fun prying the oil away from them….