How to choose olive oil correctly?

Olive oil is considered an indispensable component of most dishes of Italian cuisine, and is also used as an excellent cosmetic. Delicious and fragrant product from olive fruits is simply indispensable for moisturizing the skin, and for improving the condition of the hair. But it's not so simple - you need to know how to choose quality olive oil, so that it really turns out to be effective and does not disappoint. A few parameters will help you to choose.

How to choose a good olive oil? Step one

First of all, understand what kinds of this product are. Oil, marked with the inscription virgin, is considered very high quality. It is a product for the extraction of which ancient technologies are used. The marking of extra virgin differs from the first cold pressed oil. This is a maximum of quality with a pleasant fruit flavor and completely preserved benefit of the olive. That bottle on which it is written is refined, as a rule, will contain a not too high-quality product. This is a transparent, yellowish oil, which is produced from medium quality raw materials, without olive notes in taste and without any useful substances in the composition. If there are no marks on the oil, it is a mixture of refined product and cold pressed oil. There is also a special kind - pomas. It is a product from the remains of olive fruit obtained after pressing. It is considered not very high quality and is not popular in the countries of manufacture. In Spain, the same kind of butter is called orujo.

How to choose olive oil? Step Two

After you have memorized the marking, you can proceed to other ways of determining the quality. First of all, it's color, smell and taste. How to choose olive oil by color? Try to find a product of a dark yellow color. This is considered a sign of high quality. In general, the oil color can be either dark brown or light green, with different shades. It is determined by the degree of maturity of the olives - the greenish oil is made from unripe fruit and slightly bitter, the violet-blue hue is given to ripe olives, and quite ripe give a rich yellow. A black shade of oil is attached to the olives that fell to the ground. Such a variety will have a sweetish flavor. How to choose olive oil to taste? If you have the opportunity to taste the product, know that the taste should not be rancid or implicit. The quality oil will have a taste of spices, herbs, almonds, light bitterness. If you have experienced the taste of walnut, cucumber, metal, earth, salt or mold, the product is definitely of poor quality and produced with technology disruptions. How to choose olive oil by smell? Practically the same as to taste. The main rule - the smell should be pleasant, astringent and herbaceous. Foreign flavors signal a low level of quality or wrong production technology. Oils with an unpleasant smell should be avoided both in cooking and in cosmetic procedures, since they will not bring anything but harm.