How to taste olive oil

Grab a spoon or a tiny cup and pour out a little bit. Smell it! Olive oil has tons of aroma.

Take a sip. Slurp in a bit of air at the same time. Now: swallow it. There are three things you’re looking for in an extra virgin olive oil, all in balance:

• Fruitiness. Think of words like this: grassy, tomato-y, herbaceous. You might taste green banana, artichoke, or something almost flowery.

• Bitterness. If you ever eat an olive straight off the tree, you will discover that they are very, very bitter. Some of that bitterness makes it way into the oil.

• Pungency. This is a fancy word for the spicy sensation that you might feel at the back of your throat. It’s not spicy like a chile pepper; more like ginger or radish. If you’ve never experienced it in olive oil, it can be a bit alarming! What you’re feeling is caused by antioxidants that are abundant in fresh olive oil. (Some people even describe olive oil in terms of one, two, or three coughs.)