Fort Lauderdale to host 2008 International olive oil festival
An international olive oil festival can look like a food fair with olive oil bolted on — hundreds of brands, samples, music. But strip away the show and the real work is education: getting a bottle onto a stranger’s tongue and teaching them what good actually tastes like.
Once, olive oil festivals happened only where olives grow. Now they turn up in cities far from any grove, drawing crowds to taste oils from a dozen countries in a single afternoon. The stalls and entertainment are the draw, but the reason these events matter is quieter: most people have never knowingly tasted a great olive oil, and cannot tell one from a cheap, tired supermarket bottle. A festival is where that changes.
What actually happens at the stalls
Behind every table is a producer trying to do one thing: get you to taste. Olive oil is almost impossible to sell on description — ‘fruity, peppery, bitter’ means little until it is on your tongue — so the whole event is built around sampling, usually on a scrap of bread or, better, from a little cup. Taste enough in a row and something clicks: you start to notice the gulf between a bright, living, freshly pressed oil and the flat, greasy stuff most people cook with. That single realisation is what producers are paying for a stall to create.
How the professionals taste
There is a real method, and it is worth borrowing. Tasters use a small glass, often coloured blue so the oil’s colour cannot bias them — colour tells you nothing about quality. They cup it in one hand to warm it, because gentle warmth releases the aroma, then smell deeply for fruit, grass or almond. Then a small sip is drawn back over the tongue with a sharp slurp of air, which sprays the oil around the mouth and reveals its bitterness and its peppery kick at the back of the throat. It looks odd; it works. For what those flavours signify, see what ‘extra virgin’ really means.
The lesson worth taking home
The single most useful thing a festival teaches is that bitterness and pepper are good news, not faults. Beginners recoil from the throat-catching pungency of a fresh, robust oil and reach for the bland, ‘smooth’ bottle — but that pungency is the polyphenols, the very compounds that make good oil healthy and mark it as fresh. A flat, greasy oil with no bite is the one to distrust. Learn to enjoy the burn, and you can never again be sold a dull oil as a fine one. That, more than any stall, is what an olive oil festival is really for.
| The real purpose | Teaching people to taste good oil |
|---|---|
| Why sampling matters | Oil can’t be judged from a description |
| Tasting glass | Small, often blue to hide colour |
| Warm it | In the hand, to release aroma |
| Slurp it | Aerate over the tongue |
| Bitter and peppery | A sign of fresh, healthy oil |
| Distrust | Flat, greasy oil with no bite |
How to taste like a pro
- Ignore the colour — it tells you nothing; that is why judges use blue glasses.
- Warm and smell the oil before you taste, for fruit, grass or almond.
- Slurp a little across your tongue to reveal bitterness and pepper.
- Welcome the burn — pungency means polyphenols and freshness, not a flaw.
Olive oil festivals and tasting: common questions
What is the point of an olive oil festival?
Beyond the stalls and entertainment, the real purpose is education — letting people taste many oils side by side and learn to tell a fresh, high-quality oil from a flat, cheap one.
Why do tasters use blue glasses?
So the oil’s colour cannot influence their judgement. Colour is not a reliable guide to quality, and a blue glass hides it, forcing the taster to rely on aroma and flavour.
Why do people slurp olive oil when tasting?
Drawing air across the oil sprays it around the mouth and warms it, releasing the aromas and revealing the bitterness and peppery pungency at the back of the throat.
Is a bitter, peppery oil a bad sign?
Quite the opposite. Bitterness and a peppery kick come from the oil’s polyphenols and usually signal a fresh, robust, healthy oil. A flat, greasy oil with no bite is more suspect.
How can I taste olive oil at home?
Warm a little in a small glass in your hand, smell it, then sip and draw in air across your tongue. Compare two oils side by side and the differences become obvious.
People assume olive oil festivals are about buying, and they are really about learning. The producers know the secret : you cannot argue someone into paying for good oil, but you can put it on their tongue next to a cheap one and let the difference do the talking. If you ever go to one, taste with intent — warm the oil, smell it, slurp it, and pay attention to the peppery catch at the back of your throat. That catch is the whole game. Once you learn to love it, no one can ever sell you a flat, tired oil as a fine one again.
An original olives101 guide to olive oil festivals and tasting.