There are many olive oils available to the consumers. Everyone has a different flavor and taste, depending on the cultivation of the olive, the variety and the process.
Greek Olive Oils.
Koroneiki. The Koroneiki variety dominates Greece and mainly Peloponnese and the island of Crete. The fruit is very small and difficult to harvest. The olive oil is of excellent quality and high in poly-phenols, with a fruity aroma, a herbaceous flavor, an interesting complexity, style and harmony. It is mostly extra virgin and recognized for its high medicinal characteristics.
The Koroneiki variety when blended with the Kalamon and the Conservolia, maintains its excellent quality and great taste, also its long shelf life. Greek extra virgin olive oil is of superior quality, due to the perfect climate and soil.
Italian Olive Oils.
Taggiasca. A variety grown in Liguria, in the Italian Riviera. It is harvested late and produces a light and fruity oil, that pairs well with the seafood diet of the region.
Biancolilla. A variety grown in the Southern region of Italy, in the island of Sicily, produces oils with a bitter, pungent, fruity taste, a smooth body and is of excellent quality.
Carolea. This is a variety grown in the Soutwest Italy. When its ripe produces a sweet and fruity oil.
Coratina. It is a variety grown in the Southeastern Italy, a high volume of oil production area. It is known for its late maturity. The oil is a little bitter with a herbaceous character.
Bosana. This variety covers the island of Sardinia, gives high quality oil, with a balance in pungency, fruitiness and bitterness.
Spanish Olive Oils.
Arbequina. The oil that is made from the Arbequina variety, has a very clean and aromatic flavor, with a light pungent and bitter taste. Overiped Arbequina oils in 12 months lose their aromatic character, become flat and go rancid before they reach 18 months.
Piqual. In Andalucia, Jaen, Granada, Sevilla and Gordoba regions, located in the South part of Spain, Piqual olives grow on hillsides, under dry conditions. The early harvest in November- December, is of high quality oil with a pungent and bitter taste, high in poly-phenols that keep well for quite sometime. The late harvest produces a low quality oil that has to be refined.
Blanqueta. The Blanqueta variety grows in the Valencia, Alicante and Murcia regions, in the Central Coastal hills of Spain. The oils are very bitter with a sharp pungent taste and a sweet and fruity character. It is of excellent quality.
Castilla y Leon and Madrid. These varieties grow in the regions of Zamora, Madrid, Avila, Caceres, Toledo and Salamanca, located in the West Central part of Spain. The excellence of the oils from these varieties have earned them many awards.
Empeltre. A dominant variety growned in the Northeastern regions of Zaragoza, Navarra and Teruel, makes a very light, fruity, aromatic, pungent and bitter olive oil of high quality but short shelf life.
Californian Olive Oils.
Tuscan. Varieties from Tuscany, such as Leccino, Frantoio, Maurino, Pendolino, give excellent quality oil, with a green apple, green almont characteristics and bitter, pungent taste.
Mission. The Mission variety is a very high content oil. When picked on perfect maturity, produces an excellent olive oil with a fruity, bitter and buttery taste.
Manzanillo. A variety that dominates California. When the olives are picked early, produce oils that are bitter, pungent and herbaceous. When olives are picked late, produce oils with a fruity and aromatic character.
Arbequina. From this variety comes an olive oil with mild bitternes. Mixed with Koroneiki and Arbosana, much higher in bitterness, pungency and poly-phenols, obtains longer lasting shelf life.