“To know how to read is to light a lamp in the mind, to release the soul from prison, to open a gate to the universe.” from Pavilion of Women page 292”
― Pearl S. Buck
And to know how to read the good earth, its ebbs and flows, its seasons, reasons and impetuousness, is to light a lamp in the minds of generations now and evermore.
Juan Martinez of Almazara L’alquería in Muro de Alcoy, Alicante, Spain, knows this all too well. And what a labor of love he has in growing and producing great extra virgin olive oils that need no fancy marketing but open minds and hearts to taste the lingering elegance of his oils.
I began breaking fast with Juan’s EVOO of the Picual varietal yesterday. And what a marvel I felt:
Yesterday, March 11, 2015 at 8:08am ·
My first sip of AOVE / EVOO before breakfast.
Huele de frescura, hierba reciente cortada, un sabor aterciopelado, amargor sensual y leve picor. Mm mmm. #VivaAOVE #VisitSpain
— feeling blessed with Juan Martinez and 3 others at Barrio El Born, Barcelona.
And a friend from Malaysia asked: What is it?
Lee Lian, it’s EVOO — extra virgin olive oil: Smells of freshness and freshly cut grass, with a velvety flavor, sensual bitterness and a light touch of spiciness. Jennifer McLagan in the Wall Street Journal explains “Why Bitter Makes Food Better”. She says:
Sweet is for sissies. McLagan makes a case for eating dangerously. And she proves her point with a recipe for grilled radicchio topped with dollops of creamy cheese in the WSJ.
Tasting EVOOs tests our olfactory and gustatory senses for traces of herbs, fruit and plants, and the four essential tastes or feelings: sweetness, astringency, spiciness and bitterness. Sweetness, in terms of evaluating an EVOO, is anything but the sugary comfort of sweets and pastries. It is best linked to the sweetness of raw almonds and walnuts, shy and whispery. Astringency can best be associated with a good ristretto which makes our mouth pucker and leaves a certain dryness on the roof of the mouth. Spiciness denotes peppery overtones.
But bitterness — that rebel note that defies convention — can be harsh like a hooligan, intrusive in thought and action. Or it could be sensual and sophisticated, giving us a glimpse, but just the slightest, of a nuanced world full of promise. Sensual bitterness unfolds with time: it cannot, it will not be hurried. Quite often, it habors a melding of flavours: the bitter-sweetness of licorice; the bitter-spiciness of a bold, confident hojiblanca, the pride of the Antequera region, in the north of the province of Málaga, Spain.
The sophistry of an extra virgin olive oil which has had time to settle and mature is evident in the way its bitterness is expressed: none of the strident notes of a big band march, all of the jazzy feel of Tony Adamo’s Eleanor Rigby.
In its best moments, bitterness could be what the Cantonese call, ‘the golden taste’, something akin to a compound taste of bitter-sweet which chicory and licorice yield. Of all the four tastes, bitterness is the one that elicits the most debate; the one that prompts more thought and curiosity; and the one that denotes the presence of the healthiest compounds of an excellent EVOO.
When I came to Spain more than seven years ago, I had to cleanse my palate, over time, to be receptive to new tastes, smells, colours and textures in food. From one packet of sugar in my coffee, I pared it down to half, a quarter, and then, none. And realized that with an excellent ristretto or cafe con leche with milk from Camprodon, located in the Pyrenees, near the French border, one could come to appreciate the natural fruitiness of the former, and the innate sweetness of the latter.
Cutting out sugar gradually led to a greater awareness of the bitter, spicy, sour realms. The discovery continues, because with each new gustatory door opened, I realize how little I still know about food, drink and artisan olive oils.
Many thanks to Mar Luna Villacañas for her time and generosity in the Introduction to Olive Oil Tasting course we attended on March 7 at Escuela Europea de Cata de Aceite y Oleocultura in Madrid, Spain.
Sue does boutique gourmet tours in Barcelona, Spain. She can be contacted at: http://about.me/suechien.lee
