Does the colour of the olive oil say anything about its quality?
Does the colour of the olive oil say anything about its quality? Some labels make a point of saying that the olive oil was made within a short period of time after harvesting. Why would this be important?
Best Answer
There are two main factors in quality of olive oil: the flavor, and the free fatty acid content. (Those are fatty acid molecules that are not bound up into oil molecules; they make the oil more unstable, prone to going bad faster.)
Neither of these has anything to do with color, which is provided by chlorophyll and carotenoids. The only exception is refined ("pure") olive oil, which is generally made from oil that already has higher amounts of free fatty acids; it's purified to remove those, and in the process the desirable aromatic molecules are also removed, so it loses flavor. This process would also tend to remove color. But as long as you're looking at unrefined (virgin or extra virgin) oil, that's not relevant.
I suspect time after harvest is not critical, but could potentially make a difference. The olives do need to be at the right point in ripening - underripe olives make bitter oil, and overripe ones make oil with less flavor. So if olives are left for too long after harvest before oil extraction, they could lose flavor from further ripening. Additionally, the flavors come from reactions between fatty acids and enzymes which are released during grinding and crushing, so I suppose this could take place much more slowly over time, especially if the olives have been damaged, and the aromatics produced at that point would be partially lost to the air. All of this said, presumably high-quality olive oils are produced correctly, whether or not they advertise details of the production. The labeling you've seen may just be marketing.
In any case, the surest way to discern quality is direct observation, so just try to find what you like! It probably won't be correlated with color, or any details of the labels.
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What Does Olive Oil Color Mean? While olive oil color is not reliably associated with quality, color does tell you something about olive oil. For instance, greener oils generally tend to be more robust and grassy in flavor, while golden oils tend to have a lighter, buttery flavor.What color should real olive oil be?
Olive oil comes in a surprising array of colors, everything from dark green to golden yellow. When olives are harvested early, the chlorophyll is particularly intense, and that makes the oil a dark green hue. As the harvest continues, the olive oil's color changes to a somewhat lighter, brighter green shade.Does the color of olive oil matter?
In general, a darker-green olive oil tends to be more fruity and grassy; whereas, a yellow-colored olive oil, when unrefined, tends to have spicier, biting notes. So, it's best not to judge the quality of an olive oil by its color. Key information about its quality is on the bottle itself.What color is high quality olive oil?
Overall, there is a wide range of acceptable colors in genuine extra virgin olive oil, from yellow to golden to dark green, but consumers should avoid purchasing an oil that is so pale it has little color, an indication that it may be refined oil, or one that is copper-colored, which suggests oxidation from exposure to ...How can you tell if olive oil is high quality?
Fake olive oil might taste greasy, rancid, flavorless, or just not pleasant. Good olive oil\u2014real olive oil\u2014should smell and taste green, bright, peppery, earthy, grassy, or any combination thereof. "If it tastes good, it's probably good," says Olmsted.Are you buying the right olive oil?
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Answer 2
It happened with me once, I had olive oil that tasted good at first, after 1 year, there left aroung a bottle of it, it looked no more like before.
Their color turned to be more transparent than before, and also they become loose, also more than before, and as for their taste, they no more tasted like olive oil, or a little bit olive oil, but they lost their pungent taste.
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