Apollo Olive Oil

If you are used to gentle olive oils, you will be in for a bit of a surprise with Apollo Olive Oil. This is not the oil one imagines as one looks out over the rolling hills of Tuscany - buttery, sweet, gentle, unassuming. Apollo Olive oil conjures up rocky mountains with rugged, bearded Italian men scaling cliffs barefooted, sweating with large sacks of dried herbs on their backs. Pungent, aromatic, bitter, alive, this oil makes your taste buds stand up and take notice. On first taste of the organic Mistral, the gentler of the two pictured to the right, I was shocked to taste so many flavors. My reaction was, "it tastes so strong, but for some reason, I want more of it". It had a bite on the back of my throat that I haven't usually associated with olive oil. I tasted both oils straight and literally started coughing after trying the Sierra, which has a bite as strong as a hot pepper. The bitterness was something I was not sure I liked, but then again, I am not drawn to tonic water or Campari, or other bitter flavored beverages.

But most of us don't drink olive oil straight (although one gets the feeling that if one did drink these straight daily that one's life might be extended a few years). So I tried them with different foods. First with some homemade crackers. The saltiness seemed to cut the bite a bit letting you get more of the olive flavor. Then tomatoes - very nice with both oils, the acid cutting the bitterness. But then I wanted pears for some reason - and sure enough, the flavor combination was terrific. Again, not buttery and sweet, but vibrant and cutting. Apparently, what makes these oils different is that they are milled in an oxygen-less environment in a very fancy and rare machine. This allows the oils to retain more of their antioxidants, those lovely molecules which will absorb our free radicals which make us old and grey. Well, okay, but how does it taste over spaghetti?

Terrific. I tested this on my 11 year old daughter who is pretty finicky about extreme tastes. She poured the Mistral over her pasta with tomato/basil/garlic sauce. "Oh, Mom, can you smell this? It's heaven", she sighed as she scarfed down every noodle in her bowl. I tried the Sierra, afraid that it might overpower the rather delicate sauce, but it blended perfectly adding zing with its spicy ending.

After our tasting, I decided to do a little online research and see how olive oils are judged. I came on this rather informative article from the New York Times which explains a little more in depth about the complexities of olive oil tasting and explained that bite at the back of the throat. It should be noted that Apollo Olive Oils are gaining international acclaim and were judged by a panel from Milan in 2006 to be in the world's top 10 olive oils. Sounds impressive to me. You can read more about that and where to get this exciting taste experience at www.apollooliveoil.com.

I hope you enjoy it,