|
Rating:  -
This is a superb product! Excellent service and packaged with care. I used to purchase this high quality olive oil at the Farmer's Market in San Francisco but have recently relocated to the East Coast so I now must have it shipped to me. Shipping is less when you order in multiple quantities. I will definitely order from this vendor again since I was pleased with the transaction. Thank you very much!
Rating: -
Great price, considering the size, it is light, but complex, and has been brilliant with everything I've used it on - chicken, brussel sprouts, asparagus, you name it. Well worth it.
Rating: -
The problem with most of today's olive oil is that it is rarely produced in the old way, which is more time consuming and expensive. Due to the increasing demand for olive oil, the trend has been to reduce production costs by moving toward more automation and concentration of production in ever larger installations. These modem factories extract more oil more cheaply, but their processing methods substantially reduce the nutritional quality of the oil.
To reduce costs, olives are machine harvested along with leaves and twigs. Olives that have dropped on the ground, which can be said to contain bad oil, are often mixed with the good ones. They are shipped in all kinds of containers, many of which are poorly ventilated, and heaped in large piles where the olives are stored for too long and often become moldy. The oil is then extracted in a continuous centrifuge where hot water is used to help separate out the oil.
Antioxidant polyphenols are soluble in water and are washed away in this process, thereby lowering the shelf life and the nutritional quality of the oil. Italy alone produces 800,000 cubic meters of waste water per year from this process. Because substantial amounts of antioxidants are washed away, factory produced olive oils have a short shelf life of only months, whereas real olive oil lasts for two to three years.
Most people think that by purchasing "extra virgin" olive oil they are getting a high quality oil. Unfortunately, in most cases, this is not true. It's more complex than that. A label reading extra virgin is no guarantee of quality. For one thing, nowhere does it say that extra virgin olive oil has to be made 100% from olives.
Lower quality oils can be refined to bring the acidity down so they can be labeled as extra virgin. But now the oil has been refined, and that's not what you want. That's why being labeled extra virgin is no guarantee of getting high quality oil, which has not been processed in ways that reduce its nutritional value. To complicate matters even more, the term "extra virgin" has no official meaning in the United States. The U.S. is not a member of the International Olive Oil Council. So, olive oil sold here can be labeled extra virgin without meeting the accepted international standards.
Another reason why you can't trust extra virgin olive oil is exemplified by a problem that manifested last year, and may turn out to be the biggest food fraud of the 20th Century. Despite the fact that details of this scandal have been published in Merum, a Swiss-German magazine, and in Italian journals such as Agra Trade, and the newspaper Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno, this information has been successfully suppressed and is known to only a handful. Investigators are gathering evidence indicating that the biggest olive oil brands in Italy have for years been systematically diluting their extra virgin olive oil with cheap, highly-refined hazelnut oil imported from Turkey. International arrest warrants have been issued and so far documents indicate that at least ten thousand tons of hazelnut oil are involved. As much as 20% hazelnut oil can be added to olive oil and still be undetectable to the consumer. In fact olive oil labeled "Italian" often comes from Turkey, Tunisia, Morocco, Spain, and Greece. Considering what has happened in Europe, where there are strict regulations, imagine what can happen in California where there are no regulations. Apparently, more oil is "produced" in California than there are olives available. The truth is, most of the extra virgin olive oil on the market does not supply all the nutritional value and health giving properties that we have a right to expect from olive oil.
The bottom line is that modem, factory-produced olive oil has been stripped of its health enhancing nutrients, and the task of selecting a high quality oil has been made very difficult.
Bariani olive oil is produced by the Bariani family on a small farm in the central valley of California. Their olives are grown without pesticides. They are hand picked from the trees, carefully washed and dried, and milled with a stone wheel within 48 hours of harvesting. It is pressed in a hydraulic press, collected in stainless steel vats, decanted, and bottled. This first cold pressed oil is the real stuff and retains all the natural flavor and goodness.
Rating:  -
This oil is so good. We are trying to do dairy free for allergy reasons, and this has been a good substitute for toast. Good taste: I use it for raw use, rather than cooking. Like the pour spout, too.
Rating: -
From gourmet chefs to raw vegans alike, this olive oil is the choice for anyone who simply wants the best. We don't carry it in my city, and I gladly special order it online because it's just that pure and great tasting.
|
