How to Taste Olive Oil
Élodie Marchand · Head of Sourcing, IOC-trained panel taster · Updated 2026-07-19
Pour about a tablespoon into a small glass, cup it in one hand, cover with the other and warm it to roughly body temperature. Smell in short sniffs: you are looking for fresh fruit — grass, tomato leaf, green apple, artichoke, almond. Sip a small amount, then draw air sharply across the oil through your teeth to aerate it. Note bitterness in the middle of the tongue and pungency at the back of the throat. Swallow. Fruitiness, bitterness and pungency are the three positive attributes a trained panel scores; anything musty, winey, greasy or metallic is a defect.
The three positive attributes
Fruity: the aroma of sound, fresh olives, green or ripe. Bitter: a clean bitterness perceived on the tongue, typical of green fruit. Pungent: the peppery, sometimes cough-inducing sensation in the throat, driven by oleocanthal.
A trained panel scores intensity of each on a scale and records defects separately. An oil with any detectable defect cannot be extra virgin, however good its chemistry.
The common defects
Fusty: fruit stored in piles and fermented before milling. Musty-humid: mold on damp olives. Winey-vinegary: acetic fermentation. Rancid: oxidized oil, smelling of crayons or old nuts. Muddy sediment: oil left too long on its own lees.
Learn rancid first. It is the defect you are most likely to meet in a domestic kitchen, and once you can name it you will stop buying tired oil.
Frequently asked questions
- Why do tasters slurp olive oil?
- Drawing air through the oil aerates it and carries volatile compounds to the retronasal passage, which is where most of the flavor is actually perceived.
- Should olive oil make you cough?
- A robust, fresh oil often does. The throat catch comes from oleocanthal and indicates phenolic content, not a fault.
- What color should good olive oil be?
- Any color from bright green to pale gold. Professional panels taste from blue glasses precisely so color cannot bias the judgment.
About the author
Élodie Marchand — Head of Sourcing, IOC-trained panel taster. Élodie buys every oil OlivePrestige sells. She trained on an International Olive Council sensory panel in Jaén, spends eight weeks a year in mills between October and December, and has rejected more lots than she has bought.
