Tasting olive oil is like naming the colours
Olive oils have signs of everything that happened, good or bad, during it was still an olive on its taste and smell.
Examples indicating these signs are prepared naturally or chemically and presented to students. Students learn these smells and tastes and when they are presented with them again they can name them just like naming colours.
The more you memorise, more of an expert you are. Those who take courses from authorized institutions and pass exams become certified tasters.
When tasting olive oils we use three of our five senses. Smell, taste and touch. The nose plays an even more crucial role than the tongue in the tasting. Just remember how you couldn’t taste while having flu. We feel the bitterness with taste buds on our tongues and feel the sting in the back of our throat.
We try to ignore the other two of our senses since they could misinform us. these are sight and hearing.
This means if we see the olive oil’s colour or hear about the olive oil beforehand we might be prejudiced about it. Tasting becomes compromised. To ensure the accuracy of tasting multiple tasters participate. Panellists are placed in separate booths where they cannot see each other and wait in silence. Oils sent from producers are distributed to the panellists by the moderator in opaque blue cups. After tasting the olive panellists fill in their tasting report cards without talking. Moderator collects these cards and analyses them using statistical analyses techniques.