u/MasterEVOO

There's an old way to size up a fresh olive oil. It is said that after taking a small sip, you can count how many times it makes you cough. One cough is fine, but three-cough oil is considered better.

The thinking behind it is that the pepper at the back of your throat is a compound called oleocanthal. So the burn isn't acidity or a flaw, but it can tell you two things: high polyphenols, the antioxidants everyone's after, and freshness, since oleocanthal fades as the oil ages.

Of course, it doesn't replace what a lab test can do. And it can be slightly misleading if you take it too seriously, considering the cultivar. A mild arbequina won't cough you out even when it's excellent. Everyone's throat is different too, but it's a quick, fun check on whether a bottle is alive or flat.

Have you ever tried it?

Food Network put five Pompeian oils to the test and matched each one to what it does best. Here's a quick summary.

Smooth Extra Virgin is best for grilling. "Bright, slightly citrusy notes" and a 380-410°F smoke point, so it handles medium heat without stealing the show.

Light Taste is best for frying. Lightest in color and flavor with "almost floral notes," gives crispy results without the grease.

Fresh & Fruity Extra Virgin - best for roasting. Arbequina, hojiblanca and koroneiki olives for a "peppy sweetness." Made veg "exceptionally crispy" without tasting oily.

Mild Taste is best for marinades. Despite the name, "stronger, more herbaceous notes." Plays especially well with soy-based sauces.

Robust Extra Virgin - best for dipping & drizzling. "Thick and creamy" with the strongest olive taste. Too intense for cooking, perfect for bread and finishing popcorn.

Which of these do you already keep in your kitchen?

Monounsaturated fats (MUFAs) are a type of dietary fat found abundantly in olive oil. They are generally considered heart-healthy fats, and they support a balanced eating pattern most clearly when they take the place of saturated fats rather than simply getting added on top of them.

According to the American Heart Association, replacing saturated fats with monounsaturated fats can lower the risk of heart disease.

In practice, this is less about tracking numbers. You can still get the benefits if you just switch to healthier oils. Olive oil is the easiest example, but avocados, nuts, seeds, and the oils made from them all carry monounsaturated fat, so the change can look like just cooking in olive oil instead of butter, dressing a salad with oil and vinegar instead of a cream-based dressing, or keeping nuts around instead of a snack that leans on saturated fat.

If you've made this switch intentionally, how did you do it?

Not asking about the super niche small producers, I want to look into that later. Would be even more helpful if you know the best options in Germany specifically.

I think olive oil is one of the best substitutes for vegetable oil when sautéing because it offers excellent versatility and can usually be substituted using a 1:1 ratio, which gets helpful especially if you are new to olive oil. For instance, for most recipes, Pompeian smooth EVOO has a delicate olive flavor that complements vegetables, seafood, chicken, and everyday meals, or light taste olive oil is another tasty option if you are looking for something tasting closer to vegetable oil.

What is your n1 substitute for vegetable oil?

Bread dipping works best when the oil complements the bread rather than overpowers it.

Robust EVOO + Rustic breads. Crusty sourdough and whole-grain loaves pair exceptionally well with robust olive oils. Their hearty texture and tangy flavor can stand up to grassy, herbaceous oils without becoming overwhelmed.

Smooth EVOO with Softer breads like Ciabatta, focaccia, and dinner rolls. The gentler flavor profile allows the bread’s texture and subtle sweetness to remain part of the experience.

However, there’s no single correct oil flavor intensity for pairing with bread, so it ultimately comes down to what you find enjoyable.

Tasting olive oil sounds fancy, but it takes about a minute and no special equipment. Here's a simple way to do it at home:

1. Pour a small amount into a little cup.

2. warm it. Cup it in your palm to release the aromas.

3. Smell. Breathe in fresh, green, grassy notes.

4. Sip & slurp. Draw in a little air to coat your palate.

5. Enjoy the finish. Notice the clean, gentle pepper at the end.

Do you do this quick tasting with our olive oil?

https://preview.redd.it/kgc8z97y1rih1.jpg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ed902f83eb4fc8e77ae2f55acc9447650e46767b

Hi Reddit,

I’m Jordan Riddick from Pompeian, and I’m here for an AMA!

I’ll be answering questions from 10am -12pm EST about olive oil, cooking, branding/marketing, and anything Pompeian!

Ask me anything!

I’ll start answering at 10am EST. Look forward to chatting!

Italy took 166 of the 698 awards.

Croatia took 128, and 103 of those were Gold.

Spain, which makes roughly half the world's olive oil, finished fifth with 85.

Monovarietals converted at 78 percent, blends at 63.

Which country's oil do you reach for most?

Hundreds of thousands of olives get cleaned and pressed in a day, and the mills have to stay running the whole time. The people doing that work have honed the craft over many years, and that is what holds the quality steady.

The approach is hands-on and nose-forward. Olives are picked at the very peak of freshness and pressed at state-of-the-art mills, with master tasters and blenders watching over it. The checking is done by smell and taste, on oil coming in from the farms, so that every bottle lands in the same place.

At the mill, freshly picked olives are ground by huge stone wheels or a stainless steel crusher until flesh and pits become a smooth paste. That grinding happens at a low temperature to preserve the quality of the oil, and it is what first cold pressed refers to. Pressing releases a mixture of oil and water, and the water is removed by centrifugal force.

From there the oil is only filtered, which takes out residual moisture and small particles of flesh or pit. Nothing else is added to it, since it is treated as a natural juice of olives.

Hello, r/pompeianoliveoil!

We’re excited to announce that we’ll be hosting a live Ask Me Anything (AMA) this Tuesday 10am-12pm EST

📅 Date: Tuesday , August 11th
🕒 Time: 10am -12pm EST

The official AMA thread will be posted shortly before the event. Feel free to stop by then, ask your questions, and join the conversation live.

We look forward to chatting with you!

>A good price can draw customers in, but the best types of olive oil have a flavor that people stick around for. As one Redditor says, "I have several Italian friends, hard core, proud, and old school. They say the same thing, every Italian (in the U.S. anyway) worth their salt uses Pompeian for best flavor."
On a different Reddit thread, another chimed in on a post asking if Pompeian was a good brand, saying, "Pompeian is one of if not the highest quality for price olive oils on the market. It's the #1 olive oil brand in the USA. No, it is not a boutique farmers market oil, and it does not pretend to be. It is positioned as a reliable everyday olive oil that people can cook with and use daily."

I keep seeing more and more discussion about seed oils on Reddit, and increasingly in real life too. I recently read an article about “microsnobbery” and found it funny that olive oil was one of the examples.

The author quotes Victoria Wolff, who wrote that people are now judged by “your children’s lunch boxes, whether your roses are native and if your olive oil has a story.”

Of course, not every criticism of seed oils is snobbery. I have fairly strong opinions about them myself. But sometimes the discussion seems to take a side road and become less about the oil itself and sounds a bit more about what someone’s choice supposedly says about them.

Have you noticed this too, or does the discussion leave the same taste in your mouth as it does in mine?

It's interesting how much this shifts from country to country. Greece is the highest in the EU at about 9 kg a person a year, which is roughly 10 litres. The US is a bit over 1.

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The olives in a jar and the olives behind your oil are mostly different varieties, bred for opposite things.

Table olives are grown for flesh. Big fruit, small pit, skin that survives brine. Gordal is the classic one, and it has very little oil in it, which is why nobody mills it.

Oil varieties don't need to look like anything. Picual, Arbequina, Koroneiki. Small, oily, nothing on them worth eating.

Harvest splits the same way. Table fruit is picked by hand, since a bruise kills the price. Oil fruit gets shaken into bins.

There's some overlap. Hojiblanca for example goes both ways.

Then the money. Pretty fruit goes to the jar, the rest goes to the mill. A lot of oil is made from olives that didn't make the cut.