What Is Blind Olive Oil Tasting?

What Does Blind Tasting Remove?

A label can create expectations before an olive oil is even smelled.

An expensive bottle may suggest quality. A famous producer may create confidence. An award can establish an expectation of excellence. A high polyphenol number may lead someone to expect intense bitterness or pungency.

Blind evaluation separates those expectations from the sensory assessment.

Instead of receiving the commercial bottle, the taster receives an unidentified or coded sample. The identity can be connected to the sample behind the evaluation process, but it is concealed from the person assessing the oil.

Blind does not mean untraceable. It means that traceability exists without revealing information that could influence the taster's judgment.

Blind Does Not Mean Blindfolded

A professional olive-oil taster does not need to wear a blindfold.

The important control is the identity of the sample. But professional sensory evaluation goes further than simply hiding the bottle.

The International Olive Council publishes methods and standards covering the organoleptic assessment of virgin olive oil, tasting glasses, test rooms and the selection and training of tasters.

These controls matter because sensory evaluation can itself be influenced by the way a sample is presented and by the environment in which it is evaluated.

Blind tasting controls what the taster knows. Standardized sensory analysis also controls how the sample is presented, evaluated and interpreted.

Why Is the Olive Oil Served in a Colored Glass?

Even after the label disappears, one visible characteristic remains: the color of the oil.

Professional olive-oil tasting therefore uses specially designed colored glasses that prevent the taster from judging the oil by its appearance.

A greener oil can look fresher or more intense. A more golden oil can create a different expectation. But color is not itself a criterion for determining whether an olive oil qualifies as extra virgin.

Concealing the color removes another source of expectation before the aroma and flavor are evaluated.

The sample is also warmed under controlled conditions so that volatile aromatic compounds can be perceived more readily. Milan Truffle's guide to tasting olive oil demonstrates the same sequence for consumers: cover and warm the glass, smell the oil, then taste it while paying attention to its sensory characteristics.

What Are the Tasters Actually Evaluating?

Removing the label is only the beginning. The taster still needs to know what to evaluate.

Fruitiness, the set of olfactory sensations characteristic of oil produced from sound, fresh olives, is one of the principal positive attributes considered in virgin olive-oil sensory analysis.

Bitterness, the characteristic primary taste perceived in some virgin olive oils, and pungency, the tactile stinging sensation characteristic of certain oils, are also positive attributes evaluated during tasting.

Tasters also look for sensory defects. Rancid, musty and fusty characteristics are examples of faults that can affect the classification of a virgin olive oil.

This is why blind tasting is more than deciding which oil someone personally likes best. Preference and classification are different questions.

A taster may personally prefer a delicate oil to an intensely bitter one. That preference does not determine whether either oil satisfies the sensory requirements of the extra virgin category.

What Does Blind Tasting Have to Do With Extra Virgin Olive Oil?

Sensory evaluation is part of the classification of virgin olive oils.

For an oil to satisfy the sensory requirements of the extra virgin category, the median of defects, the statistical value representing the panel's assessment of the principal sensory fault, must be zero, while the median of the fruity attribute must be greater than zero.

That determination cannot be replaced by the reputation of the producer, the appearance of the bottle or an analytical number printed on the label.

It also explains why sensory evaluation and laboratory analysis should remain separate forms of evidence. A chemical result can measure characteristics such as free acidity or phenolic compounds. It cannot tell the sensory panel what it should perceive.

As explained in What Makes Olive Oil Extra Virgin?, chemical and sensory requirements answer different parts of the classification question.

Does Blind Tasting Make the Result Objective?

Blind presentation removes important sources of bias, but hiding the label alone does not create a standardized sensory assessment.

Professional evaluation also depends on trained tasters, defined procedures, controlled sample presentation and a method for interpreting the individual assessments.

This is the difference between conducting a blind comparison at home and participating in a formal sensory panel.

A home tasting can be educational. Comparing unidentified oils can reveal how strongly packaging, price and reputation affect expectations. But personal preference should not be confused with formal classification.

The purpose of a standardized blind evaluation is narrower: give the oil itself as much influence over the sensory assessment as possible while reducing information that does not belong in that judgment.

The Oil Before the Story

Origin, cultivar, harvest date, laboratory analysis and producer history can all provide valuable information about an olive oil.

They should not tell a sensory panel what it is supposed to taste.

Blind tasting separates the evaluation of the oil from the expectations created by the bottle.

The sample can be identified after the assessment. During the assessment, what matters is what the trained taster finds in the glass.