Tom Mueller's Extra Virginity

Much has been said and written about Tom Mueller’s book, Extra Virginity: The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil, since it was published in late 2011. (You can see it on our Recommendations page).

We appreciated the minutiae and the revealing details in the quest for authentic extra virgin olive oil. We closely read the snippets and stories of olive oil production in Italy, Spain, Australia, and California.

Mueller’s book includes facets of the industry that are very important to us. Sift through and you will find production costs (up to $800 per ton for picking and milling in California), tree to mill timing, and impossibly low prices in restaurant supply chains.

We were thrilled to see the recognition for Villa Magra Gran Cru on the early pages, and we continue to be certain of our mission to import estate bottled olive oils for our customers.

While the farm-to-table route may be a bit long, our goal is to deliver authenticity, excellence, and character straight to your kitchen just as it departed the frantoio in Italy. Some of our producers are so small that they don’t produce enough to put a case in every WF (~ 3oo stores ~ guess!) store across the country. More laughable would be the idea their oils could be stocked in a big box club store.

Through the book, Mueller also reveals the delivery of a tainted bulk bladder of olive oil, described as like a small green whale, which picked up elements of contamination enroute. It took its journey via shipping container which had previously been treated with pesticides. The flexible bladder absorbed the pesticides, and while detected in time, the end result is a lawsuit. That’s why we continue to import oil in glass bottles. While the weight contributes to the cost, the integrity of the product is maintained.

One of the biggest trends in olive oil sales in the U.S. are the bulk oil stores. Our extra virgin olive oil is sold like wine, based on the authenticity, estate, region, terroir, cultivars, and food pairings. The more layers or pathways between tree and table, the greater possibility of deception. Bottles, sealed, labeled, numbered, and leaving the estate just as they arrive to you, carries forth our mission to provide authentic Italian extra virgin olive oil.

So, which Italian extra virgin olive oils does Mueller recommend? Here’s his list. You can find a selection of them on our site. Scroll down to selected brands by nation, Italy:

You can find the following at Olio2go right now (with a few coming soon!): Tenuta Pennita (Alina), Colli Etruschi (more coming soon), the oils of Azienda del Carmine, Cutrera (Primo DOP), Fontansalsa (Gemini), Titone, Villa Zottopera (Rosso), Frescobaldi Laudemio, and the collection of oils from Frantoio Franci.

Let us know what you think!

Frescobaldi First Pressing – fresh, zingy, pungent, aromatic, stunning, peppery, and flavorful! Or fruity, artichoke, herbaceous, complex, buttery, pungent!

Tenuta di Capezzana Olio Nuovo – this oil bring forth various characteristics from year to year. This year’s blend is somewhat milder and buttery than the past year’s selection. Flavor notes: hint of green tea, nutty, buttery, clean, soft, peppery finish. Together with the Frescobaldi, this shows the range of characteristics in Tuscan olive oils.

La Poderina Toscana – continues to be a masterful extra virgin olive oil, crafted by Davide Borselli, and well-deserving of the Association 3E recognition. New Label.

Mascio Novello — from the producers of Principe di Mascio, this rustic oil brings for the raw goodness of olive oil. Packed with intense flavor characteristics, this will enliven flavorful dishes. From Umbria.

Whether accompanying terrific olive oil, truly special balsamic vinegar, artisanal pasta, or tempting biscotti, we’ve found our favorites..beyond Happy Birthday and Merry Christmas…

Thank you to the parents of the bride from the parents of the groom

A thank you for hosting a lovely engagement party

Best wishes for weddings and anniversaries

Get well wishes

Notes sent with souvenirs and reminiscences of trips to Italy

And a few private jokes! (we will laugh, but we won’t tell!)

We exhaustedly share your excitement as hundreds of bottles are already on their way to our favorite customers.

Stay tuned for more reports on the new arrivals!

P.S. We are taking pre-orders for Las Poderina Toscana (remember the Washington Post article?), Cutrera’s Primo from Sicily, and San Macario from Lucca.

Every now and then we find other “Italian” products that we love to share. We carefully select books and newsletters to add to your Italian experience! Take a look at this holiday offer from Dream of Italy.

Christmas is just around the corner and if you are looking for ways to get into the holiday spirit, Italian-style, we think our friends at the award-winning travel newsletter and online store, Dream of Italy, can help. Whether you’re searching for that delicious Italian Christmas recipe or holiday season travel tips, or looking for the perfect Italy travel gift, Dream of Italy can help…

Dream of Italy’s FREE 35-Page Christmas in Italy E-book: Kathy McCabe, editor of Dream of Italy, has gathered her favorite Italian foodies and Italy travel experts to share their tips for enjoying Christmas and New Year’s either in Italy or at home with Italian influences. The FREE 35-page ebook Christmas in Italy is filled with everything from typical holiday recipes to tips for getting tickets to the Pope’s Midnight Mass to the stories behind the holiday traditions of La Befana and eating lentils on New Year’s.

$15 Off a Gift Subscription to Dream of Italy (Includes TWO BONUS DVDs): Kathy McCabe is generously offering Olio2Go readers a $15 discount on a personal or gift subscription to her award-winning newsletter – recommended by National Geographic Traveler, USA TODAY and ABC News. This subscription package includes

• either 5 or 10 new issues over the coming year – delivered online or by snail mail – your choice
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Awarded Best Extra Virgin Olive Oil of the Year

Big news in the world of Extra Virgin Olive Oil!

Italian producer, Azienda Agricola Biologica Titone, has been awarded Best Extra Virgin Olive Oil of the Year by Marco Oreggio and his publication Flos Olei 2012, in an announcement made The Olive Oil Times. In a twist of dates, this award announced in October 2011, is for the Titone Biologica DOP 2010 bottling. If you’d like to taste such a notable award winner, you’ll find it at Olio2go. This is a terrific, organic-certified, olive oil from the Trapani area of Sicily.

Sampled at the show:

Santisi Extra Virgin Olive Oil (Sicily)

Rosselli del Turco Extra Virgin Olive Oil DOP Chianti Classico (Tuscany)

Trappeto di Caprafico Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil, DOP Colline Teatine (Abruzzo)

and the little gem, Livio Pesle Balsamic Vinegar Wine Jelly (Fruili Venezia Giulia)

You can read more about La Poderina Toscana and Association 3E in Olive Oil Tasting: An Italian in California.

For a Free Ranging discussion on olive oil, you may wish to read this. But we must warn you, we are not big fans of the fill-your-own stores. We believe in supporting the small olive farmer through sales of estate-bottled olive oil. Think about it, would you fill wine bottles from a tap at the store?

Grocery shopping in Italy is a fun event – lots to see, different words, interesting dialog in broken Italian

To get started – there are three types of grocery stores in Italy.  First there is the alimentari, which is the equivalent of a neighborhood grocery store, usually very small.  It is common to find a small assortment of items here, but generally you find everything you need:  bread, vegetables, wine, bottled water, pasta, meats, and dried goods.  Next is the coop, or small grocery store, usually found at the edge of the main part of the city, just outside the walls of the old city in many places.  Names you may recognize are found throughout Italy – Conad, EMI, Eurospin are the ones near where I am this week.  These are a bigger version of the alimentari, which means more variety, but these also commonly carry other items such as cheap clothes, cooking utensils, seasonal items, and lots of weird items you would not expect to find in a grocery store.  Conad has some stores that stay open 24 hours now.  The third type is the hypermarket – a very large grocery store with lots of variety and many items that don’t belong in a grocery store, such as cheap power tools.  Many carry electronics either in the store or in separate stores – a sort of mini-mall.  These are usually found in the industrial area, often just off the highway.

Vegetables are found in all three types, and here are some photos of four types of tomatoes, just to give you a sense of what you can buy.  The oblong type is what we would call Roma tomatoes.  The grape tomatoes are pretty big – not what I would call grape tomatoes, but the distinguishing feature is that they are clustered on the vine, rather than loose.  The cherry tomatoes are packed since they are so small.  Don’t forget to weigh the produce before you take it to the checkout!

Of course we checked the olive oil selections.  We are always on the lookout for new olive oils for Olio2go. The neighborhood shops will have the high end stuff.  The big box stores tend to have a wide assortment of good and not so good oil, but not so many very very good oils.  Salumerias also have high end oils as do cheese shops in the tourist areas.  Wine shops carry the high end oils, too.  One of my favorite wine stores is in Verona, and they carry a number of very good oils.  The Marfuga– I first saw in a small alimentari in Spoleto.  In some cases the town has an enoteca that has wine and oil.  For example, the enoteca in Rome near the Spanish Steps that sells Merlano (which we plan to again carry with the 2011 harvest).

As in Washington, DC, if you don’t bring your own bag (a borsa) then you have to buy one or else put the groceries in your pockets (to request a bag, say to the checkout person “ho bisogno una borsa” before he or she slides your items to the end of the checkout lane).  The bags are not expensive – a few euro cents, but after a couple of trips, you learn to bring them with you.  At home, I keep my borsa in the compartment of my Vespa for just such a reason.

If you want a grocery cart, be sure to bring a euro or a 50 cent piece, because the carts are all connected together with a chain.  You just stick the coin in the slot and the lock opens to let you take the cart.  This works much better than in the US because all the carts are always neatly arranged.  You would be frivolous to let your cart roll off toward the cart area because you’d lose your coin.  The Italian method pretty much guarantees that all the carts stay where they should.

Bread in Tuscany and Umbria is usually unsalted, to protest the salt tax imposed by the Pope 500 years ago, or something like that.  Hence the bread can best be described as “insipido”, and it also goes stale very quickly.  So you will need to go shopping every day or get by with eating unsalted, soon-to- be-stale bread.  Or you could go out to eat.

And like everything else in Italy, many of the stores close from noon until 4:oo pm.  The bigger coops and hypermarkets do not close, but sometimes the deli counters are not open during those hours.  It is just part of the culture and rhythm of life in Italy.