Aussie Olive oil

Sometimes I receive packages in the mail and I should have posted much earlier about the wonderful Cobram Estate olive oil that arrived before Christmas. However, mid December in Canada is all lard and duck fat in my kitchen, I rarely reach for the olive oil before the spring.

Australia is probably not the first place that springs to mind when you think of olive oil, but much of the country has a Mediterranean climate perfect for growing olives. This was my first encounter with an olive oil from my home state Victoria. I didn't want to put it in a salad dressing, I was dreaming of slices of ripe tomatoes and burrata garnished with basil leaves. Well, despite a weekend of spring like weather in March, local tomatoes are still a distant dream so I decided to slurp the oil straight from a glass.

Yes, the best way to taste olive oil is to taste it like wine. Remember most of what you taste is not on your tongue, but from you sense of smell. And it is not only your nose does the work, you also receive aromas from your mouth, retronasal olfaction. This is why you should suck in air when you taste wine or olive oil. It carries the aromas into your nasal cavity from your mouth.

This oil was fresh, grassy, with a smell of green olives. There was just a hint of bitterness and slight peppery effect as I swallowed, not enough to make me cough, and the finish was long. It was the classic oil from Cobram Estate that you can use for everything, from cooking to dressings, but I am keeping my bottle in a dark cool place until the local tomatoes appear.

There is a design feature with the bottle that I really like, a pop up pouring spout. It pops up when you unscrew the top, and goes back into the bottle when you put the top back on. Ingenious!

So look out for Australian olive oil and give it a try. Depending where you live you might even be able to find this one. Thank you Ashley for introducing it to me.