Important news out today in the olive oil world: A major study finds U.S. consumers often pay premium prices for imported olive oil labeled “extra virgin” when in fact it’s cheaper, lower quality oil.

Tests conducted at two respected laboratories revealed that 69% of the imported oils labeled extra virgin failed to meet taste, smell and chemical standards established by the International Olive Council (IOC) and the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture. Only one of the 10 California-made olive oils labeled extra virgin failed to meet the standards.

The defective oils included many leading and private label brands. They were bought at supermarkets and big box retailers in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Sacramento.

“The oils that failed our tests had defects such as rancidity and many of these oils did not taste good,” said Dan Flynn, executive director of the Olive Center at the University of California, Davis. “Before this study, we had anecdotal reports of poor quality olive oil being sold as extra virgin but now we have empirical proof.”

Full disclosure: California Olive Ranch helped fund the study. But we had no influence on the methodology, brand selection, or outcome.

The study was conducted jointly by the UC Davis Olive Oil Chemistry Laboratory and the Australian Oils Research Laboratory, a government research center and certified IOC testing laboratory.

Our Everyday California Fresh EVOO was among the brands tested. The study confirmed our Fresh EVOO complied fully with the IOC and USDA’s standards for extra virgin olive oil, as well as stricter standards established by the California Olive Oil Council (COOC).

All three sets of standards stipulate that olive oil labeled extra virgin can’t have any “defects.” The imported oils that failed to meet the international standards were found to be too old, of poor quality, and adulterated with cheaper, refined olive oil. The defective California oil didn’t pass taste and aroma standards created by the IOC and USDA.

For the study, researchers bought 52 samples of 14 readily available imported brands and 5 California brands of olive oil sold under extra virgin olive oil labels.

The oils were divided and analyzed by the California and Australian researchers. They tested the oils for their taste, aroma and chemical makeup.

We like to tell people our oil is significantly better and fresher than mass-produced oils imported into the United States from overseas.

For starters, the olives are grown in California’s unique “terroir” and pressed at our state-of-the-art mills here. Our oil doesn’t sit on a cargo ship for several weeks, journeying across the ocean.

Working closely with our skilled “ranchers,” we’re very careful about choosing the optimal time to harvest the olives in the fall. Our employees then get the olives from tree to mill quickly.

How? We plant our trees using a system known as “super high-density plantings.” It allows us to grow the trees in hedge rows of 570 to 670 trees per acre, versus traditional plantings of 100 to 150 per acre.

That way, employees driving our harvesting machines can harvest the trees more rapidly – and deliver the olives within hours to our mills, where they’re crushed into EVOO. It’s this speed which prevents the olive from decomposing before we extract the oil.

Part of the reason bogus EVOO can be sold in this country is because there are no federal standards governing quality. The USDA recently adopted standards meant to ensure the bottle of extra virgin olive oil you buy at the store is genuine and not some fake EVOO.

The new federal standards, however, are voluntary. They go into effect this fall.

Claude S. Weiller
Vice President of Sales & Marketing
California Olive Ranch

It’s always nice to get official recognition for the quality of our extra virgin olive oil. We learned our Miller’s Blend extra virgin olive oil was named one of the top 250 olive oils in the world by a noted German food magazine.

The magazine Der Feinschmecker and “Mastri Oleari,” a prestigious Italian-based group of olive oil “masters,” gave us the award. Der Feinschmecker is considered the equivalent of Food & Wine magazine in Germany. It evaluated 850 EVOO brands from 20 countries in its competition.

To echo our chief executive Gregg Kelley, we’re thrilled and encouraged by the recognition. This was the first year we entered the competition.

“The German consumer is one of the most discerning in the world when evaluating olive oil,” Gregg said. “This recognition continues to validate the quality of our products and the care and effort with which our team of professionals produces our full assortment of extra virgin olive oils.”

Our Miller’s Blend is a combination of oils chosen by our veteran miller, Bob Singletary. Bob picks certain oils to produce aromas of fruit on the nose, buttery mid-palate flavors, and a slightly peppery finish. It’s a robust EVOO offering lush notes of artichoke, green tomato, and almond on the palate. It pairs well with flavorful, spicy dishes, sautéed or slow roasted meats, and smoked fish and salt cod dishes.

Der Feinschmecker, which means gourmet in English, has held the Olio Awards since 2002. The magazine gathers a team of international experts and the magazine’s editorial staff to evaluate hundreds of high quality-olive oils from the United States, Greece, Spain, Italy, and elsewhere around the globe. The June issue of the magazine features the highlights of the 2010 competition.

Bon appétit,

Claude S. Weiller
Vice President of Sales & Marketing
California Olive Ranch

Taste of the Nation Los Angeles brings together dozens of top local chefs to raise money for a good cause. If you’re in town this Sunday, head over to Media Park in Culver City. You can participate in  Taste of the Nation events in other parts of the country, too, from Denver to California’s Napa Valley. It’s all part of a nationwide fundraiser to end childhood hunger.

California Olive Ranch is a sponsor of the event and all proceeds from tickets sales go toward area food banks and hunger programs.

If you go, you’ll be sampling food cooked with California Olive Ranch oil at the booth sponsored by renowned Los Angeles chef Suzanne Goin and three of her L.A. eateries: Tavern, Lucques and the wine bar and restaurant AOC.

At the booth, you can try an olive oil cake made using our extra virgin olive oil and a yellow tomato gazpacho soup finished with a drizzle of our Arbequina EVOO.

Each spring and summer culinary pioneers, celebrity chefs and mixologists, Food Network stars, and thousands more donate their time and talent at nearly 40 events across the United States and Canada. Their goal: raise critical funds needed to help end childhood hunger. The campaign is spearheaded by the national anti-hunger group, Share Our Strength.

Taste of the Nation was launched in 1988.

The campaign has raised more than $73 million for anti-hunger organizations that run or advocate for programs that connect at-risk families with the food they need to thrive.

Claude S. Weiller
Vice President of Sales & Marketing
California Olive Ranch

We headed to California’s Napa Valley last weekend for a conference on healthy eating. One message we heard might surprise: People should say no to low-fat diets.

Instead, nutrition experts told us to eat foods containing “good” unsaturated fats: those found in olive oil and other plant-based oils, as well as nuts and fish. The experts said we should avoid “bad” saturated fats found in red meat and diary products like ice cream;  and we should steer way clear of “very bad” trans fats found in everything from store-bought cookies to French fries.

“It’s important to say yes . . . specifically to good fats,” said Eric Rimm, director of the cardiovascular epidemiology program at the Harvard School of Public Health.  “There’s enough science to say fat is good as long as you have the right kind of fat.”

Rimm was among many speakers a conference co-sponsored by the Culinary Institute of America and the Osher Research Center at Harvard Medical School. Hundreds attended: doctors, nutritionists, and dietitians as well as culinary and food industry officials.

Aside from hearing about health, we watched chefs demonstrate dishes that not only taste good but are also good for you, like a Spanish romesco sauce. (To get an idea of healthy living and eating habits, check out the “Healthy Eating Triangle” from Harvard’s School of Public Health.)

Good fat versus bad fat was a key conference topic.

The Harvard School of Public Health says unsaturated fats are good because they can lower your bad cholesterol and increase your good cholesterol. Unsaturated fats can help your heart and most other parts of your body in other ways, too, says Harvard. Moderation, as with everything, is important.

The experts said the low-fat diets so popular for many years can be counterproductive. For one, you miss out on the benefits provided by good monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats.

“Never use the world low-fat when you’re talking to a patient,” Walter Willett, chairman of the nutrition department at the Harvard School of Public Health, advised the physicians in the audience. “It’s totally misleading.”

“Low-fat by itself does not mean healthy,” added Willett, also a Harvard Medical School professor. “It’s the choice of fats.”

Healthy fats, according to Harvard researchers,  not only can help your cholesterol; but they can help your heart by easing inflammation and stabilizing your heart rhythms.

Saturated fats, by contrast, boost total cholesterol by upping harmful “LDL” cholesterol, says Harvard.

Meanwhile, trans fats, or partially hydrogenated oils, boost “your risk of developing heart disease and stroke,” according to the American Heart Association; the group notes trans fats also are linked to a “higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes.”

Stay tuned for more conference dispatches on good fats and recipes.

Bon appétit,

Claude S. Weiller
Vice President of Sales & Marketing
California Olive Ranch

I’ve just learned that Italy has trained some of its cops to become crack olive oil tasters. Their mission: distinguish between bogus extra virgin olive oil and the real thing.

You may have read that Italy has had a bit of a problem with counterfeit extra virgin olive oil. A couple years ago the Italian police nabbed 39 people and seized more than 25,000 liters of counterfeit EVOO. It was about to be sold in Italy and elsewhere in bottles bearing the labels of phony companies.

If you’re wondering what actually was inside those bottles, Britain’s Guardian newspaper provided this version of the secret recipe: “Oil made from soya beans or sunflower seeds – some of it genetically modified – mixed with beta carotene and industrial chlorophyll.”

The prosecutor who ordered the plant raids said the concoction “of itself” wouldn’t have hurt you.

But it caused huge embarrassment for Italy, which reacted by training a special squad of “gourmet” police officers to sniff out EVOO fraud. No word on whether they used those small blue olive oil cups for tasting when they got their training from Unaprol, a trade group representing Italian olive growers.

The industry association representing Italian olive oil producers did say, however, the fraud was “the tip of the iceberg,” according to the Guardian. You can also check out a fascinating article in The New Yorker about how widespread the problem has become overseas.

To prevent such fraud, California has adopted strict standards governing what can be sold as genuine EVOO. Oil certified as EVOO here must undergo lab and taste tests. California’s standards are stricter than those set by the International Olive Council.

Bon appétit,

Claude S. Weiller
Vice President of Sales & Marketing
California Olive Ranch

Can you guess where California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is holding this bottle of California Olive Ranch extra virgin olive oil?

The “Governator,” as he’s known, was more than happy to be photographed with a bottle of our Arbequina EVOO.  No word yet on whether he’s had a chance to open the bottle and taste the oil.

A quick follow-up to my initial post last week: The Governator was in central California paying a visit to the world’s largest annual agricultural exposition, the World Ag Expo in Tulare.  He was visiting the stall of one of the nurseries we buy our trees from – NursTech Inc. – and the company happened to have a spare bottle of our EVOO.

On a related note, the governor earlier this month officially proclaimed February 2010 as “California Olive Oil Month.”

Bon appétit,

Claude S. Weiller
Vice President of Sales & Marketing
California Olive Ranch

It’s amazing to think Nicole Kidman, Sophia Loren, Tom Hanks and scores of other Hollywood stars will soon get a chance to try our extra virgin olive oil.

Our Olio Nuovo EVOO will be one of the ingredients used to to prepare the dinner at the Golden Globe Awards Show Dinner on Jan. 17, at the Beverly Hilton. The hotel’s executive chef, Suki Sugiura, began planning the menu for the gala event last summer. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association sponsors the Globes. In the photo – which shows our EVOO – Chef Suki is providing a media preview of the dinner he’ll be serving.

The chef — a veteran of four Golden Globe dinners — is a big proponent of our EVOO.

He’s serving Tinseltown’s heavyweights a locally inspired menu showcasing the bounty of California’s agriculture. Every ingredient will come from the Golden State, from our Olio Nuovo to the mozzarella to the beef short ribs.

“This is a message from California,” Chef Suki told the Associated Press. “We’re taking advantage of the fact that some of the finest ingredients in the U.S. are right here in California.”

The chef also is adhering to a California theme of “cooking light.”

“There’s not so much butter. And cream — forget it,” he told the AP.

Instead, according to the news agency: “Fresh herbs and local olive oil add flavor to the appetizer salad and the beef and sea bass entree (that comes from Central and Southern California).”

The entree, for example, will pair our EVOO with an aged balsamic vinegar that accompanies the sautéed sea bass and the herb-braised short ribs.

Chef Suki and his kitchen staff of more than 100 have been extremely busy. Some 1,700 meals are expected to be served during events tied to the Golden Globes. The Jan. 17 gala banquet alone is expected to draw nearly 1,300 movers and shakers. The chef also is responsible for preparing the food for a half dozen parties thrown after the big dinner.

He and his team are prepared to work from 6 a.m. to well past midnight on the 17th.

“It’s the busiest day of the year,” he told the AP.

No doubt.

Bon appétit,

Claude S. Weiller
Vice President of Sales & Marketing
California Olive Ranch

Here’s a major news flash from my desk at California Olive Ranch. We’ve just rolled out a new extra virgin olive oil we call Everyday California Fresh. It’s the nation’s first domestically produced, fresh, high-quality EVOO available in sufficient quantities for the U.S. market – and at mass-market prices.

The oil is fresher than mass-produced oils imported into the United States from overseas. Just open the bottle and inhale the olive aroma. I’m guessing you’ll agree.

What makes our EVOO smell and taste like the olives have just been picked?

First, the olives are grown and pressed in California. I point out to people that our oil doesn’t sit on a cargo ship for several weeks, journeying across the ocean.

And, as I just told someone: If you live in the United States, you can hop on a plane and take a two or three hour flight to visit our olive ranches and mills. They’re located in northern California. No need to buy an overseas plane ticket.

Second, to ensure the oil’s freshness, our employees get the olives from tree to mill quickly.

How?

We plant our trees using a system known as “super high-density planting.” It allows us to grow the trees in hedge rows of 570 to 670 trees per acre, versus traditional plantings of 100 to 150 per acre.

That way, employees driving our harvesting machines can harvest the trees more rapidly – and deliver the olives within hours to our mills, where they’re crushed into EVOO. It’s this speed which prevents the olive from decomposing before we extract the oil.

The result: a great quality oil.

Here’s another thing you’ll notice about Everyday California Fresh. Each bottle shows the date the olives were harvested. We harvest our olives in the fall. So the bottle I’m holding shows a harvest date – stamped on the back – of November 2008. Olive oil typically is best when consumed within two years.

Like our other EVOO, the California Olive Oil Council has certified Everyday California Fresh as a true extra virgin olive oil. It has zero defects.

The flavor profile delivers a distinct fruity nose, grassy and floral notes, and a smooth and buttery tongue. There’s absolutely no bitterness. You’ll also notice a slight peppery finish in your throat and no greasy aftertaste like you’d get from lower quality imports.

Everyday California Fresh is a blend of the three olive varietals we grow in northern California: Arbequina, Arbosana and Koroneiki.

Thanks to a documenting system we use to manage our products’ “traceability,” we can locate the grove of trees on our ranches that have supplied the olives for each bottle of EVOO we produce. No overseas, national olive oil brand can make that claim.

One final note: You’ll notice Everyday California Fresh comes in a new green bottle. The dark green glass prevents light and oxygen from damaging the oil, keeping it fresher longer.

We plan initially to sell Everyday California Fresh at stores in northern California. Our recommended sticker price: $8.99 for a 500 ml bottle, and $11.99 for a 750 ml bottle.

But you don’t have to live in California to try the oil. Anybody can buy it through our online store.

Bon appétit,

Claude S. Weiller
Vice President of Sales & Marketing
California Olive Ranch

A colleague of mine trolling the Internet last night came across an electronic version of an article from this September’s issue of Cook’s Illustrated. I’ve been anxious to read the piece: It details a blind tasting of California extra virgin olive oils the magazine’s staff conducted earlier this year.

I already know the results. Food guru Jack Bishop of Cook’s Illustrated announced on NBC’s Weekend Today show earlier this month our Arbequina extra virgin olive oil was the best California EVOO among the 10 sampled.

We were told the details of the tasting would emerge in the September issue of Cook’s Illustrated. Now that the article is on my screen, I can tell you what the magazine said about our Arbequina: “This extra-virgin oil, made from Arbequina olives, won raves for its fresh, sweet, fruity flavor and pleasing hint of bitterness.”

The article also praised the quality of California extra virgin olive oils in general versus their European counterparts: “The California growers—particularly the folks behind our favorite, relatively affordable oil—have clearly struck something promising.”

To use a term the pros use when tasting olive oil, I’ll “slurp” to that.

Bon appétit,

Claude S. Weiller
Vice President of Sales & Marketing
California Olive Ranch

I tuned in to NBC’s Weekend Today show yesterday and was thrilled to see Cook’s Illustrated magazine has rated our Arbequina the No. 1 tasting California extra virgin olive oil.

Food expert Jack Bishop, who oversees editorial operations at the magazine, raved about our Arbequina during a segment of the show focusing on olive oil and how to taste EVOO.

“We love this,” Bishop exclaimed to Weekend Today co-anchor Jenna Wolfe, as they stood on the set of the show with a bottle of our Arbequina on the counter. “This is California Olive Ranch. It was our top-ranked of the 10 California oils that we sampled.”

Bishop went on to say our Arbequina “tastes delicious.”

“We thought this was as good as any European oil.”

Cook’s Illustrated plans to publish its list of the top olive oils in its September issue.

Bishop – who also is editorial director of the popular public TV cooking show America’s Test Kitchen – praised California’s olive oil industry, likening it to the state’s world famous wine industry.

“The California olive oil industry is sort of like the wine industry was in California back in the 1970s. Nobody’s heard of it. But you’re going to hear about it very soon,” said Bishop. “They’re doing a tremendous amount of olive oil now out in California.”

And Bishop predicted strong growth for California olive oils: “They’re going to be in supermarkets all over the country in coming years.”

I couldn’t agree more!

Bon appétit,

Claude S. Weiller
Vice President of Sales & Marketing
California Olive Ranch