for as long as I can remember I have
always wanted to see an olive harvest
and to find out what it takes to make
truly great extra-virgin olive oil while
you and I are about to do just that
welcome to the world's biggest olive oil
producer Spain
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this is high-end a province of southern
Spain even if you've never heard of
high-end you have likely tasted its
olive oil with over 66 million olive
trees this single pocket of Andalusia
produces as much olive oil as the whole
of Italy in fact Spain produces half of
all the olive oils sold in the world
olive trees have covered high Ann's
hillsides for thousands of years
Andalusia was the olive basket of the
Roman Empire to every corner the Roman
army conquered it brought olive oil made
here olive oil was like crude oil to the
Romans it helped sustain the Empire's
Imperial dominance for centuries because
it was not only a primary source of
nutrition it was an indispensable fuel
for lamps it was medicine it was
cosmetics and perfume it really is
impossible to exaggerate the monumental
importance of olive oil throughout human
history both the oil and the olive tree
were sacred - to the Romans and to the
Greeks and to the Egyptians before them
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in fact the olive tree is the oldest
cultivated fruit tree known to man
it can survive for centuries in dry
craggy places completely abandoned and
like a Phoenix can even revive after
burning the world's oldest olive trees
in Lebanon are believed to be six
thousand years old and their fruit is
still harvested and made into
award-winning oil today this tree and
high n is thought to be around eight
hundred years old
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olive trees are unmistakable with your
trunks all twisted and gnarled and their
silvery green leaves shimmering in the
sunlight
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the color is actually a clever
adaptation while the tops of the leaves
are glossy green the undersides are
covered in microscopic silver scales to
help the leaves of lock in their
moisture
there are roughly 700 known oliver i
''tis around the mediterranean chronic
Habra legend a Sevilla oh he blanca
Manzanilla are just some of the ones
grown here in spain the most common
Pequot is named for its plenty tip and
yields a high amount of intensely
flavored oil
[Applause]
when people realize that we have more
than 700 different varieties these
really enrich the concept that is one of
the best condiments this is Francisco
vanyo his olive heritage goes back to
the 18th century he's one of two
separate olive oil producers helping me
explore extra virgin here in Spain the
other is Lola Segura whose family has
grown olives in high-end since 1640
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when you think of olive oil perhaps you
think of a particular taste right well
each single variety of olive contains
its own unique flavor of oil and even
then there is a diversity of flavors
among the same single variety from one
farm to the next from one harvest season
to the next it depends on a million
different factors how much Sun the trees
got how much water how ripe the olives
were how are they harvested it all
impacts the final flavor of the oil
these factors affect the development of
polyphenols the antioxidants that give
olive oil its flavor and healthful
qualities like supporting the heart and
the immune system now just like wine tea
and coffee you can buy olive oil that is
a blend of varieties in fact this is the
most common extra-virgin that you can
buy in the store but you can also find
specialty bottles of single varietals
whichever oil you choose it all starts
the same way with the juice of the olive
fruit seriously that's what olive oil is
a fresh fruit juice and because it's
fresh we should be enjoying it without
delay
seriously we wouldn't put our orange
juice in the pantry and then drink it
after a year why are we doing that with
our extra-virgin olive oil
there are so many things that we've been
getting wrong about extra virgin olive
oil myself included so I've made a
separate video with all my top olive oil
tips how to store it properly how to
choose the right olive oil for what
you're doing in the kitchen so look out
for that one I'm going to put the link
in at the end of this video but first
let's break down the different grades of
olive oil
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virgin olive oil means oil that's been
extracted from the fruit at low
temperatures without using chemicals
extra virgin olive oil is the highest
grade of virgin to classify as extra
virgin it has to meet a set of physical
and chemical standards now if a bottle
simply says olive oil then it's been
will find with heat or chemicals to
create an oil that's stripped of colour
flavor or aroma that refined oil gets
blended with virgin or extra virgin
olive oil to add back in the color
flavor or aroma
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Spain produces all these kinds of oil
but we are taking a deep dive into extra
virgin in high-end the harvest typically
runs from October to January but we're
here for the early harvest the most
urgent part of the season because these
are the olives that are made into
premium extra virgin you see making
great olive oil is a race against time
the fruit begins to degrade the second
it's picked so producers try to move it
from the field to the mill in under
three hours heat is the enemy of flavor
so you want to cool your olives down as
quickly as possible
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to understand what's at stake for these
farmers first you need to know some
olive basics this green olive and this
dark olive these are not different
varieties this is the same olive a
different stage of ripeness
so all olives start out green and as
they ripen they get darker olive oil is
made from olives at every stage of
ripeness in fact the more ripen olive is
the more oil it contains but the more
mellow the flavor
if the olive is green it contains less
oil but a stronger more intense flavor
now the perfect moment for extra virgin
is when the tree contains olives that
are both sort of greeny yellow and
olives that are just starting to darken
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but it gets even more nuanced than that
two olives that may look exactly the
same color on the outside aren't always
at the same level of ripeness on the
inside olives are not a fruit you can
just pluck from a tree and taste
they're full of bitter compounds that
make them totally unpalatable
that's why table olives undergo several
stages of brining to eat out that
bitterness so how do producers like Lola
and Francisco know when their olives are
ready to be harvested
Oh sir vamos el momento Optimo
demography on viendo el fruto el calor
que tiene c epitome goon analysis en el
laboratorio para determinar el momento
brazo que tiene esta sea tuna al finales
nicole este momento Mexico cada Greek
food or quiere tener SAA names to
operate a ser único that quest for
singularity mix this moment especially
fraud nada we're mo estar toda la noche
in kita visit ando el campo murano el
tiempo de verano llovera nervioso linear
bios
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this harvest the olives ripened earlier
than usual so several producers
including Lola and Francisco who jump
into action
the harvesters split into groups with
each group working on a single tree at a
time they spread out nets to catch the
olives as they remove them from the tree
either by the traditional Barra
motorized rakes handheld shakers
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or by a shaker vehicle I tried my hand
at lebara pain angle or body strength
only 66 million trees to go one down
oh but the bhava was nothing I also
tried the hand held shaker I want to try
this for myself okay okay I feel
powerful now okay okay so I'm going to
try to get this hook on the branch
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when you see the magnitude of the labor
that goes into the harvest you see my
extra-virgin costs more the olives
at this early stage of maturity
absolutely cling to the tree and after
all this effort the return is shockingly
small children are one de vente I think
when tequila toffee tuna the DF kilos
deity tuna tendremos only tro una
botella solo if the olives are more
mature you get more oil
yes Tamas medoras say viene el Doble
justo lovely
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the olives are carted from the field to
a central collection point
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here the stems leaves and debris are
sifted away from the fruit the olives
are washed with water and now they are
ready to enter the mill to be crushed
now notice I said crushed not pressed
pressing is the antiquated way of making
extra-virgin so many years ago olives
were ground between stones like this and
the paste was then pressed between
burlap mats to extract the oil now today
a tiny number of producers do it that
way and it's none of the extra virgin
that you're buying in your stores these
days extra-virgin is made with
surprisingly modern technology in super
hygienic facilities and we're about to
go inside one right now okay cut what
well on my extra-virgin olive oil it
says cold-pressed so what does that mean
if it's not pressed that's actually a
really good question cold-pressed is
just a marketing term technically all
extra-virgin is cold pressed or cold
crushed heat is the enemy of flavor so
those flavor compounds in the olives
start to break down under excessive heat
but you know cold-pressed sort of
conjures up that romantic image of every
Mediterranean village having their own
Olive Press but wait can I go now
there's an audience waiting to see how
extra-virgin is made oh right okay
action
come on guys
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the first step is milling inside this
rotating stainless steel drum our
hammers that crush and grind the fruit
the olive paste moves into a Malak sir I
love that name
the Malak sir churns the paste so that
micro droplets of oil coalesce producers
closely monitor this stage using a
thermometer to make sure the paste does
not exceed 80 point six degrees
Fahrenheit the paste is then pumped into
a spinning centrifuge that separates the
oil from the pumice that's the skin
flesh water and pits what pours out of
that centrifuge is well liquid gold
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I have been waiting the whole time the
whole visit for this moment let's taste
it
okay I finally get what they're saying
when they say fresh fruit juice my mouth
is filling with so much spice so much
flavor right now and the smell I wish
you guys could smell this it's amazing
going back in the fresh extra-virgin
goes immediately into storage tanks to
limit its exposure to oxygen and from
the tanks the oil is siphoned into
bottles
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Lola and Francisco's Mills are
considered small at least compared to
this place the world's largest olive oil
mill it's run by a co-op that mails
bottles and sells oil produced by
thousands of farmers this co-op model is
how most of the olive oil is produced in
Spain
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so now you know about the end product
but what about how it all begins
Olive how does it grow you can grow a
tree from a fresh olive pit but farmers
typically plant young trees that began
life as cuttings in a nursery the
cutting taken from a mature tree grows
its own roots and establishes itself as
its own tree
it can take ten years before a tree will
produce a good-sized crop those olives
begin as flowers in the spring which
require pollination wind typically does
the job but the butterflies are happy to
help - baby olives grow from the
pollinated ovaries swelling up as the
summer goes on meanwhile farmers monitor
their orchards for pests that might lay
their eggs in the growing olives chomp
on the tree leaves or spread disease of
course if cared for well we know these
trees can live for hundreds of years
which makes these producers more than
farmers they're stewards you know I I
noticed so much green around here this
does very much right here feel like a
forest it is a forest forest we are not
only re cultures but at the same time we
are taking care of thousand and thousand
of actors yes and it's full of life yes
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so I've been researching this episode
for the past ten months and I have to
come clean I'm astounded by how little I
knew about an ingredient I use in my
kitchen almost every day but I'm also
excited about how limitless the world of
extra virgin olive oil feels to me now
that I've just cracked open the door to
it whether it's extra virgin from Spain
or Australia or Croatia each bottle is
different from the other influenced by
the terroir and the unique vision of the
producer it's a lot like wine only of
course wine gets better with age and
extra virgin is exactly the opposite
which is why you need to know how to
store it and how to choose the right
bottle in the first place I've got you
covered look out for my companion video
you'll be able to click it right here
when it goes live until then from the
world capital of olive oil hasta la
vista
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