It's Here....

First shipment of the 2012 harvest is here!!!!! Look for a store launch this week to get yours!!!!

San Damiano Extra Virgin Olive Oil

I also picked up this olive oil (San Damiano Extra Virgin Olive Oil) at Central Market on the same trip I picked up the previous review. I found this on a discount shelf. This was an interesting oil. The bottling struck me as odd. It was a clear bottle and had a cork as a top. A first from anything else I have seen. All of the bottles had a slight amount of sediment at the bottom of them. I'm not sure if the clear bottle had something to do with that. I do know that a clear bottle is not advisable for any olive oil. but knowing we would consume it fast and the fact that it was cheap I picked it up. For those who don't know, light is olive oil's worst enemy next to heat. So I am not sure why the producer chose this bottle.

Aside from the ill advised bottle and curious sediment, San Damiano Extra Virgin Olive Oil had a nice buttery taste. It had the slight burn of a good extra virgin olive oil. It was deviod of many of the hints of grass, artichoke, and other notes you get out of other olive oils from the region. By the way San Damiano is made from Taggiasaca olives and is milled in Liguria Italy. This was a nice oil if you are looking for something that is not really complex to cook with. Far from lampante but also far from the high quality stuff on the market today.

Trampetti

It's been a while since we posted a review. We are still hard at work and on pace for our 2013 launch. A few weeks ago we went to our local central market (I find myself now going directly to the olive oil section in every grocery store) and bought this bottle. It is Trampetti Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil. It is from the Umbria region of Northern Italy and is milled from Moriaolo olives. Trampetti is picked, milled, and bottled in one day. As you will notice the bottle is wrapped in foil. This is the producers attempt to protect the oil against harmful light that causes olive oil to spoil. It also makes for a nice bottle, which my wife likes!

In terms of taste we really enjoy this oil for a number of reasons. The first is that it is a complex oil that has good grassy notes and a peppery finish, which is a characteristic we prefer. It also has hints of artichoke in it. I did read online that some notice apple hints in it, however we did not get that. I think the thing we enjoy most about Trampetti is that it is very smooth and well balanced.Some very vibrant tasting oils can be over powering. So when Sarah and I have had our fix of really strong olive oil Trampetti is a nice go to for complex flavor but a smoother finish. One of the supplier we are looking at carries this oil and we hope to be able to add it to the line up in the future.

Texas Olive Ranch

On the way to Houston this weekend Sarah and I made our usual stop at Cooper Farms. This place has awesome peaches and peach products. I highly recommend stopping if you are on I-45 between Dallas and Houston. This time we found a new olive oil to test. We got a bottle of Texas Olive Ranch Arbequina variety. Texas Olive ranch is located south of Carrizo Springs in South TX. Here is a little info about their oil from their site:

"Texas Olive Ranch 100% Pure Texas Extra Virgin Olive Oil is pressed from arbequina variety olives grown at our ranch. The arbequina variety was developed in Spain and is especially suitable for growing in the sandy loam soil of the Middle Rio Grande Valley, where the climate is very similar to southern Spain. In addition to the arbequina variety, we grow two other varieties: arbosana, also Spanish in origin; and a Greek variety, koroneiki."

The oil is semi robust with some grassy notes. It has a nice smooth finish to it and the flavor profile is good, but not terribly complex. It also has that slight burn of the throat that you look for in a quality olive oil. Overall a good straightforward olive oil. Here is a link to their site.

http://texasoliveranch.com/index.html

Potential new product and Olive Oil News

While working on FDA importing info and researching some other things I came across this little bit of news. Hopefully more government regulation does not kill us before we get off the ground...It wont but it sure could make things much harder.

http://www.oliveoiltimes.com/olive-oil-business/olive-oil-importers-lobby-congress-over-marketing-orde/27895

On another note we are now planning to visit a co-op in Canino when we make our trip in December. Should be getting some samples to test soon. We will post reviews when we do.

http://www.oliodopcanino.com/

Colli Etruschi

Last week Sarah picked up a great bottle of olive oil in St. Louis. She also picked up some black truffle sea salt. The oil is Colli Etruschi from Lazio. It has a rich aroma and a robust taste with some fruity notes. We had it straight up and we also added it to some fresh ricotta, lemon zest, and black truffle sea salt. A nice way to relax at home after a 14 hour drive home from Gulf Shores!

Closer to launch...

Today we got our official entity acknowledgement from the Secretary of State in Texas. That much closer to our launch!

Welcome to Olio+

Welcome to the Olio+ blog. Sarah and I are in the midst of planning our second trip to Italy in two years and are excited to visit right after the new batch of olive oils for the year come to market. We have rented a great little apartment in the Testravere neighborhood of Rome and are currently looking for a few day trips to mills to potentially select future suppliers. Our goal with Olio Plus is to make smaller estate olive oils available to our friends in the U.S. Initially we may launch with the help of an importer. However, ultimately we will be importing directly from smaller mills.

Why are we doing this? Last year we had the pleasure of visiting a small mill in Tuscany and we were really taken by the quality of product they were producing and the story behind the family producing it. We also are enticed by the thought of having to travel each year to the most beautiful parts of the world for "business"! Sarah is a teacher and I am in sales. We have no plans to leave our day jobs for this venture. But, hopefully we do such a good job that you force us to do otherwise!

We launched this blog to document our story and share all of the cool things and tribulations we will encounter as we launch Olio Plus. Check us out for regular updates!