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Extra-Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO) Sourcing


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Mccoy: [it can seem difficult to include EVOO] in a heavily calorie-restricted diet where it is desired to maximize the bulk of food to get more satiated. I believe that would be solved by lots of bulky vegetables, one ounce of nuts and one third of a tablespoon of Torre di Mossa EVOO from De Carlo in Italy. That's an EVOO extremely rich in polyphenols.

 

 

I'm going to try to get some the next time I head West.   Money is no object. :Dxyz

 

DeCarlo Torre di Mossa Italian Extra Virgin Olive Oil 2016

  • DeCarlo olive oil was featured in the book Extravirginity
  • healthy antioxidants and polyphenols
  • green color, aromas of olive,grass, artichoke
  • 100% Coratina olives
  • 500 ml, Artisanal olive oil
Just recognized by Flos Olei and named Best Extra Virgin Olive Oil in the World. This is it. De Carlo’s Tenuta Torre di Mossa DOP, stone ground extra virgin olive oil. And, Flos Olei, published by Marco Oreggia is recognized as one of the leading Olive Oil guides in the world. Best of Class: New York International Olive Oil Competition Found in Tom Mueller’s Extravirginity: The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil, then you know about the remarkable efforts of the DeCarlo family in Puglia. Their family’s mill dates back to the 1600s, and extra virgin olive oil production is an art fostered by artisans. This great oil produced from the family’s groves is pressed from only Coratina olives, yielding an excellent oil with a characteristic spicy finish. The DeCarlo family harvests by hand selecting only the best fruit. The olives are processed through a continuous cycle mill and filtered through cotton. DeCarlo Torre di Mossa DOP Terra di Bari possesses healthy antioxidants and polyphenols. We recommend this extra virgin olive oil with grilled meats, mushrooms, grilled bruschetta, and soups.

 

https://www.amazon.com/DeCarlo-Torre-Mossa-Italian-Virgin/dp/B019WW1LJU

 

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Apparently, it's not easy to buy their product even here in Italy. I enquired some time ago and received only a partial response. I'm going to enquire again and eventually go personally there, they are at a 3 hours drive from my place.

 

That oil was posted by Sthira some time ago and its outstanding feature is pretty awesome, at 885 ppm polyphenol content.

 

Sibiriak, I might ship you a sample bottle or even a 'sample' 5 liters can of the local oil I'm eating (I have no polyphenol count on that) but I don't know if it would pass the Russian custom office. And probably it would need a reliable courier as well. Never tried to send anything to Russia, let alone Siberia!

 

This year I bought a large amount of EVOO, next year though I'll probably try to single out the richest ones in poyphenols and cut the amounts and consequently the calories.

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I just spoke with De Carlo, who are going to tell me where I can purchase their Torre Di Mossa before driving directly out there.

 

The lady I spoke with told me that this oil  won the 2017 Montiferru prize in Sardinia. I checked the results, they were 1st in the Hermanu section, which is the section where the highest content in antioxidants (polyphenols and tocopherols) wins. Unofficialy, the coutn was 1000+ ppm

 

 

 

Premio Hermanu: Tenuta Torre di Mossa, dell'Azienda agricola De Carlo sas di Bitritto, in provincia di Bari.

 

This is an excerpt of the rules book

 

 

7. Hermanu - Premio dedicato a Marco Mugelli, stimato Presidente della Giuria Nazionale scomparso nel 2011, riservato agli oli Vincitori e Menzioni d’Onore, da assegnare, secondo i risultati delle analisi chimiche condotte nella sessione autunnale “Shelf Life”, all’olio nazionale e all’olio internazionale con maggior carica di antiossidanti (biofenoli e tocoferoli);

 

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Okay,  so I walk into to the local store which has some imported items,   and I ask,  hey do you got any   De  Carlo  Torre  di  Mossa   Italian  Extra  Virgin  Olive  Oil   by any chance??    Nope!   But  we have some high polyphenol snickers bars!

 

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Sibiriak, good, then you can start your own importing business of De Carlo EVOO Tenuta Torre di Mossa , which won the 2017 Montiferru prize , hermanu section for the highest biophenols+tocopherols content. Sold in the same box together with the snicker bar! Clients would turn out by the thousands!

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Gordo, they just sent me an e-mail:

 

- “Tenuta Torre di Mossa" in bottiglia 50 cl : € 12,50/lt (iva inclusa)

 

That means, half a liter (one pint is 45 cl) is 14 US$ (taxes included) at the present exchange rate. Plus shipping, and they can only ship 6-bottle boxes.

 

I'll see if I can take a day off and drive to their place and buy just one bottle or two.

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Gordo, thanks for the suggestions.From your linked post:
 
Two weeks ago, in Spain we announced the results of the clinical study that was performed in Davis with
olive oil rich in oleocanthal and oleacein. For the first time we were able to show that an olive oil with
oleocanthal+oleacein around 450 mg/Kg (similar to your last year's Classic) can have a similar effect on
humans like ibuprofen <Gordo: I think he meant aspirin?> in the prevention of thrombosis and protection from heart attack and stroke.
 
–Dr. Prokopios Magiatis, Univ. of Athens Department of Pharmacognosy andNatural Products chemistry
 
The olecanthal connection is indeed with ibuprofen,  however afaik it is aspirin that it used to prevent heart attacks etc.
 
Oleocanthal, a phenolic derived from virgin olive oil: a review of the beneficial effects on inflammatory disease. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25019344 PMID:25019344

 

Abstract

Virgin olive oil (VOO) is credited as being one of many healthful components of the Mediterranean diet. Mediterranean populations experience reduced incidence of chronic inflammatory disease states and VOO is readily consumed as part of an everyday dietary pattern. A phenolic compound contained in VOO, named oleocanthal, shares unique perceptual and anti-inflammatory characteristics with Ibuprofen. Over recent years oleocanthal has become a compound of interest in the search for naturally occurring compounds with pharmacological qualities. Subsequent to its discovery and identification, oleocanthal has been reported to exhibit various modes of action in reducing inflammatory related disease, including joint-degenerative disease, neuro-degenerative disease and specific cancers. Therefore, it is postulated that long term consumption of VOO containing oleocanthal may contribute to the health benefits associated with the Mediterranean dietary pattern. The following paper summarizes the current literature on oleocanthal, in terms of its sensory and pharmacological properties, and also discusses the beneficial, health promoting activities of oleocanthal, in the context of the molecular mechanisms within various models of disease.


[..]A recent paper published by Beauchamp et al. [1] pointed out that one of the well-known phenolic compounds present in olive oil [2], the dialdehydic form of deacetoxy-ligstroside aglycone (called oleocanthal by the authors), which had been previously identified as one of the main substances responsible for the bitter taste of olive oil [3], is structurally related to the anti-inflammatory drug ibuprofen. The authors demonstrate that oleocanthal shares with ibuprofen the throat-irritating sensation and, most importantly, the ability to inhibit the cyclooxygenase enzymes COX-1 and COX-2. The authors estimate for oleocanthal a daily intake of 9 mg, corresponding to about 10% of the standard dose of ibuprofen, based on a daily consumption of 50 g olive oil containing 200 lg/ml (200 ppm) oleocanthal. With this evidence in mind, the authors suggested that the cardiovascular-protective effects attributed to the MD [Mediterranean Diet] are in some way related to the regular intake of oleocanthal.

The conclusions made in this article triggered a lot of interest in the mass media of Mediterranean countries where olive oil has always been considered a natural anti-aging  medicine, but it also raised severe doubts in the “olive oil” scientific community. Attributing the healthy effect of a diet to a single compound it is always hazardous, and this is particularly true for the oleocanthal present in olive oil as  evidenced in the following quantitative considerations. 
 
Oleocanthal represents about 10% of the total phenolic compounds and in extra virgin olive oil the concentration of phenolic compounds usually ranges between 100 and 300 mg/kg [2, 4]. Virgin olive oils from unripe olives of different varieties grown in a hot environment with a concentration up to 500 or even 1000 mg/kg have been described in the literature [5]; these oils are very bitter and pungent and therefore do not appeal to most consumers, hence they cannot be found on the market.
 
Furthermore, the actual daily intake of olive oil is nowadays far below 50 g per day [6]. All in all, an optimistic estimate of oleocanthal intake does not exceed 0.9 mg/day. Against this background, the “in vivo” anti-inflammatory effects of dietary oleocanthal cannot be as relevant as hypothesized by Beauchamp et al. [1].

A similar conclusion has been recently drawn about the prevention of in vivo LDL oxidation by phenolic compounds present in olive oil. The maximum concentration of olive oil phenols achievable in plasma cannot prevent LDL damage; in fact, in vivo human studies do not reveal any protective effects of olive oil phenols on LDL oxidisability [7]. 
 
In vitro studies on food compounds should always consider intestinal absorption and biotransformation. The knowledge available on the metabolic fate of olive oil phenolic compounds is still in its infancy. Absorption and bioavailability studies indicate that tyrosol and hydroxyl-tyrosol, namely the phenolic moiety of the olive oil phenol, can be retrieved in plasma and urine after olive oil consumption, whereas no data is available about the concentration of the various aglycons, including oleocanthal [7]. It is worth to notice that acid hydrolysis of oleocanthal would produce the elenolic acid dialdehyde, a compound even more similar  to ibuprofen than oleocanthal itself.
 
There is no longer any doubt that certain foods, particularly olive oil, have the potential to modify physiological body functions, but it should be stressed that foods must be considered using a broader approach considering all the compounds present and not only the single one. In fact, it is very likely that the entire battery of structurally-related phenolic  compounds present in olive oil enhances the anti-inflammatory action of oleocanthal. They may have additive but also synergic or complementary effects on other related physiological functions, such as LDL oxidation or blood pressure.
 
[...]It is a commonly known that investigations on complex food mixtures do not always give as straightforward results as studies on single compounds, and the evidence accumulated to date on the biological properties of foods and their components demonstrates that food is not the algebraic sum of its components. A rigorous application of evidence based medical rules to studies on food could increase the quality of science in this field and would avoid generating false myths among consumers about miraculous foods.

 

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After reading this over and looking up the olive oil, I did end up ordering it from https://www.amazon.com/DeCarlo-Torre-Mossa-Italian-Virgin/dp/B019WW1LJU(much more expensive than the price that the company charges in Italy, which isn't surprising since it's imported into the U.S.)

 

A bit pricey, but it should last me some time as I only use 1-3 tsp. Since this is so expensive, I definitely will ensure to keep it down to 1 tsp so that I get about 100 uses out of the bottle.

 

I'm looking forward to seeing how it tastes compared to regular olive oils that I've used.

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After reading this over and looking up the olive oil, I did end up ordering it from https://www.amazon.com/DeCarlo-Torre-Mossa-Italian-Virgin/dp/B019WW1LJU(much more expensive than the price that the company charges in Italy, which isn't surprising since it's imported into the U.S.)

 

A bit pricey, but it should last me some time as I only use 1-3 tsp. Since this is so expensive, I definitely will ensure to keep it down to 1 tsp so that I get about 100 uses out of the bottle.

 

I'm looking forward to seeing how it tastes compared to regular olive oils that I've used.

 

@ Miraenda: congratulations for the move!! Even though my house is full of EVOO, I too am curious to taste Torre DI Mossa, which sure is to be taken in small doses, like a medicine.

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As I've posted previously: I've long endorsed the fine folks who run Veronica Foods/Delizia Olive Oil, whose oils you can get through any of the client stores listed with the "VF" tag in EVOO author Tom Mueller's database of producers and sources of premium extra-virgin olive oil. These people are absolutely passionate olive oil fanatics — and I know, because I've been geeking out with them on and off on the subject since June, 2010. Part of what they do to make sure they have some of the best damned EVOO on the planet is the obvious: they have intimate familiarity with their sources' operation, and own several of the farms and presses where the oils are made; AND they have the oils tested at reputable labs, including not only the basic IOC stuff, but novel quality tests introduced in Germany and Australia (diacylglycerol (DAG) ratio and pyropheophytin A), as well as concentration of phenolics and oleic acid content. (Indeed, it was the hereditary owner of the company, the eponymous Veronica Bradley, who first alerted me to the huge variation in oleic content in olive oils).

 

Anyone interested in the health benefits of EVOO will want to read this thread, especially this post of mine.

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A while back I bought a full gallon of the highest phenol product from Berkeley Olive Grove:

http://berkeleyolivegrove.com/the-store.php

I've been very pleased with it.  As I had speculated here, this years product is lower in phenols than last year, but still very good.  They are in fact as of today anyway, still selling last years product, and at a discount ($75/gallon).  To recap, that EVOO had the highest levels ever tested for Oleuropein Aglycone (compared with thousands of samples spanning many years).

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As I've posted previously: I've long endorsed the fine folks who run Veronica Foods/Delizia Olive Oil,  ... These people are absolutely passionate olive oil fanatics  ... they have intimate familiarity with their sources' operation, and own several of the farms and presses where the oils are made; AND they have the oils tested at reputable labs, including not only the basic IOC stuff, but novel quality tests introduced in Germany and Australia (diacylglycerol (DAG) ratio and pyropheophytin A), as well as concentration of phenolics and oleic acid content. ...

I can attest to the palatability of their oils. Incredible flavor!

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I received the DeCarlo Torre di Mossa EVOO a couple of days ago, which was really fast shipping at 3 days after order (it wasn't Amazon Prime but the supplier who shipped it). I tried to have it last night with my salmon, but I cannot get the bottle open haha

 

I will try to post back with details on it once I manage to open the bottle. I suppose that can give me some form of additional exercise each night until I get strong enough to uncork it!

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I did manage to open it last night. I had to use a knife as apparently the plastic attaching the cap to the top (it wasn't a cork after all) was preventing me from twisting it open.

 

Sadly, I can't say yet how it tastes. I used a tablespoon in my 3 fried egg and spinach meal, but I used so much pepper (1 tsp) and turmeric (2 tsp) that I couldn't taste the olive oil at all.

 

Next time, I'll try it on something where I can taste it, since it was a mistake to use it for something that had so many spices.

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A while back I bought a full gallon of the highest phenol product from Berkeley Olive Grove: ... They are in fact as of today anyway, still selling last years product, and at a discount ($75/gallon).  To recap, that EVOO had the highest levels ever tested for Oleuropein Aglycone (compared with thousands of samples spanning many years).

 

To be clear, when you say "last year's product," you mean they're selling oil from olives crushed in Fall/Winter 2016/16? No matter how good that oil was when it was fresh, it can be safely assumed to be oxidized at this point, and much of that oleuropein will have degraded into hydroxytyrosol.

 

I did manage to open it last night. ... Sadly, I can't say yet how it tastes. ...

 

Next time, I'll try it on something where I can taste it

 

Try a spoon ;)xyz  .

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Michael R....much of that oleuropein will have degraded into hydroxytyrosol.

 

Of course, hydroxytyrosol has been touted as a key olive phytochemical with many potential health benefits.

----------------------------------------------

 

Hydroxytyrosol and Potential Uses in Cardiovascular Diseases, Cancer, and AIDS

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4428486/

 

Biological effects of the olive polyphenol, hydroxytyrosol: An extra view from genome-wide transcriptome analysis.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24392471

 

Cf. "Similar articles in PubMed"

 

Biological Properties of Hydroxytyrosol and its Derivatives

http://cdn.intechweb.org/pdfs/27043.pdf

 

Dietary phytochemicals and neuro-inflammaging

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27790141

 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

The oleuropein --> hydroxytyrosol  process  applies to table olives as well.

 

Factors influencing phenolic compounds in table olives

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22720792

PMID:22720792

 
Abstract

The Mediterranean diet appears to be associated with a reduced risk of several chronic diseases including cancer and cardiovascular and Alzheimer's diseases. Olive products (mainly olive oil and table olives) are important components of the Mediterranean diet. Olives contain a range of phenolic compounds; these natural antioxidants may contribute to the prevention of these chronic conditions. Consequently, the consumption of table olives and olive oil continues to increase worldwide by health-conscious consumers. There are numerous factors that can affect the phenolics in table olives including the cultivar, degree of ripening, and, importantly, the methods used for curing and processing table olives. The predominant phenolic compound found in fresh olive is the bitter secoiridoid oleuropein. Table olive processing decreases levels of oleuropein with concomitant increases in the hydrolysis products hydroxytyrosol and tyrosol. Many of the health benefits reported for olives are thought to be associated with the levels of hydroxytyrosol. Herein the pre- and post-harvest factors influencing the phenolics in olives, debittering methods, and health benefits of phenolics in table olives are reviewed.

 

 

Biophenols in table olives

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12059143

PMID:12059143

 

Abstract

Unprocessed olives are well-known sources of phenolic antioxidants with important biological properties. Processing methods to prepare table olives may cause a reduction of valuable phenols and may deprive the food of precious biological functions. The present work was undertaken to evaluate table olives produced in Greece as sources of biophenols. Commercially available olives were analyzed for their total phenol content by using the Folin-Ciocalteu reagent and for individual phenols by RP-HPLC. Samples were Spanish-style green olives in brine, Greek-style naturally black olives in brine, and Kalamata olives in brine. Most of the types of olives analyzed were found to be good sources of phenols. Hydroxytyrosol, tyrosol, and luteolin were the prevailing phenols in almost all of the samples examined. High levels of hydroxytyrosol were determined mainly in Kalamata olives and Spanish-style green olives, cultivar Chalkidiki (250-760 mg/kg).

 

Kalamata and Spanish green olives-- love them!
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A while back I bought a full gallon of the highest phenol product from Berkeley Olive Grove: ... They are in fact as of today anyway, still selling last years product, and at a discount ($75/gallon).  To recap, that EVOO had the highest levels ever tested for Oleuropein Aglycone (compared with thousands of samples spanning many years).

 

To be clear, when you say "last year's product," you mean they're selling oil from olives crushed in Fall/Winter 2016/16? No matter how good that oil was when it was fresh, it can be safely assumed to be oxidized at this point, and much of that oleuropein will have degraded into hydroxytyrosol.

 

 

They have the fresh stuff, just milled a few months ago, and they have at a discount the stuff that was milled in Nov. 2015.  Yes, all else being equal, you'd want the freshest possible.  But the phoenol degradation over time is product specific.  The Berkeley oil has been put through some level of longevity testing, it was stored in clear glass and exposed to normal room lighting, and tested after one year showing no decline at all in total phenols according to Dr. Prokopios Magiatis who did this testing at the University of Athens.  But I have no idea what the oleuropein conversion may be...

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I did manage to open it last night. ... Sadly, I can't say yet how it tastes. ...

 

Next time, I'll try it on something where I can taste it

 

Try a spoon ;)xyz  .

 

 

Point taken, although I already take cod liver oil each morning, so I'd rather taste it with a food over directly ingesting another oil by spoon :)

 

I did use it last night. I have been struggling to eat meals recently, and I decided to have some red bell pepper slices with the olive oil (a light meal for dinner). It was delicious and very very light tasting to me. I did sauté the bell peppers in the olive oil, so this wasn't raw on a salad-type concoction.

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For what its worth, very high phenol EVOO generally doesn't win taste tests.  Pungent, bitter, or peppery seem to be common descriptions.  I think CRON crazies like us tend to appreciate things we believe are healthy moreso than other people though, haha.

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Michael R....much of that oleuropein will have degraded into hydroxytyrosol.

 

Of course, hydroxytyrosol has been touted as a key olive phytochemical with many potential health benefits.

 

 I don't know of any good evidence (as opposed to in vitro nonsense or studies involving injected HT) that HT as such (as opposed to its derivatives (like oleuropein)) is of any particular benefit. The same actually applies to any individual EVOO phenolic. What is certain is that its degradation is part of the general process of olive oil decay, and a bad sign if for no other reason than as a marker.

 

 

 

Berkeley Olive Grove ... are in fact as of today anyway, still selling last years product

 

To be clear, when you say "last year's product," you mean they're selling oil from olives crushed in Fall/Winter 2016/16? No matter how good that oil was when it was fresh, it can be safely assumed to be oxidized at this point, and much of that oleuropein will have degraded into hydroxytyrosol.

 

They have the fresh stuff, just milled a few months ago, and they have at a discount the stuff that was milled in Nov. 2015.  Yes, all else being equal, you'd want the freshest possible.  But the phoenol degradation over time is product specific.  The Berkeley oil has been put through some level of longevity testing, it was stored in clear glass and exposed to normal room lighting, and tested after one year showing no decline at all in total phenols according to Dr. Prokopios Magiatis who did this testing at the University of Athens.  But I have no idea what the oleuropein conversion may be...

 

Both from first principles (the Second Law of Thermodynamics) and having read many, many papers on the degradation of olive oil over time, I flatly do not believe that there was no decline in total phenolics, even under optimal storage conditions — and I'm quite sure there would have been degradation from complex phenols to their constituents. IAC, there is a lot more to EVOO quality, freshness, and health benefits than just phenolics: you don't want lipid peroxides or secondary oxidation products of the oil itself, either.

 

 

 

I did manage to open it last night. ... Sadly, I can't say yet how it tastes. ...

 

Next time, I'll try it on something where I can taste it

 

Try a spoon ;)xyz  .

 

Point taken, although I already take cod liver oil each morning, so I'd rather taste it with a food over directly ingesting another oil by spoon :)

 But good EVOO, unlike cod liver oil, actually does taste good.

 

 

I did use it last night. I have been struggling to eat meals recently, and I decided to have some red bell pepper slices with the olive oil (a light meal for dinner). It was delicious and very very light tasting to me. I did sauté the bell peppers in the olive oil, so this wasn't raw on a salad-type concoction.

 

I'm surprised to hear that — tho' frying/sautéing with EVOO does partially degrade its phenolics, which blunts a lot of the bitterness and pepperiness.

 

For what its worth, very high phenol EVOO generally doesn't win taste tests.  Pungent, bitter, or peppery seem to be common descriptions.  

That depends what kind of taste test you mean. Yes, high-phenolic EVOO is pungent (largely oleocanthal), bitter (several complex phenolics), and often peppery (mostly oleocanthal), and certainly most naïve consumers dislike such oils, so if you did a "taste test" in a big supermarket you'd probably find a lot of people not liking it (and also declaring mildly rancid oils to be the best quality (this is a researched fact)) — but "robust" oils routinely win in taste tests by trained tasters in olive oil competitions, and not just within their own category.

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That depends what kind of taste test you mean. Yes, high-phenolic EVOO is pungent (largely oleocanthal), bitter (several complex phenolics), and often peppery (mostly oleocanthal), and certainly most naïve consumers dislike such oils, so if you did a "taste test" in a big supermarket you'd probably find a lot of people not liking it (and also declaring mildly rancid oils to be the best quality (this is a researched fact)) — but "robust" oils routinely win in taste tests by trained tasters in olive oil competitions, and not just within their own category.

 

Yes, that's what I meant, consumer taste tests.  I just cracked open a new bottle today and drank a little by itself, it was peppery, slightly bitter, and burned all the way down, haha - that's my amateur test of quality.  If I give samples to people not used to it, they sometimes choke on it.

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