The Freshest Product: Making Olive Oil
Is Your Olive Oil Still Good? The Taste Test
I received a warm welcome when I entered Infuse Me. Jennifer Driscoll, co-owner with Gail Place, walked me through the production process of their olive oils. She gave me a little plastic cup and told me to drink it so it hit the back of my mouth. I was supposed to taste the Picual oil, which has a pepper taste. That’s what you’re looking for to make sure your oil is not rancid. Fascinating! I tried it when I got home and didn’t get the peppery taste. No wonder it tasted funny, even though the expiration date hadn’t passed yet.
Which Olives Are Best for Olive Oil?
Green olives provide the antioxidants that are good for your health, but it takes more olives to extract the oil. Black olives are easier to process because you get more oil, but they’re also the most ripe so they don’t last as long once they’re processed. Infuse Me uses green olives so you always get the freshest product. They take care in storing their product too, which is why you’ll find the store may be cooler than others in the mall.
Grocery Store Olive Oil
In grocery stores they don’t tell you when the oil was pressed because that will give a good indication of how old the oil is and long it’s been sitting in a warehouse. Most places process their olives within 24 hours; Infuse Me presses their olives within 2-4 hours of been picked and they must be crushed on site.
You get a lot of information at Infuse: the smoke point for cooking and its shelf life, which you won’t find in the grocery store.
The Flavor Experience
A Truly Appealing Tasting Experience
Their goal is for customers to have fun. They want to be that specialty shop that inspires people to cook and experiment. It definitely is that!
There’s a jar in the back with bread cubes to sample the olive oils and vinegars, which I really appreciated. Just using a spoon would be unappealing when tasting vingear.
An Inspiring Variety
I wandered around, trying different flavors. I liked the red apple vinegar and walnut oil but the flavor that stood out the most was black cherry vinegar and blood orange olive oil. You must try this! I shared some with Gail, the co-owner, and she had to stop and go ‘whoa, that’s good.’
I felt like I found my new salad dressing home! Or flavoring for rice or chicken. Hm…
The flavor list is amazing! I can’t wait to go back and try some more like White truffle olive oil, Maple olive oil, dark chocolate vinegar, and even blackberry ginger vinegar.
A Bottle Size to Fit Your Needs
One of my favorite features of their product is that they carry four different sizes. As Jennifer said summed up well: I might really like a flavor but would I use it every day? Do I want it to sit in my cabinet? At Infuse me you don’t have to. They carry sample sizes so you can have small amounts of a flavor.
This is great for a number of reasons. It’s great for people who don’t cook a lot or want to experiment without wasting product. I can also see this being a great stocking stuffer or secret santa gift.
Gifts and More
Specialty Food Gifts
They don’t just carry olive oil and vinegar though, they also carry pasta made in small batches so you get the freshest, made to order dry pasta. I particularly was inticed by the artichoke and lemon and porcini mushroom. They just got in non-gmo avacado oil too. You can find olives hand picked from Spain, curry powders and spreads, bbq sauces from a company who participates in competitions, and award winning tapenades.
Want to learn more? They have events at the store. Every 2nd Saturday is a food and wine tasting. Bring a friend or your family and enjoy!
Check out Infuse Me in the Powerhouse Mall.
