First Fruit? - Ella Rose

 

During the fourteen hour flight from Seattle to Florence, I soothed my discomfort by thinking of all the beautiful things awaiting me in Italy. The soaring cathedrals with their intricate architecture, vineyards marching into the horizon in neat rows, a cone piled high with lemon sorbetto dripping down my fingers.

I did not imagine drinking a shot glass of extra-virgin olive oil, swirling it around until my entire mouth is coated, then spitting it back out. After allowing the oil to settle across my taste buds, marking the tasting notes on a detailed chart.

This was our experience being guided through a professional olive oil tasting at Oleoteca Bartolomei, in Orvieto. Turns out, EVOO is more than just an avocado toast topping to Italians. It’s an integral part of their culture and history.

We recently read a paper by David J. Mattingly called “First fruit? The olive in the Roman world”, where he argues that modern scholars vastly underestimate the significance of olives to the Romans. They were nutritious and easy to preserve, making them a central part of their meals. However, olive oil was consumed at much higher quantities than the olives themselves, making up around 25-40% of calories eaten. And olive oil is not just calorie dense, it’s also a 100% digestible source of vitamins and all fatty acids. It was essential to the Roman subsistence diet.

The modern Mediterranean diet still relies heavily on olive oil. There’s a bottle on the table at every meal, to drizzle atop meals already cooked with it. Refineries like Bartolomei are creating different EVOO blends with different notes and uses, like an olive oil winery. To make these elevated blends, Bartolomei uses modern technology. During our tour, we saw the sleek, stainless steel machinery (Italian made, of course) that crushes, presses, then extracts the oil from olives. While these steps haven’t changed, Roman oil presses were made of stone and wood, and required intense manual labor to operate.

Like Bartolomei, the Romans sent their products abroad to meet trade demands. The remains of Roman oil amphoras have been found in Spain and France. But olive oil was more than food or income, it also provided light, fuel, soap, perfume, medicine, and much more. Rome’s incredible demand for olive oil led them to cultivate areas of north Africa, marginal environments greatly damaged by the vineyards.

The olive tree’s ability to survive even in deserts, or after fires or disease, gave them a reputation of immortality. They are also evergreen trees, so even in winter the Italian countryside is green with olive leaves. There are many stories involving divinely gifted olives, like Athena’s patronage of Athens and the dove carrying the olive branch to Noah. The spiritual importance of olives can be seen today in the trees often planted outside churches.

While I didn’t dream of olive oil on my way to Italy, the tasting at Oleoteca Bartolomei is something I’ll remember for the rest of my life. I’ve gained a deeper understanding of the history and production of extra-virgin olive oil.