Michael T. Roberts

There was a popular brand of olive oil in the store, and I was having lunch with a prospective student from my class.

She told me she was an olive oil connoisseur, and she loved olive oil.

That's why she wanted to take the class.

I asked her what her favorite brand was, and she says, oh, I've tested all of them.

This is the particular brand I'm most convinced is the best olive oil.

It just so happened that I knew that that olive oil was like the worst brand on the market.

And I didn't have the heart to tell her.

Never tell a connoisseur that they have bad taste.

There's a trick, though, for those people out there who want desperate to know the chances their olive oil may be adulterated.

You look at the label.

Olive oil products are required to show...

all of the countries of origin.

And I'm telling you, do not buy olive oil that comes from more than one country because you just increase your chances.

It doesn't mean it's adulterated, but you increase your chances because the more it's blended, the more it's played with, the chances of it being adulterated are greater.

So if you have single-source olive oil,

You're probably in a pretty good position.

And it's hard to tell through tasting because olive oil can taste differently depending on the region.

You have more of a bite, for example, from northern Italy.

And so sometimes the real bite, people think, wow, that's bad olive oil.

It's shocking.