r/Glasgow Tools

Agree. Tunisian is also very good. Romans (as in the roman empire) used to get most of their oil from Spain.

Italian olive oil basically lives off the name. It is the classic product with high reputation that they can sell low quality stuff and people still buy it. I am sure there's good Italian olive oil, but I doubt that one gets to Scotland.

The way the EU works is that every country has a quota for products. Since Italy was part of the EU before Spain and Greece, Italy set the leading quota. Italy oil production is actually low compared to Spain. Most if not all of the olive oil produced in Italy is consumed inside Italy. What happens is that Spain produces way more (around 40% of worldwide production) (and better quality), especially they produce more olive oil than what they can produce, but they don't have a high EU quota. So most of Spanish olive oil is sold for cheap to Italy, bottled there and sold as Italian. Because there are many farmers doing this, they give a fuck about the quality.

Olive oil in Spain is a bit like wine, there are different grapes with different flavours. It is not a general standard product. Depending on where it comes from, it can be quite different. Olive oil from Tarragona is quite different to Jaen, for example. It also depends on the processing. it is not the same extra virgin olive oil, than regular olive oil. And it also depends how you use it. Regular olive oil is good for cooking, extra virgin is not (lower gas point, burns, worse taste when cooked). I cringe when I see people cooking (frying) with evo olive oil.

There's nothing better than a bit of toasted bread, with a bit of garlic and olive oil.

source: love olive oil.