Extra Virgin Olive Oil Savantes - tasting the World's best extra virgin olive oils!

Ministers and Ambassador participate in Olive Oil Tasting

An event to launch Ateek Olive Oil, produced from ancient trees of rare Olive Variety Al Mehrasn, took place in Jordan and participants included Their Excellencies Jordanian Minister of Agriculture, Jordanian Minister of Tourism as well as Ambassador to the Netherlands.

The event was organised by JOPEA (Jordan Olive Exporters Association) and Mercy Corp where Tala Saket, Silver Associate and Honorary member of the Savantes Register, presented an independent olive oil tasting session for the audience. Following the tasting session, the participants were then given Ateek Olive Oil to taste by the Association.

International Extra Virgin Olive Oil Savantes restarts in Melbourne with new method for tasting olive oil.

Savantes Savourgram © to be Introduced at Savantes Melbourne, March 2023

The internationally acclaimed International Extra Virgin Olive Oil Savantes Programme will restart in Melbourne with yet another innovation.

With programmes held prepandemic in 11 countries Savantes has introduced the Savantes Skills Test recognising individual tasters, the national Team Tasting Championships in France, Spain and Greece, and the inaugural World Team Tasting Championship held in Spain in 2019.

Now Savantes has developed a new creative multi-dimensional method of tasting and recording extra virgin olive oils.

In the continuing development of the Savantes tasting philosophy we have developed the concept of ‘The Palette of Flavours’ with colours representing the positive characteristics of fruitiness (blue), bitterness (green) and spiciness (red).

To represent the progression of flavours along the palate, a graph has been devised with the vertical axis representing intensity and the horizontal axis representing time in one second intervals.

Savantes Australia 2023

16 and 17 March 2023
Melbourne, Australia

Excellent Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Valuable Knowledge and Good Company makes Extra Virgin Olive Oil Savantes Much More than Tasting

Provides opportunities to improve personal tasting knowledge and confidence
Through its tasting skills review recognises and rewards competency
Is unaligned and independent.
Is an international movement connecting people in many countries; and
It fosters respect for the products of all producing countries

Savantes Review and Recognition

Introducing a day of skills review exercises and giving recognition as Associate Savante or Savante if you achieve the prescribed scores.

Open to anyone who wants to review their tasting ability on a worldwide scale.

Modena, Italy – Seville, Toledo, Madrid, Priego de CordobaSpain – London, United Kingdom – New York, Chicago, Minneapolis, USA – Sydney, Melbourne, Australia – Auckland, New Zealand – Cape Town, South Africa – Dublin, Ireland – Amsterdam, Netherlands - Kalamata, Greece - Provence, France

Our Sales Narrative Must be Built from the Consumer’s Perspective – Value for Money

Clearing out some dusty books I came across a 2011 publication sponsored by the European Union and Spain entitled ‘The surprisingly, marvellous, savoury, curious, healthy, historic, artistic and fantastic world of Olive Oil’. It is a beautiful informative book. The first significant pictorial of food comes on the 27^th page. The preceding pages are full of production data, varietals, mythology, olive oil classifications and pictures of the olive groves of Spain stretching to the horizon.

The question is; does it sell olive oil to the consumer or is it a little self-indulgent, trying to satisfy those who paid for it first, the publisher, the producer organisations, the politicians and secondly persuade, incidentally, consumers? Is it trying to portray each of the facets described in the title? I am sure it has made money for the graphic artists, the designers, the authors and the administrators – I question the return to producers? My observation is that in the last 10 years since the publication of this book our narrative has not changed.

We hear endlessly of the Mediterranean diet pyramid in the context of olive oil sales. Analysis of Google Trends in the USA shows that a slight upward trend in searches on the Diet does not seem to lead to increased searches for olive oil.