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It is important to know that the highest quality category within the classification of different olive oils is extra virgin olive oil.
Now, we must also know that within the Extra Virgin Olive Oils (EVOO), there are great differences, especially in terms of sensory analysis.
An extra virgin olive oil, with a fruity for example of 7 (intense) is not the same as one whose fruity is 3 (light). It is not the same that an extra virgin olive oil has fresh aromas, and with a large number of descriptors, than one that does not give you fresh aromas or that are practically imperceptible aromas or that have practically no descriptors.
As in sensory analysis we find differences, we also find them in physicochemical analytics. An extra virgin olive oil that has an acidity of 0.4 is not the same as one that has an acidity of 0.1. However both could be extra virgin olive oil.
When we look for the best Spanish olive oils or the international ones, these differences are fundamental.
Once we have these premises in mind, we see how the best olive oils in the world are recognized. To recognize this great work of producers, cooperatives or marketers, to make known through their first brands, the highest qualities of their extra virgins, at ESAO we have great tools.
The ESAO Awards are the annual awards where the best oils in the world are scored, looking for those characteristics that make them different, unique and especially harmonic, complex and balanced.
To obtain the best Spanish olive oils, and the best oil in the world, at ESAO we use score cards, where parameters such as:complexity, harmony and balance.
That one extra virgin olive oil is more intense than another is not valued or scored as much as if one EVOO is more complex and balanced than another. These differences, both sensory and physicochemical, must be valued.
In the same way, know that there are yields that are totally different between the entire quality range that the extra virgin covers.
In the highest quality extra virgin olive oils, we find very low yields, (that is, the amount of oil that we extract from the olives that form it,) that means the amount of olives you need to make a high quality extra virgin olive oil is much higher than the amount needed to produce a common extra virgin olive oil.
This point of yield must be taken into account when evaluating the work done to obtain these outstanding evolves, as well as when it comes to applying prices, where the price of the outstanding extra virgin or the highest quality, necessarily has to be greater than the commons. This characteristic would be found in the best Spanish and international olive oils.
The ESAO Guide is another tool to achieve recognition for the best oils.
It is a guide where the best rankings appear, not only from the ESAO Awards, but also from the most prestigious contests, these are the Food Awards of Spain of the Ministry of Agriculture and the Mario Solinas Awards of the International Olive Council.
In this way, we undoubtedly have in a single guide, the top positions and the ranking of the world's best olive oils.
In the ESAO Guide, there is recognition of the best Spanish oils, through the different categories of producer, cooperative and autonomous communities, given the large number of Spanish extra virgin olive oils that are presented and that compete for the first prizes.
The ESAO Guide, the guide of the Best Extra Virgin Olive Oils EVOOs of the world we group all the winning extra virgins and who in turn have certain quality certifications, especially interesting for distributors and marketers.
We have within the Guide a section of the ESAO Stars, where the maximum exponent of the quality and professionalism of the best oil companies ends. These are the olive oil brands that have achieved their award in more than one of these three contests at the same time or that have repeated first positions in consecutive years, in this way, companies that do not obtain an award of In a timely manner, its quality is endorsed by more than one of these three competitions or by its trajectory in the first positions of the best olive oil competitions.