The Disappointment Of French Olive Oil

Ran into an old Fairway Market customer today. Warren is enthusiastic and knowledgeable about food and I always enjoyed talking with him as he shopped. Having retired from my beloved business several years ago I told him about Olive Oil Jones and asked him what he’d been doing for olive oil since I wasn’t around to steer him towards an oil I was excited about. For years I had stocked all of my Fairway Markets with upward of 150 brands (yes, 150!). Some were 0K and exclusive to Fairway. And relatively ‘fresh’, seeing as how I was the importer.

Warren had been ordering a French oil from a shop in Ann Arbor. 

Now, at Fairway I stocked more than a dozen serious French oils, adding them to my frequent ocean containers filled with other artisanal French foods. No other shop or store in the US offered French oils, and I was proud. This was years ago. 

I feel guilty, though, at turning a blind eye to the reasons you should not be seduced by Provence oil from the prettiest groves you ever saw. I mean, France! What piques one’s appetite more than the idea of eating in France?

But Southern France’s olive groves dwindled after WWII. Today gorgeous Provence and Languedoc have even fewer hectares given over to groves. French olive oils, Provençale and Languedocienne, are invariably late-harvest, a travesty you OOJ scholars know is a tragedy. Plus, they are over-priced, hardly fresh, and usually stale.

Late harvest olives yield three times the oil of early harvest olives. Late harvest oil is ‘sweet’ and aromatic. And sweet late harvest olive oil is likely what most folks in France grew up on, oil without early harvest polyphenols — that is, the free-radical antioxidants. God’s gift. The bitterness, the spice —  both of which serve to amplify flavor and make shards of baguette taste so good. Our seven olive oils are the fat we cook with, dress all manner of salads and seafood with, start all stews and pasta sauces with. Olive oil from a late harvest will lie upon your food like a side of lox.

I asked Warren to visit the OOJ website.

There is no reason to put up with ill-chosen, stale, over-priced retail or dotcom olive oils that are a far cry from ‘perfect’. 

The OOJ seven are ‘perfect’ olive oils. Each is hand-pumped from huge, cool barrels only upon your order. The result is an oil that swells with fragrance and nuance, pepper and spice. Vastly superior oils. Each un-filtered, un-blended, super early-harvest and chock-full of life-enhancing polyphenols.