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

Fruity, a Little Bitter and Spicy By Simon Field

Simon Field is the founder of International Extra Virgin Olive Oil Savantes and an olive producer and trader. He has a Masters degree from Cambridge University and is a former Executive Director of The Australian Institute of Agricultural Science and Editor of the journal Agricultural Science. He has also held senior elected positions in farmer organisations. His publications include handbooks on every aspect of olive production, processing and marketing.

Fruity, a Little Bitter and Spicy provides a practical Australian producer’s view of the establishment of an olive enterprise and entry into the global market. Moving from the early days of planting trees, the production of olive oil and involvement in international trade and events, the reader acquires an expansive knowledge of the global industry.

Savantes Welcomes two new Associates in Australia

Nicole Puhar and Belinda Thewes have been awarded Associate Savante status after achieving the prescribed scores in the challenging Savantes Skills Test in Melbourne Australia.

Presented for the first time since March 2020, the Test involves a series of exercises covering variety identification, intensity ranking, defect detection and ranking, and triangle tests. Care is taken when setting the test that the degree of difficulty is consistent across the world and achieving Savante or Associate puts tasters at an equivalent level wherever the test is undertaken. Currently there 10 Savantes and 89 Associates worldwide.

Nicole Puhar is a Senior Brand Manager with Conga Foods in Melbourne. She specialises in Australian and Spanish olive oils and has a deep understanding of the market trends and consumer behaviour in this category. She is dedicated to encouraging consumers to use more of this healthy and delicious oil. Her knowledge of olive oils has allowed her to create engaging campaigns that showcase the versatility of this golden ingredient and its important role in bring people together.

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.

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.