Olive oil tasting bars may have originated in Europe, but their presence
in the US has been expanding rapidly over the past several years.
There are estimated to be over one thousand such specialty stores and
specially-equipped tasting areas in gourmet markets across the country.
Instead of directly picking a bottle off a shelf, customers are able to
sample oil “on-tap” (typically stored in traditional Italian containers
called fusti ) before making a purchase.
“This thing’s gone full throttle,” asserted Veronica Bradley, CEO of Veronica Foods Company,
when asked about the future of so-called ‘on-tap’ olive oil tasting.
“It is the way forward, and I think it would be very difficult to go
back now.”
Veronica Foods is one of several businesses currently
supplying olive oil tasting bars within the United States. From their
first store in Fish Creek, Wisconsin, the importer now works with over
600 locations, with more to come.
Bradley’s competition includes
the Vom Fass and Oil & Vinegar franchises, which boast hundreds of
stores around the world between them. Both companies were established in
Europe before approaching the U.S. market. Another franchise,
California-based olive oil retailer We Olive, opened its first East Coast store in Brooklyn last month.
Even
as on-tap tasting bars have begun to take off in North America, health
officials in the UK announced a ban on aspects of the practice in 2014.
The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) cited the sale of unsealed olive oil as a
breach of European regulations. In a later interview
with Olive Oil Times, an official clarified that allowing customers to
sample oil prior to purchasing a separate, sealed bottle was not a
breach, but only if the contents of the bottle matched those of the
sample exactly.
Randy Hernandez, former owner of Oliana Premium
Olive Oil and Vinegars in West Hollywood, described the process of
communicating with local health departments about his tasting bar as a
trying one. Regulations on retail food sampling
vary on a state-by-state basis in the US, he said, which could make
obtaining a permit difficult. Hernandez was quick to emphasize, however,
that Oliana’s recent closure was the result of leasing issues and not a lack of faith in the popularity of the product or tasting bars.
Critics of on-tap olive oil also raise questions about storage
practices, and whether retailers can possibly keep their product fresh
throughout the year. When asked how long oils might remain in a fusti
before being exchanged, Veronica Bradley said it varied. Not all oil
tasting bars are equal, Bradley acknowledged, and there have been
attempts to use the popular on-tap tasting model to sell sub-par
products. “We pay very particular attention to the chemistry of the oil.
People lie, bottles lie, but chemistry doesn’t lie.”
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