Olive oil tasting
Olive oil and olive trees have been a feature of the landscape here in Girona Province for some 2,000 years so this is the right place to taste this unique product. A tasting can be organised where you are staying while here on holiday or as part of a "Girona Tapas Tour".
The fun part is tasting a variety (usually 4) olive oils from different parts of Spain. There are at least as many varieties of olives as there are of grapes and nobody would suggest that all wines taste the same. The local olives are the arbequina and argudell which are smaller but fruitier in flavour than olives from Andalucia in the south. Just like wine we look at colour to give us clues to when they were picked which has a big effect on ultimate taste. Smell is a bit harder and more subtle to capture in descriptive adjectives. The most important part is tasting which you do by drinking a small amount noting the aftertaste, usually sweeter and nuttier in the Catalan oils and slightly more "picante" in the others.
Spain is the largest producer of olive oil in the world but unfortunately, like many products from here, their marketing is not as effective as the Italians and French, but trying is believing, so come try some today!
