The crusher makes the difference

Many regions therefore have the opportunity to produce several types of oil depending on which olives are used.

When an oil is produced from a single variety it is called monocultivar; when several types of olive are blended together to make the oil, it is called a blend or a cut.

Spain, which holds the world record for olive oil production, counts roughly half the olive varieties that Italy boasts. It is also the only other world producer that comes close to Italy in terms of olive variety.

The presence of so many olive varieties (and therefore oils) has created a phenomenon similar to what happened with wine. The oil menu is now gaining traction. Like a wine list, it serves to match the right type of oil to the most suitable dish, opening up new possibilities for the world of cooking and dining.

Do these new possibilities arise solely from having so many cultivars?

How do you avoid unpleasant problems?

How do you obtain an oil with the perfect flavour?

The great majority of an oil’s characteristics arise from the combination of climatic conditions and soil characteristics.  

Take our Olivastra Seggianese: if you were to take one of its trees and plant it anywhere else in Italy or the Mediterranean, it would never produce an oil as special as the one it gives us here — it would have an entirely different taste and flavour. The same applies to the different climatic conditions in which the plant grows and that define our area. 

Beyond these characteristics, there are others to take into account. Or rather, there is one very specific place where a real difference can be made: the mill.

To bring out the best in a cultivar’s oil, to avoid unpleasant defects, to obtain an oil with the perfect flavour — much depends on what happens here. A great deal.

“of superior category obtained directly from olives and solely by mechanical means“ as every fine label proudly declares in capital letters.

The mill is the place of creation. Here a good oil can be made, an excellent oil that can represent a turning point for a producer. 

But the mill can also be the place of destruction. Lurking around the corner are always errors that can destroy what nature has created so magnificently, in just a few minutes.

But let’s start from the beginning.

Olives must absolutely be harvested and then brought to the mill in the shortest possible time — we are talking about a few hours. This is because, from the moment an olive is detached from the tree, fermentation begins to set in, driven by the small quantities of sugar contained in the olive.

The longer the time between harvesting and pressing, the greater the likelihood that fermentation will take hold, leading to defects in the oil (which we will then find in the final product), such as “heated,” “musty,” “winey,” and so on.

A skilled miller knows exactly that damaged or defective olives must be processed after all the others; otherwise they will spoil the entire day’s harvest — or, if the olives are already severely defective, they will certainly be rejected and not processed at all.

From the moment the olives arrive at the mill to the point they reach the crusher, there are two situations a miller hopes never to have to deal with:

How do you avoid these two types of problems and achieve a perfect oil?

In the first case, if our olives arrive at the mill in good condition (free from olive fly damage and not too far along in ripening) within a few hours, we will have already taken an important step towards an oil worthy of being called extra virgin.

In the second case, we must rely on the crusher. The crusher, which today is built entirely in stainless steel, has replaced the legendary granite millstones. The concept behind the millstones was truly interesting — they had a much gentler effect than modern hammer crushers, breaking the olives delicately. The ancient millstones, however, had the drawback of exposing the olive paste to open air and, as a result, to oxidation. 

The crusher therefore becomes fundamental. Today, most crushers fall into the following categories:

• Fixed-hammer crushers, high rotation speed (2,800 rpm) and small-diameter grid (5 mm)
• Low-speed crushers (1,400–1,500 rpm), disc or hammer type with wider-hole grids (6–8 mm).
• Knife crushers, with one or more grids rotating in the same direction or in opposite directions.
  

The choice of crusher has multiple implications. Depending on the crusher used, the olive skin will be broken down more or less finely, and greater or lesser amounts of chlorophyll — which gives the oil its green colour — will be extracted.

The crusher chosen by Poderi Borselli is the knife crusher.

This is a crusher that operates at lower temperatures and a lower number of revolutions, allowing for more delicate and harmonious oils to be obtained, without excessive bitter or pungent imbalances. Furthermore, the knife crusher allows for a “semi-peeling” of the pit rather than a full crushing as with hammer mills. 

This means that almost 20% of the processed olives enter the malaxer without being broken, resulting in more pleasant, less woody oils. 

The only drawback is the oil yield, which can sometimes be lower than that of the hammer crusher, due to the less thorough crushing of the olives and therefore less efficient centrifugal extraction.

It is therefore clear that the type of crusher chosen will influence not only the colour of the oil, but also the taste (more or less pronounced bitterness and pungency) and the aroma. 

In short, everything that we may or may not enjoy in the final product!

The importance of this stage is evident. The rest of the production process can still influence the various defects that may be found in the oil, but nothing shapes the soul of the oil quite as much as the crusher.

Did you know about this crucial step? If not, we hope we have helped you discover something new!