Difference between Virgin and Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Difference between Virgin and Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Olive Oil is one of the best products of Spain. So much, that it is essential in any Mediterranean diet.

Neverthelesss, it’s always interesting knowing the differences amongst the products that you can find in the market. As you’ll imagine, there are substantial differences.

We are familiar with the concepts virgin olive oil and extra virgin olive oil, but can you tell the differences between them? Here’s some of them:

Extraction

Here’s how olive oil is produced. It is extracted from the olive pulp. The fruit needs to be pressed so that the oil comes out.

Various methods are used for this. Sometimes, olive may be pressed or centrifuged (what we call mechanical methods). Some other times, chemistry is used to increase the amount of juice obtained. As you’ll imagine, natural processes yield better quality oil. Nevertheless, less oil is obtained using these processes, which makes the product more expensive.

What’s the difference between Virgin and Extra Virgin?

Virgin oil is obtained naturally. Therefore, both virgin and extra virgin oil are obtained with mechanical methods.

Extra Virgin Oil’s acidity is lower than 0.8°. On the other hand, oil referred as “virgin” presents acidity levels up to 2°.

Regular oil is commonly tagged as simply “olive oil”. It is normally refined (as much as 90%) and also contains portions of extra virgin and virgin olive oil.

Do a test: pour some regular oil on a plate and some of ourTercio de las Torresoil on another. Smell them, check the color and touch them to see the different texture.