Day 12 - The Olive Oil Journey

6/12/22 Immediate Personal Reflection after Fancy Food Conference (Day 1/3)

Wow, what a f*****g day. A million business cards and now a plausible path for days 2 and 3. Remember that you want to work with workable people. If they can't speak English, don't do it. If you taste insanely good olive oil, show it to someone.

Day 12

Valencia, Spain | November 5th, 2022

My reaction to the day 1 reaction:

If they can’t speak English, don't do it. 

Ha, that wouldn't fly in Jaen, Spain.

If I taste insanely good olive oil, show it to someone.

I have 0 people to show a good oil in the city of Jaen. I pretty much had to trust my gut all day.

Morning

Fiesta del Primer Aceite de Jaen. 87 stands of early-harvest olive oil from the Province of Jaen, the biggest Olive Oil producing region by quantity in the world.

After my experience at previous food events and shows, I tend to skip meals on show day given the expected number of samples consumed. But this made me miss out on the best breakfast ever at my hotel: DIY Orange Juice, Fresh Iberian Ham, 10 different bread options, croissants, eggs several ways, etc.

I wakeup, hit the gym for my first time since the US and take a 10 minute taxi to the event and arrive to a huge crowd of locals looking for "free breakfast" which was bread and olive oil. I passed.

Full disclosure the rest of the photos are at the bottom of the post.

The purpose of the event (put on by the Provence of Jaen) was for people to showcase their 2022 Early Harvest Olive Oils. Producers, heads of cooperatives, master millers, and heads of private labels were the primary people running stands. The festival spanned three streets and stands were positioned on an incline. So I had to hike up the hill to get to stand 1 from 97.

To be honest, it felt like I was playing an NBA game without having a single practice. The mental preparation was there but I was a complete disaster during the first quarter. I'd try some different oils and note what I think I'm looking for, but there were so many stands of note that I lost track of what I liked and what I didn't. The pictures of bottles and 25 business cards just created more work for me later on.

And of course, the lack of the use of the English language was very draining on my overall energy level. I made a quick noon adjustment to my oil-picking strategy upon noticing a trend: there were a lot of Picual olive oils.

So I started at booth 1 and wanted to find out which percentage of the booths carried a Picual. I stopped at every booth, and saw who was behind the project and the bottle design. I only tasted a handful of the oils for time purposes. The slight change in strategy actually freed up some stress and gave me a great hour and a half until around 2:00.

Guess how many of the 87 stands carried their own Picual Olive Oil: (answer at bottom). Hint - more than I expected.

I then walk back up the hill and realize all the booths were closed! Wait I thought this event ran till 9? I was finally finding my groove wtf.

Everyone was on lunch break - and let me tell you, the Spaniards take their good ole time for lunch - I was told to come back by 5pm. No computer, phone at 25%, and not a lick of English within my vicinity.

A festival helper recommended a specific bar area which ended up being packed with people. These smaller Spanish cities tend to have a main street of restaurants and then very narrow alleys in between buildings alongside the main road. Oftentimes the gems are located within those alleys.

After about 10 minutes of searching, I find a hole-in-the-wall Tapas Bar at which I end up spending 2 hours. I had a decent amount of solo time but met some cool people along the way.

A nice Spanish couple and a group of 3 girls who thought I was a rich celebrity (lost their attention after insisting many times I'm not) took my mind off the event, which was needed.

By 5:00, I take 5 minutes to do afternoon prep - which saved me at least an hour (also the 2 beers helped calm the nerves). Here were my points of emphasis:

1. Abandon the phone and transition to pen and paper

2. Focus on 3 key points that I'm looking for in the oil

3. Stop photos/videos and focus on the present

The result was 4 hours of networking (met a couple of great people), tasting incredible oils, a list of characteristics broken down by booth, and further refinement of my general strategy when finding the great oil.

I almost left at 7:30 but realized just like when going out in Malaga, I'm only at this festival once - make the best of it. Low and behold by 8:45pm one producer and his colleagues (who charged my 1% phone to 60%) invited me to their dinner at 9pm and it made my night. I don't often get to eat a formal dinner with quality Olive Oil producers.

I leave the event with many business cards and a good idea of how I want to approach my Sunday - by far the most important day.

I get back to the hotel at 1:15am - yes their kids were even out this late - and crashed. What a day.

Photo Dump, in a semi-random order. Enjoy

I found this presentation to be beautiful 

Lunch pt 1: Complimentary Tapa

Lunch pt 2: Seafood Scramble

The festival came alive at night!

I actually got interviewed as well...odds I make it on the big screen?

2pm the stands closing

Morning Bread Delivery

1 Olive Oil Takeaway:     

Here are 3 simple tips (some covered in previous editions) when shopping for a good Olive Oil (can also find here):

1. Avoid "Extra Light" or "Pure" or "Pomace" or "Cooking" Olive Oil. They are all below Extra Virgin in quality.

2. Do not buy oil in clear (99% of the time) OR plastic bottles of olive oil. Light accelerates the oxidation of Olive Oil. Dark Bottles protect against light, and plastic bottles are less resistant to oxidative factors than glass, tin, paperboard, etc.

3. Buy Olive Oil from the most recent harvesting season as Oil oxidizes over time

Most supermarket brands don't satisfy conditions 1-3.

-Jack

87 / 87 had Picual!

Thank you for reading and welcome to the blog! I'm traveling through Europe on a quest to find great Olive Oil.