Black Truffle Oil Tasting

What a way to spend an Easter Monday afternoon! This week we celebrated Easter with a blind truffle oil tasting and what an interesting experience that turned out to be.

There were five people and four oils, 3 black truffle oils, and 1 extra virgin olive oil to act as a ‘control’. The extra virgin olive oil was Cicolelle from Puglia in Italy, made entirely from the local variety Peranzana. The truffle oils were;

1. -Gradassi Black Truffle Dressing with Extra Virgin Olive Oil, listed ingredients: Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Natural Flavours

2. -Urbani Gocce di Tartufo Nero, listed ingredients: Olive Oil, Extra Black Truffles, Flavourings

3. -Le Macchie Tartufi, listed ingredients: Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Natural Flavourings

All tastings were done blind and generally there was a remarkable consensus of opinion on the results, summarised below;

1. Each oil was tasted straight, ie without any accompanying food. Here tasters were asked to identify and evaluate the aroma and taste of the truffle oils in relation to each other and to rank them in order of preference

• The extra virgin olive oil was easily identified, with its darker colour, generous aroma, fruity flavours and robust, spicy pepper finish.
• The Gradassi demonstrated very strong and unpleasant paraffin and petrol - like aromas and flavours. It was a spectacularly unsubtle product that could in no way be confused with real truffle by anyone who had tasted one. This seems remarkable for an oil that claims to be made with purely “Natural Flavours” and provoked much comment and surprise among the tasters.
• The Le Macchie (an organically certified oil made using a natural process) was surprisingly lacking in truffle aroma to the point that many of the tasters mistook it for the pure olive oil on first taste. Its flavour was likewise very subtle but possessed of far more richness and complexity than the Gradassi. Generally it was summarised as pleasant and enjoyable but perhaps not particularly striking.
• The Urbani, despite being an unashamedly chemically based product, was deemed to be highly acceptable in terms of both taste and aroma, though some tasters did remark on a ‘cloying’ quality that they thought could become overpowering if used in any quantity.

Ranking in order of preference: Urbani, Le Macchie, Gradassi

2. Each oil was tasted with a small portion of simple risotto. The risotto was prepared with a small amount of onion, parmesan and butter and then dressed with the oil just prior to serving. In this case the tasters were evaluating the way in which the truffle oil complemented the overall dish and were asked to again rank them in order of preference.

• The extra virgin olive oil was again easily identified.
• The Gradassi provoked a strong response from the tasters, with several remarking that they found the dish almost inedible. It was easily identified by its smell alone and the strong paraffin flavours were felt to be undesirable in the extreme.
• The Le Macchie went very well with the risotto, its gentle flavour and aroma complementing the richness of the dish. However some tasters again commented that you ‘didn’t get much truffle for your money’ and that there was not a very strong ‘truffle hit’ to be derived from this product.
• The Urbani demonstrated both a pleasant flavour and aroma and was well liked by the tasters. All felt that there was a sufficient amount of ‘truffle hit’ though again a certain ‘cloyingness’ was remarked on and several tasters commented that they didn’t feel they could eat much of the dish.

Ranking in order of preference: Urbani, Le Macchie, Gradassi

3. Each oil was tasted with a small portion of fresh pasta. This was simply prepared tagliatelle tossed with butter and parmigiano and then again tossed in each of the truffle oils. Again the tasters were evaluating the way in which the truffle oil complemented the overall dish and ranking the dishes in order of preference.

• Ironically, the tasters were unanimously agreed that the most enjoyable experience here was the pasta with the Extra Virgin Olive Oil. All tasters agreed that the truffle oils ‘sat on the pasta’ like a dressing rather than combining with the dish to give an integrated flavour. They also felt that this ‘dressing – like’ quality resulted in a rather greasy, unappealing dish and questioned the use of truffle oils drizzled on pasta.
• The Gradassi was easily identified by its aroma. Some of the tasters then declined to taste the dish on the basis that this was sufficiently unappetising to put them off.
• The Le Macchie was deemed to be a little overpowering, although not unacceptably so. Again its flavour was described as ‘pleasant’ or ‘subtle’ but failed to elicit more enthusiastic responses.
• The Urbani was likewise thought to be rather too powerful for the dish, but not to an extent that anyone deemed unacceptable. There was some debate as to which out of it and the Le Macchie was preferable without a conclusive result being reached.

Ranking in order of preference: Le Macchie/Urbani, Gradassi

To summarise;

All tasters commented on how surprised they were at the amount of variation to be found in commercial truffle oils. The misconception had been that they would all be much of a muchness.

The Gradassi was very disappointing with all tasters remarking on its strong ‘paraffin’ and ‘petrol’ aroma and taste. All felt that its effect on food was undesirable in the extreme and that it was not a product they would buy.

The Urbani oil was quite pleasant and stood up well in all tastings. All tasters found the level of truffle aroma and flavour pleasant and enjoyable, though a few had reservations about a certain ‘cloying’ quality that was detected particularly when it was tasted alone.

For me, the disappointment was the Le Macchie, the only truffle oil that we tasted which was actually a naturally made product. The consensus was that it did not show itself to be clearly better than the Urbani. One comment was made suggesting that maybe Le Macchie would be better if a blander/less aromatic base oil (ie olive oil rather than extra virgin olive oil) was used in the production as this may allow the truffle aroma and flavour to come more fully to the fore.

Thanks go to Omi, Alison, Raymond and Simone for their valued input to this tasting.