White Truffle Oil Blind Tasting

White Truffle Oil Blind Tasting

This weekend we continued our season of truffle oil tastings with our friends in North Wales, Paul, Eirian, Ffion and Ciara.

There were six people and four oils, 3 truffle oils, and 1 extra virgin olive oil to act as a ‘control’. The extra virgin olive oil was Cicolelle from Puglia in Italy, which was also used in our previous Truffle Oil tasting The truffle oils were;

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

2. -Tesco Truffle Flavoured Oil, listed ingredients: Olive Oil, Natural Flavourings

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

All tastings were done blind the results are 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 unpleasant pungent paraffin and chemical type aromas and flavours.
• The Tesco Oil demonstrated a strange non truffle like aroma, which some tasters identified as cheese and fish! In flavour it had a very light truffle flavour that was not unpleasant.
• The Le Macchie demonstrated a gentle truffle like aroma, with a soft afterfinish, gentle truffle and garlic flavours, and was most liked of the oils tasted in this way.

Ranking in order of preference: Le Macchie, Tesco, 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 Gradassi provoked a strong response from the tasters, with several remarking that they found the dish inedible.
• The Le Macchie demonstrated a gentle truffle aroma, but when eaten, some tasters identified a slight chemical perfume flavour which it was felt had the potential to be overpowering.
• The Tesco oil was initially mistaken by some tasters as the olive oil, having a very very faint truffle aroma, with no truffle flavour. It was well liked, but the lack of truffle flavour meant it was rated slightly lower than the Le Macchie.

Ranking in order of preference: Le Macchie, Tesco, 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.

• The extra virgin olive oil was easily identified and very well liked by all tasters.
• 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 had a gentle truffle aroma, but demonstrated a slightly unpleasant taste which again some tasters noted as reminiscent of synthetic perfume flavours.
• The Tesco showed a gentle hint of truffle aroma, with a very light truffle like flavour which was not unpleasant.

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

To summarise;

The straight oil tasting clearly demonstrated the Le Macchie as the better oil.

The food tasting opinions were split between the tasters who preferred the very lightly flavoured, but pleasant Tesco Oil, and tasters that preferred the stronger, potentially overpowering truffle flavour of the Le Macchie, with some tasters indicating that the Le Macchie was better because it had more truffle flavour, but other tasters suggesting that its truffle flavour was too perfumed and had the potential to overpower any accompanying food.

The tasters were unanimous in their views on The Gradassi which was very disappointing with all tasters remarking on its strong ‘paraffin’ and ‘chemical’ 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.


Thanks go to Omi, Eirian, Paul, Ffion and Ciara for their valued input to this tasting.