[Tenuta del Barone di Montemurlo](https://www.oliodelbarone.com/en) — Tuscan extra virgin olive oil # Why new olive oil catches in the throat Many people taste it and think it has gone off. It is the opposite: that catch is the best part of the oil, and it even has a name. ## It is called oleocanthal The catch at the back of the throat when you taste new oil comes from a molecule, oleocanthal, which belongs to the polyphenol family. In 2005 it was found to irritate the throat through the same mechanism as ibuprofen — hence the attention it has had since. The bitterness, which arrives first, comes from other polyphenols, mainly oleuropein. Bitter and peppery together are not a processing flaw: they are the sign that the oil is young, the olives were sound and nothing was heated. ## Why it fades Polyphenols are antioxidants: they protect the oil by oxidising in its place. Doing their job uses them up, and month by month the oil turns sweeter and more fragile. That is why an oil that bites in December bites far less by June, and why an oil that never bit at all did not have much to defend itself with. ## How to taste it properly A teaspoon in the mouth, warmed against the palate, then draw air through your teeth — that inelegant noise is there to aerosolise the oil — and swallow. The pepper arrives three or four seconds later, at the back of the throat. If you smell mould, wet earth or vinegar, that is a genuine defect: it means the olives fermented before milling. Bitterness and pepper are not. ## If you simply do not like it There is nothing wrong with preferring a sweet oil: new oil is not an exam to pass. People who dislike the pepper take late-harvest oils from riper olives — still extra virgin, still good, simply lower in polyphenols. Here the distinction is explicit: Luce bites, Raccolto does not. [The estate journal](https://www.oliodelbarone.com/en/journal) [All oils](https://www.oliodelbarone.com/en)