1. Warm the glass
Pour about a tablespoon into a small glass. Cup it in one hand and cover the top with the other for a minute. Olive oil releases its aromas at around 28 °C, roughly the temperature of your palm, so this step is not ceremony.
2. Smell
Uncover and take a few short sniffs. You are looking for green notes first: grass, tomato leaf, artichoke, green almond. Riper oils lean to apple, banana and nuts. If the first thing you notice is crayons, cardboard or vinegar, note it and come back to it in section 5.
3. Strip and sip
Take a small sip and, with lips slightly parted and teeth closed, draw air in sharply across the oil. This sprays it across the palate and pushes the aromas up into the nose. It is loud. That is the point.
4. The three positives
Every score in the library rests on three attributes: fruitiness on the nose and palate, bitterness on the tongue, and pungency, the pepper in the throat that can make you cough. All three are signs of fresh, polyphenol-rich oil. The balance between them is what we describe when we call an oil delicate, medium or robust.