Why doesn't olive oil smell like olives?

I own an olive oil company and can attest to Jenn's great answer. The taste you attribute to olives is that of a ripe or overripe olive. Good olive oil is pressed the same day they are picked or even within a half hour of harvesting. The riper the fruit is before pressing, the fruitier the taste becomes. read more

Olive oil extraction involves grinding the olives into a paste, then separating the oil components from the vegetable matter, and the aqueous components (including oleuropein, which gives raw olives an extremely bitter taste). read more

So you can start by comparing different olive oils. Some ideas: extra virgin with processed olive oil, olive oils from different locations or different varieties of olives, old olive oil with fresh, etc. Ideally you want the olive oil to be in a small cup, even one where you cannot see the color. read more