Why is my oil already dead?

Most people think olive oil only changes after it has been open for ages.

It doesn’t.

Olive oil starts changing from the moment it is made.

And once it is in your kitchen, how you store it and how quickly you use it matters.

Light, heat, oxygen and time slowly chip away at what made the oil good in the first place.

The smell gets flatter.

The flavour gets softer.

That peppery finish starts disappearing.

And some of the naturally occurring compounds that make extra virgin olive oil interesting begin to decline too.

It probably won’t look any different.

That is the problem.

Dead doesn’t mean bad.

We are not talking about a bottle suddenly becoming unsafe.

“Dead” is what happens when an oil has lost the things you bought it for.

Less fruit.

Less aroma.

Less bitterness.

Less pepper.

Less character.

A really good extra virgin olive oil should taste alive.

There should be something happening when you smell it and something left behind when you swallow it.

As oil ages and oxidises, that becomes quieter.

And yes, you are losing more than flavour.

Extra virgin olive oil naturally contains phenolic compounds.

They are part of what contributes to its bitterness, pepperiness and oxidative stability, and they are also behind many of the reasons extra virgin olive oil gets talked about nutritionally.

They do not stay exactly the same forever.

Research on olive oil storage consistently finds that time, oxygen, heat and particularly exposure to light can accelerate oxidation and the degradation of phenolic compounds.

Which makes keeping an expensive bottle beside a sunny hob slightly counterproductive.

Your kitchen is probably the problem.

There are a few very normal places people keep olive oil.

Next to the cooker.

On the windowsill.

In a clear bottle on an open shelf.

All convenient.

None particularly helpful.

Heat speeds up deterioration.

Light encourages oxidation.

Every time you open the bottle, more oxygen enters the space above the oil.

None of this means you need to start treating olive oil like a chemistry experiment.

You just need to stop displaying it like an ornament.

Keep it somewhere boring.

A cupboard is good.

Somewhere cool is good.

Away from direct sunlight is very good.

Beside the oven because it looks nice is less good.

There is no need to refrigerate it or develop an elaborate preservation system.

Just keep it away from obvious heat and light.

Then there is the slightly more important bit.

Actually use it.

The best way to keep olive oil fresh is to finish it.

People have a strange relationship with good ingredients.

The better something is, the more reluctant we become to use it.

So the good olive oil comes out for guests.

A small drizzle goes on the occasional salad.

Then the bottle sits there for months while a worse oil gets used every day.

We would do the opposite.

Cook with it.

Dress with it.

Pour it over things.

Put enough on the plate that you can actually taste it.

Then finish the bottle and open another one.

Fresh olive oil being used is considerably more useful than good olive oil slowly ageing at the back of a cupboard.

Why DRZZL exists

A lot of this is why we made two bottles.

Kitchen is there to cook with.

Table is there when you want the oil itself to show up.

Neither is designed to be saved.

There are no special occasions important enough to justify letting your olive oil die waiting for them.

The takeaway

Your olive oil is changing while it sits in your kitchen.

You do not need to panic about that.

You just need to store it properly and stop rationing it.

Keep it away from heat and light.

Close the bottle.

Use it generously.

Finish it.

Open another.

Good olive oil is supposed to disappear.