Jaén

Jaen is home to one of the largest olive oil producers in the world. We went to visit one of the olive farms in Ubeda, which alone produces about one fifth of the world's olive oil. Andalusia (the southern region of Spain), as a whole, produces about 60% of the world's olive oil.
It was really interesting! The farm we went to is home to 66 million olive trees. That's right. 66,000,000, or about 50% more olive trees than there are people in Spain. Or about the same number of people as live in the top 40 most populous cities in North America (including NYC, LA and Mexico City) combined. That is a massive number of trees.
The oil. So olive oil can come in a few different flavors right? I have always been puzzled when I've gone to the store and seen things like "Extra virgin", "pure", "refined", and "virgin" olive oil, and I never knew what those terms really meant. There seemed to be no discernible difference in the product. And, unfortunately, as far as the USA is concerned, that may be largely correct.
In the USA, additionally, olive oil is sometimes labeled as "extra virgin" if it has some extra virgin olive oil, even if it's mostly virgin or refined.
Here's how the differences work when you get the real stuff:
Extra virgin- the very first oil to come out of the oil press. Strong, robust flavors, not for frying or high heat cooking, but for putting on top of pasta, salads, breads and other foods.
Virgin- still great oil, can be a little bit acidic, and is ideal for frying and high heat cooking. Less flavorful and pure.
Pure, refined, etc- Extracted chemically from the seeds rather than pressed mechanically. Can be much more acidic, have impurities and is treated to make it fit for human consumption.

So why is olive oil supposedly so much better for you than other oils?
Olive oil, unlike any other oil, is juice. It is mechanically separated or pressed from the olives, rather than chemically treated and extracted. It is all unsaturated fat.
What's the big deal about extra virgin olive oil?
Extra virgin olive oil, the real stuff, is amazingly flavorful, unique and distinctly Mediterranean. It can add fantastic flavors to salads, sandwiches, pastas, soups, and pretty much anything. It is stocked with antioxidants and is supposedly one of the reasons for the long life spans of Mediterraneans.
So how do they decide if something is extra virgin?
They have professional olive oil tasters who rate the oil on flavor, smell, texture. It's a blind test, and many different taste testers try the oils, and if all of them agree, it is rated as extra virgin.
 What makes it high quality, and how can they tell?
Well to start with, extra virgin olive oil should smell like olives. The stuff here in the USA from the grocery store often smells rancid or like canola oil. Positive scents are ones reminiscent of olives, strawberries, apples, grass and tomato. It should be a little bit spicy and pleasantly bitter, but have zero after taste. There's a very specific procedure performed to test the oil. It is placed in a blue glass where the color cannot be discerned. It is smelled, then tasted, and kept in the mouth for several seconds, kind of swishing it around. They then swallow, smack their lips a few times and check for any after taste. They use a sheet much like this one here.

So since modern technology is now used in olive pressing, is it lower quality or "less natural" than it used to be?
Actually, with the advent of modern mechanics and pneumatic machinery, the best olive oil is now better quality than ever, and there is more of it.
Is olive oil made with green olives or black olives?
It depends. Generally, green olives are used more often, but black olives give a unique flavor. There are several different varieties of olives, just like with apples and oranges, and the most common variety used is named picual.

They gave us a great tour of the facility, as well as some old style oil presses to demonstrate how the process has changed over the centuries.

So some tips for finding good olive oil?

Look for oil with the name of the variety of olive on the olive, the origin, and never buy anything but extra virgin unless you're using the oil for high heat frying or baking. Spain and Italy both have world renowned olive oil, but oil from other places can be high quality, but if the producer is willing to stand behind the product and tell you at least what province or city the oil comes from on the label, that's a good sign.

After learning so much about olive oil and tasting about 20 different oils, we went for a nice lunch in the town, and I loved my plate of rabbit with salmorejo soup (like gazpacho but with meat and hard boiled eggs in it.