Most people think olive oil is olive oil.
The Musso family disagrees.
And they have all the evidence right there at their Season To Taste store on the Jefferson Highway.
Since 2015, Ginger, Chris Musso and daughter Megan have been promoting the health and delicious benefits of first-class olive oils and balsamic vinegars.
“I tell people not to put it in their pantry until they realize this is their salt and pepper, it’s their butter and vegetable oil,” said Ginger Musso. “I’m trying to make them understand that they can use olive oil for anything. You can cook with it, you can handle it, you can snack on it, and you can use it as a skin product. There are no added sugars or salts. It just is Olive oil. “
The shop carries 60 olive oils and balsamic vinegars from Veronica Foods.
“Veronica Foods is owned by Veronica and Mike Bradley,” Musso said. “Their products are different from others because their farmers are all over the world for olive oils. You can split them into the Northern Hemisphere and the Southern Hemisphere. They have different harvest times, so I have a different harvest as a different part every six months of the world. “
In required training at Veronica Foods’ manufacturing facility in Oakland, California, Musso learned about the variety of the company’s olive oils and how they are processed.
Season To Taste contains four types of olive oils in different flavors.
Musso explained that extra virgin olive oil is made from crushed olives made by farmers in California, Spain, Chile, Italy, and Africa. Nothing is added and the Ultra Premium product is certified as fresh.
Poured olive oils, she said, are made from fresh extra virgin olive oil that is infused with essential oils or extracts from fruits, herbs, vegetables, and traditional spice blends.
“Our Tuscan herb (with oregano, rosemary, marjoram, and garlic) is an infused olive oil and a top seller for Veronica Foods,” said Musso. “It was our top seller for the first year, but then that changed. Now the garlic infused oil is the top seller for our shop.”
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A third type of olive oil is called fused, in which ripe olives are crushed with fresh fruit, herbs or vegetables to obtain an oil with a light taste. Cayenne Pepper Flavor is the best-selling melted olive oil in the business.
Finally, there are gourmet oils in which the oil made from white truffles, black truffles or roasted Japanese sesame oil has been mixed with extra virgin olive oil.
The olive oils line a wall in the Bocage Village Shop. The other wall is filled with Season To Taste’s three types of balsamic vinegar, two of which are made using the traditional solera barrel aging method of Modena, Italy.
Like the olive oils, the vinegars have no thickeners, sweeteners or artificial flavors.
There is the dark balsamic vinegar with grapes that have matured in old, dark oak barrels for at least 12 years. These vinegars are sturdy and can be used on cheese boards, as a marinade and brushed on meat. And they are deliciously drizzled over ice.
The white balsamic vinegars mature in new oak barrels for up to 12 years. Their crunchy flavors add a pop of pop to salads, cocktails and salsas or can be used as a sweet glaze for meat.
The shop also carries specialty vinegars, including Pinot Noir wine vinegar and Molto Denissimo, which is extremely rich and dense with an almost glaze-like quality.
“We’re a tasting room where I usually have small cups all over the place for my customers,” Musso said. “It’s convenient, and you can mix and taste oils and vinegars. But with COVID I removed the cups. We can still get flavor for everyone, but we go and wash. We’re just trying to calm down for a while.” and be as safe as possible, and we hope things go back to normal so people can come back in and have fun. “
In pre-pandemic times, Musso offered parties where everyone could learn how oils and vinegars can be used in a variety of ways.
“There are just so many options and that’s all I use,” Musso said. “There’s even a butter-flavored olive oil that you can use to make popcorn. It has no dairy and it’s delicious. It’s healthy. It’s all I need.”
