A word about extra virgin olive oil
物の哀れ Mo-no-no-ah-wa-re (pronounced as one word) is a Japanese word for the feeling you get when something beautiful is also, quietly, ending. Not grief. Just a kind of grateful attention. Extra virgin olive oil is like that. It comes from the press bright and grassy and almost sharp, and then it softens and fades over time, until one day it is gone and a new harvest takes its place. No two years taste the same. The oil you taste and appreciate right now is slowly becoming something else. It’s a wonderful feeling, tasting something, savouring it, holding it in your memory, knowing that each time you do will be a new experience.