What does the “first cold pressed” method consists of?

As we already said in the “how is an olive turned into oil?” article, oils obtained by pressing are rarely commercialized nowadays due to performance matters and, above all, due to hygienic-sanitary and food safety reasons.

Surprisingly, the idea that the pressed oil is a high quality olive oil has spread, but actually this process has been replaces by another more advanced and techincal ones that provide a much higher quality product. Let’s review the process so you can understand better why this method has gone obsolete.

First of all, let’s see what’s the first cold pressed method. This method is perfomed through the use of presses composed of a concentrical axis where the capachos are inserted. The capachos are disk usually made of esparto, with a hole in the middle for them to be inserted in the axis. The paste resulting from the grinding is deposited in the middle of two capachos.

This pile of capachos is sealed with a metal plate which is pressed, letting the liquid come out of its inside. This liquid is a mix of oil and vegetable water.
If the oil is made without warming the olive paste, keeping it below 27ºC, the process is called cold pressed.
Then, this mix is poured into pools for the oil to naturally decant, in such a way that the oil is kept in the surface and the water goes to the bottom.

This traditional method has some disadvantages:

• In each pressing, the capachos must be washed thoroughly since any leftover of the previous pressing may pass on smells and fermentation flavors.
• The oil, within its decantation period, is exposed during a prolonged time to contact with air and vegetable water, which can cause the oil to start oxidizing and aquiring unpleasant smells.

Now, let’s explain what is a first pressed olive oil. It is the olive oil made following the pressing process, it’s extracted of the recently-grinded olive pulp, without being previously pressed and being both the press and the capachos totally clean and renewed. The leftover paste is disposed or pressed again. In the second case, it would no longer be called first pressed oil, and the result would be a significantly lower quality oil.

Given the disadvantages implied in this pressing method, it’s understandable that these had been replaced by more modern and effective methods that give greater hygiene and quality guarantees.