Recently, we have been getting a lot of questions about the differences between fused, infused, flavored and regular oils and vinegars used for preparing foods.

What is the difference, and how does one choose when pondering over the enormous selection out there available, between in stores, online, or through how-to-do-it-yourself articles?

As with everything, time and money can guide you in your decision here.

While there is a wide selection of vinegars and oils – fused, infused or not – start with your budget and your palate preferences, and go from there. The selections begin with the standard olive oils, extra virgin olive oils, light olive oils and then get busy with added ingredients to enhance the flavoring.

Extra virgin olive oil is a healthy fat that actually is good for the brain, so we include it regularly in our diet. The ranges of quality begin with artificially flavored and less expensive olive oils that offer little to no taste compared to the more expensive extra virgin olive oils with naturally fused ingredients. These offer the more sublime and appealing tasting experiences.

Ingredients have a wide range to include herbs, fruits, peppers and garlics, making the potential combinations limitless.

Domestic, imported, aged and then do-it-yourself options and the selection quickly becomes agonizing.

So what are the differences and where does one begin to choose?

Regular, light or extra virgin olive oils

The differences between regular, light or extra virgin olive oils are the processing of the olives resulting in changes in color, taste and quality. Regular olive oil is a blended oil using a lower quality virgin olive oil refined through a mechanical thermal chemical process resulting in a colorless and often tasteless product.

The light olive oil, although at first glance may seem to mean less calories, actually pertains to the taste and color as opposed to the amount of fat content. Light olive oils are a variation of regular olive oil with a more refined olive oil added to less quality virgin oil – making for a “lighter” oil in taste and color, while containing the same caloric and fat content as other oils.

Extra virgin olive oil is the highest quality of the oils as the virgin olive oil is made using a mechanical cold pressing process, thus producing the “extra” in its process as long as the oleic acid is less than one percent free.

Extra virgin olive oil is considered the best or premium of the olive oils.

Fused, infused or flavored olive oils

Taking the versions of olive oils, we must consider what the differences are between fused, infused or flavored. Fused olive oils are oils that have had ingredients such as herbs, fruits, peppers or garlics blended with the oil during the process of being “cold pressed” providing a more appealing and delectable option to cooking, marinades, dressing and overall additive to any dish.

While flavored or infused olive oils are created when these ingredients are added after the processing of the olive oil – therefore providing us with a less quality product than the oils processed together with the delectable additions.

As with most options, there is the least appealing method of using artificial extracts of these ingredients in lieu of the actual thing, resulting in an even more unappealing option to your dish.

To add to the wide variety of selections, there also are citrus crushed olive oils and dipping oils.

These oils are not to be confused with infused olive oils as the fusing process involves crushing the whole citrus or peppers with the oil during the mechanical blending.

This process results in a highly flavorful and intense aromatic oil, that when heated during the cooking process, causes the kitchen to fill with a fragrance so appetizing, the meal itself may become an afterthought.

We sell a blood orange olive oil at the Tower Cafe that produces such an experience. So with that said, the best tasting more appealing choice of oils to use would be the citrus crushed or flavored extra virgin olive oils.

Although they may be the more expensive of choices, they are highly concentrated with flavor requiring less of the product to provide extraordinary quality taste to every bite.

With the wildly popular do-it-yourself websites that offer ideas on how to keep it affordable by making it yourself – one thing to keep in mind about the infused oils is that, with doing it yourself, there are more chances for the oils to become rancid, and even unhealthy, if using garlic as an additive.

There are concerns if the garlic infused oils do not receive proper oxygen or are not properly refrigerated that botulism could occur therefore warranting the warning of caution when making your own infused garlic oils.

Vinegars

Vinegars, specifically balsamic vinegars, are processed much like wines. A variety of quality grapes are used in the process of making vinegar as well as specific aging methods to produce the elegant, yet sour and tart condiment.

Much like the oils, there are lower quality options as well as more refined versions for your liking. Whole grapes to include the stems and seeds, are pressed, cooked over a direct flame and fermented naturally, some for up to years. Vinegars are divided by age: young, 3-5 years maturation; middle, 6-12 years; and old, 12 years up to 150 years.

The mosh is concentrated in “batteria” using the aging barrels made of different types of wood such as oak, cherry, juniper and mulberry. When bottled, a mix of the new and old yield is poured to allow for enhancement of both products.

These aged vinegars become thick and sweeter than plain balsamic varieties, and these characteristics improve with age.

As with oils, other ingredients may be added to enhance the already flavor-filled vinegars. However, unlike oils, balsamic vinegars lose their unique flavors when heated so it’s most purposeful use is as a drizzle or in salad dressings.

Combining these unique oils and vinegars together create a wallop of flavorful infusion sure to please even the most picky of palates.

For those that are interested in achieving such palate success, we offer a variety of fine olive oils and balsamic vinegars at the Tower Cafe, 1000 Commerce Park Drive, suite 107.

The cafe is open 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Serving suggestions for

fused or infused products:

We often drizzle the chocolate dark balsamic vinegar on top of smoothies, over ice cream or marinade fruit such as bing cherries in the balsamic prior to serving.

Drizzle any of the Balsamic Vinegars over steamed or fresh kale, chard or bok choy to break down the fibers and made it more digestible as well as add sweetness to the vegetable.

We also drizzle with either the natural lime or the blood orange olive oil.

Bake with about 1/4 of the blood orange olive oil mixed in with your plain oil to increase flavor when using muffins, short bread or cake mixes.

We use a variety of combinations as our salad dressing; we never buy bottled dressing anymore.