It starts simply: You hold a bottle of olive oil up to the light, checking the color. Next thing you know, you are inhaling the aroma of a new variety, tasting it, rolling the oil over your tongue. Suddenly, you want to learn more, to find the best olive oil you’ve ever tasted.

As with wine, identifying a top-quality olive oil means checking different oils for taste and aroma. There are hundreds of different brands of extra-virgin olive oil. And like wine, the taste is greatly affected by the climate and the soil in which the tree grows. Some experts say that olives grown in higher elevations have more intense flavors than those grown in lowlands. Trees raised on rocky slopes produce flavors different from those in deep loam.

If you really want to judge olive oil, then you should taste several varieties. Since olive oil is sometimes expensive, buy the smallest bottles available. Better yet, throw a tasting party and get your friends to pitch-in, with each of them bringing a different bottle.

When tasting, try what the experts do in the great olive-producing countries of Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Greece:

1. Open the bottle of extra-virgin olive oil and smell it. You should get a clear and pleasant sense of the olive fruitiness.
2. Now pour about a teaspoon into a small glass and warm it in your hands.
3. Turn the glass so the oil coats the sides as you warm it, then inhale a bit, pulling the oil back on your tongue as if tasting a fine wine for the first time.

Some varieties of newly pressed extra-virgin oil will have a bite to it, a peppery sense that you can feel in your throat. This can be great when dipping some warm and crusty bread into a plate of premium oil. Others will have less. You can search out what suits your taste buds best.

If you are tasting more than one variety at a time, spit out the oil and rinse your mouth well with water before trying the next one.

Learn more about olive oil with this Olive Oil Primer.