Discovering a Gourmet Treat

Flavored oils and vinegars can bring a lot of life to foods. While in Prescott, Jeff and I discovered a place to indulge our taste buds in new and interesting ways. Olive U Naturally (located in Bashford Court on Courthouse Square) sells balsamic vinegar in flavors like honey ginger, blackberry ginger, fig, coconut, chocolate, black cherry, blueberry, pineapple, and tangerine (to name about half) and extra virgin olive oil in flavors including lime, lemon, orange, wild mushroom and many more.

We stumbled across this shop quite innocently while strolling around Friday morning. Upon entering, the first thing you see are small casks with taps lining the walls above bottle racks (much like the set up at a winery tasting station) with a large round table in the center sporting bread cubes and tiny paper cups. As Jeff and I surveyed some of the flavors, we were approached by one of the two (very) friendly sales people and offered a taste which we accepted somewhat skeptically, unsure about sipping vinegar straight. (I know, I drink straight booze so vinegar shouldn't even cause me to flinch.) But after trying the raspberry and the tangerine we were hooked and a frenzy of flavor mixing began. The sales person brought us sample after sample which we inhaled, tasted, and discussed before allowing her to add another vinegar or flavored oil to create some new sensation. Once the oils were introduce, she suggested we sop up the liquids with bread squares, though some of the oils were worthy of a swig - particularly the Herbs de Provence flavor.

I'm not sure how long we stayed, but several other couples came into the shop while we were there and began partaking of the goodies as well. The room was filled with laughter and voices talking about bouquet, texture, and after bite. I felt like we were in an upscale wine bar. Eventually, we purchased three flavors - tangerine, cinnamon pear, and blackberry ginger. The tangerine has an aroma of peeling fresh fruit; the cinnamon pear is spicy and heady like Christmas pudding, and the blackberry ginger starts with sweet ripe berry flavors before a peppery finish. It was difficult to choose because so many of the vinegars were excellent. The most surprising flavor was chocolate, which had a dark richness tinged with a sweet scent. We didn't purchase any of the oils, though they too were excellent. (However, the flavors of the oils were not as strong, and we felt we could steep our own herbs in olive oil at home to simulate them.) Had we purchased an oil flavor, I would have chosen the sweet lemon for its ability to pair with all the vinegars so well along with its strong summery aroma. 

After making our selections and leaving the shop we began discussing the idea of purchasing these oils and vinegars as gifts. So, five minutes later we retraced our steps to buy a couple more bottles as a birthday present for Jeff's dad. (We picked the black cherry and red apple for him.) Today, when we celebrated his birthday, I used the three flavors we bought for ourselves to make syrups to pour over some vanilla pound cake. Unfortunately, they didn't turn out very well. Not because the vinegar didn't taste good, but because I cooked them too long (heavy sigh). In the past, I've made balsamic syrup by mixing equal parts vinegar and sugar and cooking it over medium heat until it boils and becomes thick. The recipe I have for this says the process takes about five minutes; however in my notes I wrote that it took quite a bit longer the last time I did this. So, when I made the first syrup today I boiled it about seven minutes before pouring it into shot glasses to cool. As I poured it, it seemed a good deal too thick to me, so the next two flavors I cooked about four minutes before pouring. By the time dessert rolled around, the syrups had become far too hard to pour at all. As a matter of fact, I had made balsamic vinegar candy. (I must interject here that we all sort of pried it out of the glasses and ate it anyway because the flavor was so good.) Jeff even thinks I should use some of the vinegars to make suckers for the holidays. (Yes, it's just that good!) My only explanation for this debacle of texture is that the plain jane grocery store variety of balsamic vinegar must have a great deal more water than this kind. I will be trying the syrup again, but I'll be adding some water and watching it carefully, probably removing it the moment the sugar dissolves.

Ultimately, I am enjoying playing with the vinegar flavors and considering what else I might do with them. The products are available online at http://oliveunaturally.com/, but shipping is pretty hefty if you're only ordering a couple of bottles ($12 for the first bottle and $1 for each bottle after that). Still, if you have any foodies on a gift list or just want to treat yourself (after all, life is short), this is the way to go. Enjoy!