Positive Attributes
- Fruity
- Green fruit
- Ripe fruit
- Bitterness: Sensation produced similar to that of coffee, tonic water, and dark chocolate.
- Pungency: Sensation similar to that of black pepper felt often at the back of the throat.
Negative Attributes
- Fusty/muddy sediment: Characteristic obtained from olives piled or stored in a manner that advanced stages of anaerobic fermentation have occured, or of oil that has remained in contact with sediment in tanks or bottles producing anaerobic fermentation.
- Musty-humid: Defect obtained from fruit stored in humid conditions for several days, resulting in the development of mold.
- Winey-vinegary Acid-sour: Characteristic reminiscent of wine or vinegar. This flavor is mainly due to a process of aerobic fermentation in the olives or in acid-sour olive paste due to the formation of acetic acid, ethyl acetate and ethanol.
- Rancid: Flavor of oils which have undergone an intense process of oxidation.