Tuesday, October 29, 2013

October 2013 Activity -- Olive Oil and Balsamic Vinegar Tasting

Ah Love Olive Oil & Vinegar
Mosaic District, Merrifield, VA
October 27, 2013, 6:30-7:00pm
Cost: Tasting - Free; Obligatory Purchases - $40

Once I got past the sign on the front door (literally and figuratively), I met Dilettante Amy inside this lovely shop for our private tasting. (The shop hours ended about 15 minutes after we arrived, so the proprietor gave us a lot of individual attention. It was awesome.) Dilettante Amanda was not getting her kicks on Route 66 -- she was stuck in some awful traffic, so we proceeded without her.


The shop owner loves olive oils and vinegars, infuses them, inspires her staff to come up with recipes using these lovely ingredients (which is how our host conceived of and made dark chocolate bark with pumpkin seeds and sea salt -- using balsamic vinegar and oil in place of butter) and it seems from our sample size of one employee, that they are all fairly passionate about this stuff. We dipped bits of bread in all kinds of oils and vinegars and they were all delightful. (I loved the Rosemary oil and cucumber melon vinegar. Amy was a fan of the fig balsamic.) We both ended up purchasing some bottles because the lovely gentleman kept the shop open for us longer than he had to and was so informative.


Dilettante Amanda and her Mondrian-inspired shirt made it off 66 in time to meet us over at Blackfinn Ameripub for some Amerigrub.