For a start, I'm not particularly fond of the exotic green fruit. And secondly, as a proud Spaniard I didn't want to turn my back on the real love of my life ­ olive oil. The big fear going through my head was: "What if I like it?" In other words, I wanted not to like it. But intrigued to try something new, I went for it. Following the serving suggestions on the label, I first tried it just with bread and admit that I was impressed by its subtle fruity taste. Then, hoping to find something that would make it taste bad, I tried it in a salad, but no joy there either. It was still nice. My final attempts to avoid falling under its charm were to fry a piece of chorizo' in it and pour a drop into a typical Spanish-style cured ham and tomato sandwich. It couldn't possibly stand up to either of these tests, I told myself. But I was wrong. As promised on the bottle, it wasn't as smoky as olive oil when frying (apparently it has a smoking point of 255C) and I really liked the result. It gave a fruitiness to the meat that really grabbed me. Well, that was it. I could no longer keep the secret to myself so I shared it with two of my Spanish work colleagues and they were equally quick to give the viscous potion from New Zealand their seal of approval. However, I wouldn't say it won me over completely, despite my rave review so far. It has a more subtle taste than olive oil, so I would say that I could never change it for the intense flavour I am used to. Instead, this would be something I might like to try occasionally rather than making it a permanent fixture in my kitchen. In any case, at £4.99 for a 250ml bottle, this pretender to olive oil's throne promises to put quite a dent in the old shopping budget. Even olive oil in Britain, though still vastly over-priced, is nowhere near that expensive! {{P&P }}

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