Olive oil is one of the few fats still considered good for you. High in monounsaturated fat, it's believed to contribute to lowering levels of "bad cholesterol." What should you know before you buy it or cook with it? We asked the experts, and now we can help you decipher olive-oil tastes, terms and even delicious recipes that might make you forget what you paid for the good stuff.

Answers to some slippery questions about olive oil

Excerpts from an interview with Dan Flynn, executive director of the year-old University of California- Davis Olive Center, which is partially funded by oil made from the trees on campus.

Why has it taken so long for Americans to get on the olive-oil wagon?

Olive oil has not been a part of our culture - large parts of the United States are more into vegetable oils and butter. But consumption has been growing pretty rapidly for the past 25 years or so.

How rapid is "rapidly"?

Just to put it into perspective, the average Greek person will consume 24 liters of olive oil a year, while the average American consumes about three-fourths of a liter a year - about the size of a wine bottle.

But now we're consuming 10 times per capita what we did 25 years ago. And even with our low per-capita consumption, we're the fourth-largest consumer of olive oil in the world. That's based on sheer volume, so we're just behind Spain, Italy and Greece.

Why should we care what grade of olive oil we're eating? Is there a big difference?

Yes, there is. What most people are used to in the United States, frankly, is the flavor of defective olive oil. One way to look at it is, when an olive oil has defects, it means either the fruit was defective before it was milled or it's been stored improperly - and so you're tasting the flavor of spoiled food.

What should we look for when buying olive oil?

Freshness is No. 1. Olive oil doesn't get better with age. So look at the date on the bottle and see if there's an expiration date.

How do you know when an olive oil has gone bad?

You have to taste it. Rancidity is the key factor - rancidity occurs when oxygen interacts with the oil.

What makes olive oil unique?

If you do a search in the Bible or even the Quran, you would see olive oil pop out a lot - it has a long, long history.

It's one of the few oils that's made simply by grinding the fruit and extracting the oil without any solvents or heat, which is the way most seed oils are produced. Most vegetable or seed oil is refined comparably to how crude oil that goes into your car is refined.

We keep hearing about the health benefits of olive oil. What are they?

Olive oil is high in monounsaturated fat, which has been correlated with improved cardiovascular health. It also lowers bad cholesterol and, I believe, is the only oil associated with that kind of effect. It also has a lot of antioxidants associated with fighting cancer.

Glossary

* Extra-virgin olive oil: The highest grade of olive oil, this oil is made by mechanical means without high heat or chemicals. It has a free acidity of not more than 0.8 gram per 100 grams and no defects. It can be made from hundreds of varieties of olives that are picked at various levels of ripeness and pressed as soon as possible. An earlier harvest generally creates a greener and grassier oil, while a later harvest makes more golden and mild oils.

* Virgin olive oil: This means its free acidity is not more than 2 grams per 100 grams and it may have minor defects.

* Ordinary olive oil: Often called pure olive oil or plain olive oil, this lesser- quality olive oil can be a blend of refined and virgin olive oil. Refined means the oil had defects removed with the use of charcoal or other filters. The final product was probably blended with virgin olive oil.

* First cold press: The oil was produced from the first pressing of olives with a traditional hydraulic press at a temperature of less than 80.6 degrees. The less heat and the quicker the extraction, the better the oil; however, this label doesn't guarantee a good olive oil.

* Unfiltered: Serious tasters prefer this oil because it's believed to have less oxidation and results in bigger taste. It could be cloudy because of remaining particles.

* Blended: This means the oil was produced using different types of olives grown in different geographical areas.

* Light or extra-light: These are marketing ploys and don't explain anything but could hint at an oil's lighter color or milder flavor. It doesn't affect calories: All olive oil has 120 calories per tablespoon.

Buying olive oil

Read labels. Look for a use-by date. And see where the olives were grown. See whether it says how long the olives spent between tree and mill. Olives start to deteriorate the minute they're picked, so the quicker they're milled, the better. Just because the label says it was "bottled in Italy" doesn't mean the olives were grown there. Italy can't supply enough olives to meet demand, so Italian companies buy olive oils from countries throughout the Mediterranean such as Turkey and Tunisia and ship it to Italy. The same goes for Spain and other major olive-oil producing countries.

When to use which

* High heat destroys many of the complex flavors and aromas of olive oil, so use premium, extra-virgin olive oil as a finisher or to dress a salad along with a squeeze of lemon, salt and pepper.

* An all-purpose extra-virgin can be substituted any time for butter, such as with potatoes or steamed vegetables. It can also be used in baking, with a general substitution of 3/4 cup olive oil for 1 cup butter. Olive oil's smoke point is about 410 degrees, with a high-end extra-virgin olive oil smoking at about 375 degrees.

Storage

The four enemies of olive oil are heat, light, air and time, which all contribute to rancidity. Olive oil should be stored in a cool, dark place and in a sealed container. Some olive oils are bottled in dark glass to help. Use all olive oil within six months of opening.

Tasting olive oil

Olive oils can range in fruitiness, spiciness and bitterness. Educate yourself by trying several kinds. Follow these steps.

* Pour olive oils into cups. (Professional tasters don't take the color of olive oils into account; they can range from yellow to a bright green.)

* Nestle a cup in your palm to warm the oil. With your other hand over the top to hold in aromas, swirl the cup. Inhale deeply and see whether you smell fruit.

* Sip a small amount and spread it through your mouth to see whether it's smooth or greasy. Suck in air (a slurping sound will result) to detect flavors of grass or earthiness.

* Swallow and then exhale through the nose to feel the level of spiciness at the back of the throat.

* Positive attributes are fruitiness (maturity of the olives when pressed, variety and climate), pungency (the back-of-the-throat biting sensation) and bitterness (a pleasantly bitter taste).

* On the negative side, oils can be fusty (the olives started fermenting because they sat for too long between the fields and the mill), musty (the olives started molding before being pressed) and rancid (resulting from oxidation of the oil).

Sources: Alexandra Kicenik Devarenne, olive-oil consultant and member of the advisory board of the University of California-Davis Olive Center; The Passionate Olive: 101 Things To Do With Olive Oil, by Carol Firenze (Ballantine Books, $20, 245 pages); Dan Flynn, executive director of the UC-Davis Olive Center; the International Olive Oil Council; the California Olive Oil Council; and Kurt Spataro, executive chef of Paragary Restaurant Group

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