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Up to 200 olive oil pro­duc­ers, food indus­try pro­fes­sion­als and jour­nal­ists will be attend­ing the 2018 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition event on April 26 in New York — and many will stay in the city a while longer for a com­pre­hen­sive 6‑day course in olive oil sen­sory assess­ment.

At 4:30 PM the sixth annual NYIOOC event will kick off with an olive oil tast­ing fea­tur­ing olive oils from 28 coun­tries, orga­niz­ers said, with del­i­ca­cies pre­pared by the International Culinary Center and music from the Juilliard School.

At 5:30, the results of the com­pe­ti­tion will be announced at a press con­fer­ence broad­cast live. Last year’s press con­fer­ence was watched by more than 7,000 view­ers around the world includ­ing, pre­sum­ably, olive oil pro­duc­ers them­selves look­ing for their brands among the win­ning entries.

The evening con­tin­ues with a cel­e­bra­tion fea­tur­ing olive oil mar­ti­nis and more culi­nary cre­ations paired with the award-win­ning oils.

The NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition is the largest olive oil qual­ity con­test and its annual list­ing of award win­ners is widely con­sid­ered the most trusted guide to the year’s best extra vir­gin olive oils. This year’s event has drawn an unprece­dented 1,000 entries, prompt­ing orga­niz­ers to close reg­is­tra­tion last month.

The results of the com­pe­ti­tion are announced on the final day of judg­ing, broad­cast live online and syn­di­cated through inter­na­tional media out­lets.

The 6‑day som­me­lier course begins on April 30 at the International Culinary Center in New York’s SoHo, where experts from five coun­tries will teach olive oil eval­u­a­tion in a cer­tifi­cate pro­gram designed by the Olive Oil Times Education Lab to impart knowl­edge and tast­ing expe­ri­ence in a fast-paced and dynamic cur­ricu­lum.

More than 120 olive oils will be tasted over the nearly sold-out course as stu­dents explore top­ics rang­ing from olive oil pro­duc­tion, chem­istry, food pair­ing, qual­ity assur­ance and advanced sen­sory assess­ment.