[colanderman]

Does anyone have any tips for finding quality olive oil?

The only way I've had success is to buy inexpensive single-source stuff, even if it's inexpensive and non-Italian. Best olive oils I've had were single-sourced from Spain; $2 from a discount store. Maybe no-one wants to fake non-Italian oil?

[elorant]

Best olive oil is Greek. Italian or Spanish ones are nowhere near the quality of Greek. In Greece more than 80% of total production is extra virgin while in Italy the percentage is less than 40% and in Spain 20%. Italians buy bulk olive oil from Greece and they mix it with their own oils to raise the quality. There are small brands that offer high quality extra virgin oil and I guess you could look some of them at your local super market or grocery store. If you want top quality you should look for small privately owned brands rather than big companies, at least for Greek oil. A few well known and trusted producers are Gaea [1], Papadimitriou [2], WEP [3], Eleia [4], Moria Elea Deluce [5], Maleas [6].

[1] http://www.gaea.gr/, [2] http://www.papadim.com/en/products/extra-virgin-olive-oil/, [3] http://www.fiveoliveoil.com/five-olive-oil-from-greece/, [4] http://www.eleia.gr/index_en.html, [5] http://www.moriaelea.com/?page_id=42, [6] http://www.maleasoliveoil.gr/en/olive-oil.

[_delirium]

Seconding this. It also tastes somewhat different, which is a matter of preference admittedly. I personally love the typical flavor of oil from Kalamata olives, which makes up a large part of the Greek-labeled production (i.e. bottled as Greek olive oil, rather than exported for blending).

Greek marketing and distribution has been poor, however, and very slowly improving. The traditional place to buy it in the U.S. has been in 5-liter tins at Mediterranean grocery stores catering to immigrants (depending on the region, these might be "Greek", "Lebanese", "Turkish", or "Arab" supermarkets). These are a great deal, especially if you cook with it, but off the radar of most regular shoppers. Lately I have been seeing it in smaller bottles in normal grocery stores more often. Trader Joe's now has a house brand of 100% Greek Kalamata olive oil, which they buy in bulk and bottle, and is very good for the price.

This is one thing the Italians got way out front of the Greeks on. Both Italians and Greeks at home will not typically buy small glass bottles of olive oil; the 5-L tin is the typical container. Partly that's because it's used in cooking, not just to sprinkle on salads or pasta. Especially in Greece and southern Italy, it's the main cooking fat, since butter, lard, canola oil, sunflower-seed oil, etc. are not widely used. But Italians realized that selling smaller bottles to the boutique export market was a good business, while Greeks only realized later that there was this market for premium-priced oil in a 500-mL bottle, aimed at people who use it for smaller-volume things (i.e. not for cooking imam baildi or French fries).

It does last a long time, though, so if you want a good deal, find your local Mediterranean market and pick up a tin, then transfer portions to a more convenient bottle with a funnel. Kept in a cool, dark place, you should get several years of shelf life.

edit: Everywhere I said 5-L above, substitute 3-L. Misremembered the size. The tins are rectangular and look like this: http://www.thegoodfoodnetwork.com/shop/images/26713/Iliada-p...

[bobdvb]

Agreed, if you can find the name of the exact location on the bottle then you are probably protected under a European PDO. Kalamata is an island famed for the quality of its olives. In the UK I buy Iliada oil from the supermarket, it is a good quality Greek olive oil that is one of the most popular brands in Greece (not just a made up brand for export).

Remember that each oil has its own smoke point and you shouldn't take Olive oil to it's smoke point. If you need to cook with smoking oil (some Asian cooking) then you need a different oil. I once saw a chart of which oils were best for different uses but I can't find it now.

[Florin_Andrei]

> Trader Joe's now has a house brand of 100% Greek Kalamata olive oil, which they buy in bulk and bottle, and is very good for the price.

Does it taste at all like olives, or is it the same bland test-tube oil?

> The traditional place to buy it in the U.S. has been in 5-liter tins at Mediterranean grocery stores catering to immigrants (depending on the region, these might be "Greek", "Lebanese", "Turkish", or "Arab" supermarkets). These are a great deal, especially if you cook with it, but off the radar of most regular shoppers.

This is an excellent tip, thank you.

[riquito]

Nobody that I know buys 5-liter tins of oil (I'm italian) and I wouldn't even know where to buy them. The most common format is 1 liter, followed by 0.75

[_delirium]

Apparently I have bad memory, because 3-L is what I was thinking of, not 5-L. I'm not Italian myself, but my Italian landlord brings these kinds of things (not the same brand, but same format) regularly: http://www.colavita.com/store/images/products/EV_Oils/Med-Ti...

Most households in Greece will have something like that, and they're easy to find in any country if you go to a Turkish, Greek, or Arab supermarket. I could be wrong about Italy.

[rafcavallaro]

Don't confuse olive oil for cooking (commonly purchased in 3 liter tins) with extra virgin olive oil. This article is about extra virgin olive oil. EVOO is usually consumed raw, unheated, with bread, cheese, on salads - it would completely defeat the purpose of the EVOO production technique which is one of low temperture, purely mechanical extraction, to heat EVOO to high temperatures as is commonly done with lower grades of olive oil.

[_delirium]

Just checked my 3-L tins to be sure, and they're extra-virgin also. The problem with the lower grades is that they're extracted with chemical means (hexane solvents) and generally worse for any usage. The modest price savings isn't really worth it, since better stuff is affordably priced anyway.

It varies by country, but heating doesn't necessarily exclude an oil from "extra-virgin olive oil"; the separate "cold-pressed" label covers that.

[riquito]

I'm italian and when you buy extra-vergin olive oil (btw I think I never buyed in my lifetime non extra-vergin olive oil) you can read where the olives come from (either 100% italian, mixed with european olives, extraeuropean). It's not difficult to make a choice. I'll try greek oil if I can find it and compare

[zdean]

Beware of 'local' oils, too. A few years back, I ran a food truck that served Belgian style fries. I tested a lot of oils and decided on olive oil, but everything I could buy at the store or farmers' markets were prohibitively expensive. After some research, I found a regional seller (I'm in Texas) that imports olive oil from throughout Europe and Africa. We ultimately settled on an African import that to me had the best flavor of the bunch.

The interesting things I took away from my meeting with this man were:

1. A lot (if not most) olive oils sold in markets are blends of oil that include cheap oils such as canola.

2. Many local producers throughout the country were unable to meet demand...so they would buy from him and then add to their "locally produced" olive oil which they would in turn sell at a huge premium on site, at farmers markets, and at grocery stores.

I don't have the business any longer, so unfortunately I don't have access to my supplier anymore. For now, I get all of my olive oil via Whole Foods...their store brand is the best priced and I assume that they have some relationships with their producers which minimizes the chance of being hoodwinked.

[kafkaesque]

"But fyi, there is an ever-growing list of recommended oils on my website: www.extravirginity.com. Best wishes, Tom Mueller"[0]

The only reason I quote the book's author is because on the Amazon review site, he exchanges some additional thoughts on olive oil with some Amazon users.

Here is the list, which is linked from Mueller's site: http://www.truthinoliveoil.com/great-oil

[0] http://www.amazon.com/review/R8G1CO1XY4DJ7/ref=cm_cr_rev_det...

[Fuzzwah]

Thanks for that. Turns out there is an amazing shop (somewhat) near me which it turns out I really need to visit:

http://www.oliveoilarizona.com/olive-oils.html

[seliopou]

Here's what you do. Make friends with immigrants that still have connections to their olive oil producing motherland. They either get shipments from their family, know somebody else in their community that gets shipments, or know somebody back home that may be willing to ship some. Ask them if you can buy some from them. Or, be nice to them and they may offer you some as a gift. I've done this on many occasions, and it's always very much appreciated.

And FYI, not many people press their own olives anymore. Typically they'll bring their harvest to a factory that will do it for them. And the pressing that is done is typically not a cold press, and they're certainly going to press it more than once. Oil is food, they're not just going to throw food away to be fancy. But what you will get from this process is still miles above anything you will get at the grocery store.

[colanderman]

Yes, I got a bottle of good Greek stuff from an in-law who got it from her dentist who imports it in small batches from Greece. "St. John's Iapetra" or something like that.

[bhickey]

Spiros -- can you hook me up next time you're on this coast?

[foobarbazqux]

If you don't know what you're looking for, you don't have someone you trust to help you, and you're unable to sample each oil in a taste test, the best way to buy high quality Italian olive oil is to look for the D.O.P. (in Italian; P.D.O. in English) certification symbol on the bottle [1, 2]. There's a similar looking symbol if the produce is also organic. This symbol means that inspectors have physically gone over the entire operation of the producers and checked it against a list of standards.

Other things to look for: the bottle says if it's filtered or unfiltered (the unfiltered stuff has much more of a peppery kick), there is a production date, there is a best before date, it says that the oil has been cold-pressed and mechanically extracted, and there is an indication of the region of Italy that the olives come from.

I have never been disappointed by using this method, but of course not every good oil is certified. For reference, today I bought Planeta DOP Val di Mazara oil, which is even available on Amazon [3]. Their price is 50% more expensive than what I paid though.

[1] http://italian.about.com/b/2008/07/19/waiter-my-cheese-has-b...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geographical_indications_and_t...

[3] http://www.amazon.com/Planeta-Extra-Virgin-Olive-Oil/dp/B005...

[tptacek]

Yes: order it from Zingermans online. Zingermans is a mail-order deli in Ann Arbor, a sort of culinary Mecca, and they specialize in sourcing lots of interesting olive oils. Their descriptions of those olive oils is pretty much dead on.

Get a couple Paesano loaves to go with it (throw the extra loaves in your freezer). I don't know what it is about that bread --- I think they mill some of their own flour --- but it is crazy and addictive.

Well, shit. This thread just cost me $400.

[hack_edu]

The article implies that you should find something that tastes good for you, not fetishize the origin/process.

[colanderman]

Right, but there's 100s of kinds out there, and I could go broke buying crappy ones. To me, the article implies that the system is gamed – I am wondering if anyone knows sources / etc. for identifying those suppliers which don't game the system.

My method isn't to "fetishize the origin/process" (what, do you think I'm like 12?), but to look for oils that carry lesser-desirable (and hence less likely to be gamed) properties (e.g. sourced from outside Italy; inexpensive).

[jff]

Yeah, I don't understand why they make such a big deal out of being sourced from Italy. Olives grown elsewhere should make fine oil, and you could probably use the honest advertisement of non-Italian origin as a gauge for the honesty of the company.

[rustynails]

The Italians have been caught selling rancid and impure olive oil in Australia about once per year (ie. just about every time it's checked). It applied to cheaper and expensive oils, so cost wasn't a judge.

I don't buy Italian olive oils any more because of the wide-spread deception. To be fair to the Italians, they were as dishonest as the Greeks and the Spanish. The list of brands was very long and the levels of rancidity/impurity were worrying.

The only name I remember that was found to be honest was Cobham. I think they're an Australian family business (but could be wrong). I have no affiliation with Cobham in any way, except I buy their extra virgin olive oil.

Interestingly, I know rancid oils are very poisonous, but have never found a reference to the ill effects of rancid oils.

[thiswave]

You might be thinking of Cobram Estate[1] Olive Oil? My mate actually works in their factory in Lara, Victoria. Apparently the family who owns it are very generous, and he comes home with a box of olive oil every other month (with one or two bottles then finding their way into my hands).

Cobram Estate, as well as many other Australian olive oil brands are certified by the Australian Olive Association[2]. For some reason they have a separate website[3] for listing certified brands.

[1]http://cobramestate.com.au/ [2]http://www.australianolives.com.au/ [3]http://australianextravirginoliveoil.com/brands/

[boyter]

That's good to know.

Cobram Estate is the oil I buy for dripping/drizzling on any food I eat. I just found it to have the best flavor out of the oils I tried and since they are Australian I thought I woulds stick with them.

I use random Spanish out of a can for cooking though.

[arbitrarywords]

Can recommend their "Robust Flavour" line. Really quite nice, fresh and olicey.

[davidw]

I live in Italy, and love the food here. I am sure I could not tell Italian olive oil from Spanish, Greek, or Californian olive oil. Perhaps there are people who can, but I doubt most of my friends here could. I happily buy the "Mediterranean" extra vergin olive oil to save a bit.

[te_chris]

The locally produced, New Zealand Olive Oil is far nicer to me than the expensive stuff I've had imported from Italy. Country of Origin is definitely not an indicator of quality in my experience.

[ctdonath]

I wish to educate my ignorant palate, not settle for a lowest common denominator, and somehow do so in a manner which will neither exhaust my wallet nor remaining lifespan.

[r0s]

The article makes plain that fetishizing origin is the only way to see past the disinformation.

[nextos]

I know a thing or two about olive oil. My family has had olive trees for centuries---probably since the Roman Empire.

A decent heuristic for finding good olive oil is to look for small producers that cultivate weird local olive varieties. These are generally the ones aiming at high quality. Such varieties are usually much less profitable.

Don't listen to people saying that Greek oil is the best one. That's utter non-sense, and a gross generalization. It's like saying that French cars are better than German ones. Sure, some French cars are awesome, but the Germans produce some fine ones too.

I'm Italian, and my favorite variety is Manzanilla Cacereña---a really weird olive oil from mid-West Spain. There are some fine Portuguese, French, Italian, Greek... ones as well. Just find a good local producer through the Internet and get it shipped to your place. I buy everything using this procedure. It's a bit inconvenient initially, but once you find your suppliers...

[jseliger]

I've been buying California Olive Ranch oil for a while, after reading this: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/19/dining/californias-olive-o... . It's about $16 – $17 for 750ml or about $20 – $21 for 1 liter. That's more expensive than generic olive oil but less expensive than many of the alternatives.

[thezilch]

Likewise, and you don't have to visit a Whole Foods like place. I get mine from a Vons / Pavillions, among the 50 other choices -- LOL.

[westicle]

My family actually runs a small oil-producing olive grove in Tasmania, Australia.

Our olives are hand-picked and cold pressed within 24 hours of picking. We produce about 200-250L of oil per year so it is a boutique operation.

We are currently bottling our 2013 oil and have a few bottles in excess of our pre-orders. If anyone on HN is interested in a bottle of gold medal standard Tasmanian oil, please message me for the details.

[willthames]

I clicked through to your profile but there's no obvious way to contact you.

[westicle]

Sorry - I had registered my email address with HN but hadn't included it in the public "about" section. Should be fixed now.

[Aloisius]

Find a place that does olive oil tastings and taste them. Seriously.

The Spanish wonder why Americans like Italian olive oil. The Italians wonder why Europeans like Spanish olive oil. The Greeks wonder why people call anything but what comes from Greece olive oil. The French wonder why everyone doesn't use butter.

But the fact is, the best olive oil is the one you like best. I'm lucky enough to be in the Bay Area and olive oil tastings are very easy to come by and so I've found a couple California olive oils that suit me just fine.

[ChuckMcM]

Well we came across Lucero [1] at a farmer's market, they are a California company, and drove up to their factory and did the tour. It isn't European or African oil but we like it.

[1] http://www.lucerooliveoil.com/

[dkoch]

If you've got a Costco membership, their extra virgin Toscano is a great tasting oil (if you like that peppery back-of-the-throat taste) and a bargain, about $15/liter in a glass bottle.

I'm not sure if it's available at all locations, seems to come and go seasonally at mine.

[aviv]

Nash's organic olive oil - http://www.nashsoliveoil.com/

He's at the San Rafael, CA farmers market every Sunday and Alemany market in SF on Saturdays. He also ships anywhere in the US.

[andrewcooke]

my limited experience fits your theory - we just noticed that one particular make smelt awesome when we opened it. turns out it was locally produced (i was living in the north of chile at the time; i suspect i bought it because it was cheap!). we've now found someone who sells it down here in santiago (not so cheap, but no more expensive than the imported stuff).