I'm greek. We love our olive oil. But here's a secret: there is very little difference in "quality" as long as you are purchasing an extra-virgin, cold-pressed olive oil from a single source. Some types of olives yield a stronger tasting oil, or a darker green, or a more acidic oil, but these are personal preferences. We sometimes are able to purchase olive oil directly from a family with groves in Peloponnesus. It is wonderful. But so is the Spanish olive oil I have purchased from Costco. All of the California oils I have had have been delicious, with a beautiful golden color.

The only thing I would avoid is the "multi-source" olive oils. These are typically labeled as coming from "italy, greece, morocco, lebanon, spain, turkey". They do not come from a single source, so you have no idea how long they have been sitting around in holding tanks being shipped around the Mediterranean before being mixed and bottled.

Anonymous wrote:MOM’s house brand.

+1 and also Zoe's is nice.

Olio Santo

Anonymous wrote:California Olive Ranch. I use their standard EVOO blend for general cooking and one of their specialty small batch blends for salads and dipping.

If you like this, also try Lidl's California olive oil - really good!

The Sultan. It is from Lebanon I believe. It comes in a gallon glass jug or a large metal jug. Specialty/ethnic markets sell it. So good

Anonymous wrote:The Costco store brand extra virgin olive oil is very good and has been recommended by many chefs! It's also very reasonably priced.

+1