Premium Olive Oil

Best premium and mail-order olive oil

One reason it's so tough to identify the best supermarket-brand olive oil is that reviewers tend to concentrate on premium-priced oils, which are often sampled like fine wines at upscale tasting parties. This is a good thing in that there are lots of available opinions, but it complicates your decision in that there are so many different brands of imported and artisanal olive oils that it's nearly impossible to find a consensus pick. Yet another difficulty is that one reviewer's best-ever premium olive oil may be virtually impossible to find in stores, while another's may only be pressed (and available) at a tiny olive grove in northern California.

Faced with this conundrum, we decided to go with the opinion of Cook's Illustrated, on the premise that any magazine that regularly updates its roundups of olive oil must have a good idea what it's talking about. In its 2006 roundup of extra virgin olive oils from Italy, Spain, Greece and the U.S., Cook's gives top honors to a Spanish brand, Columela (*Est. $16 for 17-oz. bottle), citing its "fruity flavor and excellent balance." Columela finishes slightly ahead of a more expensive Spanish entry, Nunez de Prado (*est. $30 for a 16-oz. bottle), as well as the significantly cheaper Greek import Terra Medi (*est. $11 for a 17-oz. bottle).

As mentioned above, other imported olive oils have their champions as well. The top-ranked source in our All Reviews chart, Good Housekeeping, puts its money on the Italian import Monini (*est. $10 for a 17.9-oz. bottle), calling it "the perfect all-in-one oil, with a lightness that's also surprisingly rich and complex." It's true that Monini is significantly cheaper than Columela (and only slightly more expensive than Colavita), but this olive oil doesn't do as well by Cook's Illustrated, which likes its "peppery, bold and pungent" taste but also calls it "greasy" and "slightly inelegant."

We also found some recommendations for Greek olive oils, though lacking any description of the methodology behind these picks we weren't persuaded to include any in ConsumerSearch Fast Answers. About.com's Guide to Greece Travel recommends Tassos, but says it's only available online in three-liter containers (so it might go bad before you work your way through the tin); his second and third picks are Cretan olive oils as well. In its 2007 roundup, the Australian magazine Choice chooses P'NOE Breath of Life for the top spot, but this brand doesn't appear to be available in the U.S.

Several experts recommend buying olive oil from small producers. If you live in California, you'll have much more choice here than those in other states, since California hosts at least 200 small olive-oil producers. In an article by Charles Passy of The Wall Street Journal, Zingerman's olive oil club (*est. $195 for four months) is said to be a great gift for foodies, and a good way to try out small-production oils from around the world. The four-month club gets you a 1/2 liter bottle of premium olive oil per month, accompanied by a loaf of bread. The first shipment comes with a dipping plate.

Food critic David Rosengarten has his own Fresh-Pressed Olive Oil Club (*est. $60 per quarter for three 250 ml bottles, or $90 for 500 ml bottles). Oils are selected by an "olive oil sommelier" according to growing season, so members get the very freshest oil.