Everyday Extra Virgin: A Buying Guide

In which we decapitate zombie facts and discover affordable oils that outshine their pricey peers

People have been cooking with olive oil for millennia. But here in the U.S., it’s a surprisingly recent phenomenon. It wasn’t until the 1980s when recipes using olive oil began to pop up in cooking magazines, and even then its proponents had to contort themselves to persuade Americans to cook with something so exotic. (Wouldn’t margarine do?)

Yet olive oil won Americans over. Today, the United States is the number-two consumer of olive oil in the world; we surpassed Spain for the first time last year. But consumer confusion has remained: Should you cook with olive oil? Or does high heat ruin the stuff? How can you tell if it’s rancid? Can you trust that extra virgin olive oil is actually extra virgin? (Don Corleone, remember, got his start in the olive oil business.) What’s a polyphenol? And why is this all so complicated?

In this month’s buying guide, we’re busting olive oil myths and breaking down what you need to know –– and, just as important, what you don’t –– to choose a fresh, high-quality, affordable oil. Even more exciting, we’ve discovered some damn good deals on the freshest oil, a boon in this era of rising prices.

The Hunt

First, why choose olive oil? It’s low in saturated fat and high in Omega-3 fatty acids, especially compared to other plant oils. Fresh, high-quality olive oils also contain high levels of Vitamin C, Vitamin K, and polyphenols, the naturally occurring compounds that have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. (If you get a strong peppery aroma or burn from your oil, that’s the polyphenols.)

Oh, and, it tastes great.

There are more than a thousand varieties of olives growing in dozens of countries, so be wary of anyone who promises to answer the question: “What is the best olive oil?” Instead, think of olive oil like wine. Different olives and climates produce different oils; and different flavors (and price points) may be more, or less, to your taste.

“When people ask me which olive oil they should buy, I always turn the question around and ask them: What is important to you?” says Alexandra Kicenik Devarenne, an olive oil consultant and educator and director of the Extra Virgin Alliance.

For this buying guide, what was important to us was high-quality, everyday oil. It had to be easy to find — preferably at the supermarket, though we also considered some online options — and nothing that cost more than $1 per ounce. Though many people believe that you need one oil for drizzling/dressings and another for cooking, we were keen to find something good and affordable enough for both.

Based on what we know about freshness — and the importance of good storage — we added some additional prerequisites.

1. We only considered oils with a harvest date or a “best by” date. (We prefer harvest dates, but some retailers prefer or even mandate “best by” instead, so we allowed them as long as we could find a date at least 12 months in the future.)

2. As light and air are olive oil’s archenemies, we also only considered oils that were sold in dark-glass bottles or tins. This is a sign that producers take freshness seriously, and dark containers help the oil to last longer.

3. Knowing we couldn’t begin to taste every oil on supermarket shelves, we tried to select beloved and/or respected brands that we believe many Consumed readers naturally reach for.

   

Let’s Do a Little Myth-Busting, Shall We?

I’ve recently become enamored of the term “zombie fact,” which refers to myths that just won’t die. There are A LOT of zombie facts when it comes to olive oil. Old chestnuts like: Single-source oils are best. And never cook with extra virgin olive oil.

So, before we get to our awesome, affordable recommendations, we thought we’d decapitate a few of those zombies, and prepare you to shop for olive oil, no matter what you find on the shelf.

Zombie Fact #1: You can’t trust supermarket oil

In 2011, journalist Tom Mueller published the book, “Extra Virginity: The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil.” It was a gripping read that proved, as The Guardian put it, that “there is no business more slippery than oil.” I’m not sure how many people actually read the book, but its conclusion –– that most extra virgin olive oil probably isn’t –– became conventional wisdom, in the same way “don’t order sushi on Monday” did after Anthony Bourdain published “Kitchen Confidential.”

For what it’s worth, there is a technical definition of extra virgin olive oil: The oil can have no defects, such as off flavors; and must register a free acidity less than or equal to 0.8 percent.( Virgin oils, for comparison, can have acidity up to 2 percent.)

A University of California, Davis study, published around the same time as Mueller’s book, bolstered his conclusion. It revealed that a whopping 69 percent of the oils sampled from supermarket shelves in California did not meet the sensory criteria of extra virgin. Adding insult to injury, a consumer study showed that some Americans actually preferred rancid oil to the good stuff.

There is no doubt still plenty of fraud in the olive oil business. But Devarenne, the olive oil consultant, says that nearly 15 years later, what you find on supermarket shelves is superior to the old days. The reason? The technology to produce and preserve olive oil has vastly improved. This is true in the groves and at the mills, but also in the packaging. We recently discovered several oils sold in a “bag in a box” format that allows you to buy at bulk prices without worrying about spoilage. (See our top pick below!)

Of course, you still need to apply common sense. A super cheap extra virgin is probably too good to be true. But there are winners out there. Always choose oils in dark bottles or tins with a harvest or best by date. And if you don’t like it, take it back.

Zombie Fact #2: Don’t Cook With Extra Virgin Olive Oil