20 Best Olive Oils For Every Cooking Dish
Add an extra layer of taste.
getty Olive oil is more than delicious — it's really good for you. Not only that, it's also an important part of the heart-healthy Mediterrean diet, and it can be enjoyed in countless forms — cooking, using it in a salad, making a dressing or marinade, or finishing all sorts of dishes like soup and pasta.
But what is the best olive oil? The gold standard olive oil is extra virgin, and it comes at all price points and from many origins. While each olive oil boasts its own benefits, these are some of the greatest choices out there.
1. Sky Organics Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil
This% pure Extra Virgin Olive Oil is cold pressed, unfiltered, and sourced from small organic farmers in Greece. Certified with a protected designation of origin seal, Sky Organics Olive Oil is produced in small batches to maintain its rich, signature flavors from start to finish.
(Check prices and reviews on Amazon)
2. Lucini Oil Olive Premium Select
Lucini Premium Select Extra Virgin Olive Oil originates in the picturesque hillside estates of central Italy, where the trees date over 100 years old and the microclimate is ideal for growing the best olives. To assure quality and taste, Lucini handpicks at precisely the right time and presses olives within 24 hours of harvest.
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3. Temecula Fresh Basil Olive Oil
Temecula crushes organic California basil with olives to create the Best-Selling Basil Olive Oil. Fresh Basil Olive Oil is perfect in dressings, as a dip or as part of a meat or vegetable marinade.
(Temecula Olive Oil, $24.99)
4. Pompeian Robust Extra Virgin Olive Oil
This imported, first cold pressed extra virgin olive oil is authentically crafted by Pompeian’s family of olive farmers and craftsmen. Pompeian Robust Extra Virgin Olive Oil is the perfect partner for your pasta, marinades and salad dressing recipes, as well as dipping and drizzling.
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5. Bono Sicilian Certified Italian Extra Virgin Olive Oil
A kitchen must for those who love to cook, Bono is the exclusive house purveyor of EVOO for the James Beard Foundation. Plus, each individual bottle has its own tracking number to the land, so when consumers look at the bottle, they know they have the real deal.
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6. Laudemio Frescobaldi Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Laudemio Frescobaldi possesses an inviting aromatic scent of artichoke and fresh herbs, as well as a light peppery and buttery taste. Best used as a finishing oil, Laudemio Frescobaldi is great for topping off a variety of dishes. The olives picked for this oil are harvested and bottled within 24 hours.
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7. Cobram Estate California Select Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Cobram Estate’s EVOO is made only with California-grown and fresh olives, picked and packed in less than six hours to craft rich and antioxidant-packed products. It's complex in flavor and is made from several unique olive varieties not commonly found in other California products.
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8. Colavita Premium Selection Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Cold pressed using olives grown and harvested exclusively from the best regions of Italy, it has the perfect fresh, fruity aroma, with a spicy finish.
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9. PJ Kabos Greek Extra Virgin Olive Oil
PJ Kabos EVOO starts from the tender-love the groves need throughout the year, right up until the harvest, extraction, storage, bottling and transportation of the final product. The extraction happens just a few hours after the olives are harvested, and are stored in INOX stainless steel tanks under controlled temperature and constant Nitrogen pressure to protect from oxygen degradation.
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10. La Boella Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Extra Virgin Olive Oil from Barcelona Wine Bar isn't a standard grocery store olive oil! The La Boella Extra Virgin Olive Oil is intoxicatingly flavorful and served exclusively at Barcelona Wine Bar.
(Barcelona Wine Bar Restaurant, $18)
11. Giusto Sapore Italian Olive Oil
Hailing from the beloved Italy, Giusto Sapore's collection of all-natural extra virgin Italian olive oils are the best on the market. From infused olive oils to organic ones, all of the products are gluten-free as well as GMO-free. Organically grown olives create these exceptional Extra Virgin Olive Oils with a light delicate flavor and robust aroma.
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12. St. Helena Olive Oil Co. Garlic Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Pressed from garlic and late-harvest Mission olives, this oil is terrific drizzled over mashed potatoes or grilled vegetables.
(SH Olive Oil, $26)
13. Paniole Montalcino Extra Virgin Olive Oil
An organic, Tuscan extra virgin olive oil made largely from rare Olivastra Seggianese olives (50 percent!).
(Englewood Wine Merchants, $29.95)
14. Spiaggia Olive Oil
Spiaggia’s Olive Oil is organic, non-GMO, and imported from Italy. It's free of additives and produced using treasured traditional techniques.
(Spiaggia Restaurant, $40)
15. California Olive Ranch
California Olive Ranch cold presses this award winning olive oil from 100 percent California grown olives, all within hours of picking for a fresher taste.
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16. Frankies 457 Spuntino Extra Virgin Olive Oil
This olive oil is DOP Certified and has a ripe, bright and fruity taste, with incomparable grassy and peppery nuances.
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17. Carapelli Il Centenario Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Blended with premium Mediterranean olives, it offers exquisite quality from 100-year-old Italian olive trees.
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18. Dell'Orto PiccantOlio (Pepper) Olive Oil
Dell’Orto PiccantOlio combines extra virgin olive oil infused with hot chili peppers. These oils are cold pressed, all natural, unadulterated, great tasting, sold only in dark bottles, and always labeled with “harvest year” and “best if used by date” for freshness.
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19. Brightland Awake Olive Oil
AWAKE is lovingly made with hand-picked heirloom Coratina olives, and harvested early by a master miller onsite in a certified organic mill.
(Brightland, $37)
20. Zoe Organic Extra Virgin Oil
Zoe Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil is a sensuous balance of fruit and luscious butter with an aromatic bouquet of pepper, fresh basil, almond, and artichoke heart. Fruity and rich, it's the ideal complement to dishes from salads to pastas.
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Aly Walansky is a NY-based lifestyles writer who focuses on health, wellness, and relationships. Her work appears in dozens of digital and print publications regularly. Visit her on Twitter or email her.
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