Good values in olive oil

Agree . I buy the California 0live ranch . Olive oil .Used to be sourced only from California. Now the label says . Argentina. , Chile , Portugal , and California. Am I disappointed. A little . Can I taste the difference. Not really . I will continue to buy it . Oh well .

They do have the oil from California only as well it’s a bit more expensive and not everyone has it. Worth it though. The bottom tier got too popular for them to maintain that volume

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I’ll look into it thanks . Maybe Amazon . ?

I know i saw it at Bristol Farms

I’ve seen both and purchased both at Ralphs.

The blend from other countries will say Destination Series and for everyday use on the labeling.

The other clearly says 100% California on it.

I’ll post a screengrab from the app:

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I’m way up here in Nor cal. I’ll find it one way or another. Real good to know . Thank you for the information

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I buy:

  • Kalamata oil (dark, green, strong flavor, $9 / 750 ml) from Trader Joe’s
  • Marca Verde il Classico from Sur la Table (light, yellow, mild flavor, $13 / 750)

I haven’t come across any reasonably-priced California oil in years. I’m sure it’s like wine, real estate drives up the price. For years I bought an excellent house-brand oil at a local deli, but I think those olive groves were ripped out to build tract homes. Or maybe the old guys who made it retired, and whoever bought the groves started selling it in smaller bottles at twice the price.

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I recently purchased. Saloio . A olive oil from Portugal off Amazon. I’m enjoying it

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I like Bariani from California. It’s not too hard to find, they have a harvest date on the bottle. It’s not super fancy but pretty good and good value.

But at the moment I’m going through a 5l from Eatly that was on sale for 40$ iirc

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Bariani is $30 / 1000 ml, 75% more expensive than Marca Verde. That’s about as low as good California oil gets these days. They sell at my local farmers market.

For sure. I don’t think people really appreciate how impressive the California Olive Ranch system is to keep prices that low and quality high.

Really the Bariani is reasonably priced and I wouldn’t consider it a high end oil but when I get it i can be pretty sure I’m getting something fresh which is more than half the battle

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If anyone here is interested there’s a small chain called We Olive that carries California oil almost exclusively. I have no financial interest in the company but I did work at one of the stores until a year ago. It really spoiled me and I now can’t deal with poor quality oil. Here’s a link:

https://weolive.com/

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I used to sometimes get Katz Farm Chefs pick as well but i don’t see it as much any more. Pretty good finishing olive oil.

We purchased a bottle of California Olive Ranch Ardequina - it was a bit too bitter for our tastes.

We really like the Cobram Estate 100% California Select oil.

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Arbequina is usually considered a sweeter grassier olive oil. When olive oil is really fresh it has acetaminophen like aftertaste that can make you cough, people who are really into fresh olive oil look for that but if your not expecting it that flavor can be off putting for sure.

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Really fresh olive oil has a sting that fades after a few months in bottle. I tasted some coming out of the press once in Sicily and it was shocking.

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Same here

Is it sort of like a pepper-y taste? Never had super fresh EVOO, AFAIK, so just trying to “picture” what the flavor is like.

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Have an uncoated tylonol or asprin! Kinda / Sorta.

Maybe this will explain it better

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The sting of new oil is kind of like the burning of capsicum or the electric shock / numbing of Sichuan pepper. It’s a non-taste sensation, not a flavor.

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