Nobody gets too excited about buying neutral cooking oil, even chefs. But extra virgin olive oil is different. It’s not just a liquid to fry food in, it’s a true ingredient — a flexible and reliable product that levels up your kitchen game and also a sauce of sorts, perfect for dipping bread or drizzling on salads.
You might prefer a grassy-tasting California-made product or a more peppery Mediterranean one — either way, this elixir inspires true passion. Just ask the million-or-so people who read my last ode to the ingredient.
Whether you have the cash to splurge or just need the best bottle your money can buy (without carving into your cookie budget), we’ve got you covered. These 10 EVOOs (priced from most affordable to most expensive) each offer a bouquet of flavors and aromas, from grassy and earthy to botanic, rich, or even buttery.
Let’s dive in!
$10 RANGE — Monini GranFrutatto Selezione Italiana
Price: $11.99
About The Brand/Blend
Monini is an Italian-based olive oil brand that dates back to 1920. The brand’s GranFrutatto Selezione Italian blend consists of oils exclusive sourced from Italian groves selected by Zefferino Monini, the founder’s grandson, and like the more expensive brands, claims it has a higher polyphenol count than typical blends.
Tasting Notes:
Very robust, almost loud in flavor. It hits you with a mix of floral and grassy notes with a blunt and slightly bitter aftertaste.
Why We Love The Price:
It’s not the best finishing oil, it’s not going to turn your bread mouthwatering or elevate your salad, but as a kitchen workhorse, it always pulls through. It’s a cut above other brands in this price range and is made with olives from a single source, providing a more focused, less “muddy” flavor.
$15 RANGE — Ellora Farms Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Price: $13.95 (8.45 ounces)
About The Brand/Blend:
An award-winning EVOO (Gold at the World Olive Oil Competition, silver at the London International Olive Oil Competition, and Athena International) Ellora farms is a single estate olive oil harvested and bottled at the Kolymvari Olive Estates on the island of Crete in Greece.
The oil is cold extracted from cold-pressed Koroneiki olives that are completely climate controlled since harvest and extracted the same day as being picked.
Tasting Notes:
Herbaceous and fruity with a pleasing bitter finish and a lingering peppery bite. Probably the best value in the whole EVOO ecosystem.
Why We Love The Price:
Comes very close to delivering what brands double the price provide you. Complex and full of shifting flavors. Sure, you’re only getting about a single cup of oil for $13.95, making cooking with this oil a total waste of money. But over a salad or a dip for a good loaf, you’re not going to find more flavor for the price.
$15 RANGE — California Olive Ranch Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Price: $14.99
About The Brand/Blend:
Everyone has seen this brand, it sits alongside Bertolli at just about every supermarket nationwide so if you’ve never tried this stuff, you’ve at least thought about it. We’ve been paying a lot of attention to EVOOs sourced from the Mediterranean on this list but don’t sleep on California. While it doesn’t have the same history, California EVOO is some of the best on the market, and California Olive Ranch is a great representation of the quality oil that comes from the region.
California Olive Ranch is made using cold-pressed olives grown in California, producing a beautiful and appetizing emerald-colored oil.
Tasting Notes:
Light body with flavors of green olive, grass, and artichoke that tiptoe across your taste buds. One of the few oils on this list with a delicate, even floral finish.
Why We Love The Price:
It’s cheap and is good for damn near everything, from cooking to as a dressing. There is a reason you see this topping a lot of EVOO lists and rankings, for the price point and flavor it’s hard to find a more versatile oil. Use it for everything. Cooking, marinades, across a salad, and as a bread dip.
$18 RANGE — Oleavanti Qadisha Grove Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Price: $17.50
About The Brand/Blend:
Oleavanti makes small-batch virgin olive oils made from Lebanese olives grown and harvested in valleys that have been home to olive trees for over a millennium. The brand’s limited edition Ehden Grove EVOO took first place in our blind olive oil tasting from last year, and this time around we’re giving a shout-out to the brand’s Qadisha Grove blend.
Tasting Notes:
Made from 100% Souri Olives from Zgharta, the Qadisha Grove olive oil is noticeably nutty and fruity, it truly stands apart from every other oil on this list. The body has heavily herbaceous notes with whispers of peach and plum and a sumptuous buttery finish.
Why We Love The Price:
It’s a real shame that the more flavorful and interesting EVOOs tend to sell in small batches, but if this were in a traditional 500ml bottle, it would probably cost nearly $50, making this big flavor oil easier to fit within your budget. Don’t cook with it though, the flavor is distinct enough here that you’re not going to want to lose any of it to heat.
Instead, use this one with your favorite balsamic vinegar as a fine bread dip, the flavors are an interesting bouquet of notes you won’t find in a lot of other more typical blends.
$20 RANGE — Oleamea Organic Premium Everyday Extra Virgil Olive Oil
Price: $18.99
About The Brand/Blend:
Oleamea’s Premium Everyday oil is made using a single blend of Memecik olives that are cold-pressed just four hours after being hand-harvested in Turkey. Memecik olives are known for their green and grassy flavors and pungent aroma.
Tasting Notes:
Delicate, but not so light that it leaves you wanting. Green olive and almond notes dominate the flavor ending with a subtle buttery finish.
Why We Love The Price:
It’s on the more expensive side for a workhorse but there are few dishes this oil won’t serve greatly. If you have the means, use this oil on everything from stir fry to salads, to seared meats and toast.
$25 RANGE (Bulk Bottle) — Trader Joe’s President’s Reserve Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Price: $25
About The Brand/Blend:
Trader Joe’s sells a handful of different Extra Virgin Olive Oils and frankly, they’re not all good, but the President’s Reserve, made from 100% Italian olives and cold-pressed, is far and above the best. Excelling as both a finishing and cooking oil, Trader Joe’s doesn’t boast the richest flavor and most distinct flavor, but it gets the job done and tastes leagues better than brands like Bertolli or Carapelli.
Tasting Notes:
Noticeably fruity with notes of green apple and fresh-cut grass on the nose and a rich peppery finish.
Why We Love The Price:
It’s a great finishing and cooking oil and given that the bottle only comes as a quart so you’re going to get a lot of mileage out of it. It never feels like $25 wasted.
$25 RANGE — Cut 1886 Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Price: $25
About The Brand/Blend:
Another California EVOO, Cut 1886 is a slight step above California Olive Ranch in both price and flavor. It just tastes a bit more robust and interesting. The oil is made from cold-pressed olives harvested from the sun-drenched Bel Lavern olive orchards in Santa Barbara. The oil is produced in small numbered batches displayed right on the bottle.
Tasting Notes:
Much grassier and more vegetal than California Olive Ranch, with a robust flavor that passes through notes of pear and cucumber through to more earthy notes like toasted almond and peppercorn.
Why We Love The Price:
It does what the $50 dollar brands do for literally half the price, so you won’t feel guilty about cooking with it. I love it on pasta, it brings a robust mouthwatering quality to anything that it’s drizzled on. It has a louder flavor than most brands.
$30 RANGE — Calivirgin Premium Unfiltered Olive Oil
Price: $29
About The Brand/Blend
Single source cold-pressed olive oil made from estate-grown Arbequina and Koroneiki olives grown and produced in Lodi California. The oil is housed in a white bottle, which protects it from degrading flavors due to sunlight. You’d think every olive oil would be housed in sun-proof bottles, but for whatever reason, it’s not common practice.
As far as high-quality olive oils go, it isn’t prohibitively expensive for what you get in flavor.
Tasting Notes:
Very aromatic, with heavy notes of ripe green olives. Fresh grassy notes greet the palate and settle into a lush fruity body with the lightest peppery finish. That peppery bite is barely there, so if you want an emphasis on the more vegetal qualities of EVOO, this is your blend.
Why We Love The Price:
Because this is California EVOO, we don’t have to deal with any added dollars from it being an imported product, which really makes it tastes like it’s punch way above its weight. It’s so good that this is going to be your go-to dipping oil. I’m sure it’ll pair well with anything that calls for a good finishing oil, but the way this tastes on a good loaf of sourdough is magical enough that you’ll consider making a whole meal out of solely dipping bread.
$50 RANGE — Pasolivo Tuscan Olive Oil
Price: $47.95
About The Brand/Blend:
A gold-medal winning EVOO (it better be with that price), Pasolivo’s Tuscan Olive Oil is a bit misleading. While “Tuscan” is right in the name, the olives used to produce this oil are actually grown on Pasolivo’s ranch in California, it gets its regional name because the olives themselves are a Tuscan olive varietal.
So consider this Tuscan olive oil with a big asterisk, and that might actually matter… if this wasn’t so damn good.
Tasting Notes:
Grassy, extremely so with a warm and robust character and a floral finish with a lingering earthy after taste. There is a pronounced naturalness to this oil that brings out the deeper flavors of vegetables and seared meat, making everything it is used on taste just a bit more elevated.
Why We Love The Price:
It feels like you’re tasting something truly fantastic for the price. It’s pricey, but it packs a lot of flavors and doubles down on those grassy vegetal and floral notes. Really fragrant, it tastes way too nice to cook with, but I do it anyway.
$80 RANGE — Kosterina Original Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Price: $79
About The Brand/Blend
Harvested from Southern Greece and cold-pressed in small batches from early harvest Koroneiki olives, Kosterina boasts that their EVOO contains a higher polyphenol content than your ‘average extra virgin olive oil.’ Polyphenols are anti-inflammatory antioxidants and hardcore EVOO heads are obsessed with polyphenols, so if that’s you, this is probably your olive oil!
Do more antioxidants affect the flavor? Yes, actually.
Tasting Notes:
Very bold in flavor and herbaceous, with a rich earthy almost nutty body (I’m getting almonds and walnuts) with a floral pungent finish. Each time you taste it, it offers something new to discover. An absolute bouquet of flavors that is at times mouthwateringly sumptuous and fresh and vegetal.
Why We Love The Price:
We don’t. Kosterina is probably the most expensive olive oil on this list (though a more affordable 350ml bottle is available) but it is in a noticeably different class than most EVOOs you’ve likely tried in the past unless you’re an EVOO aficionado. Enough so that you absolutely will taste the difference. I keep this on the top shelf of my pantry and only bring it out when I’m trying to impress, either dinner guests or myself.
I’ve never had this on anything other than a nice fresh spring mix or on some sourdough with balsamic, to be honest. But the way this stuff pairs with arugula is a downright religious experience. Given the price, I kind of think it’s better as a gift than as a personal kitchen staple and as much as I love it, I can’t see myself actually buying another bottle. I will gladly accept it as a gift though!