I’ve tried it and liked it! All sheep, if I recall correctly. Intense flavor, a bit on the dry side, but good texture.
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Recently at Oakland Grocery Outlet -
The Spring 20% off Wine Sale starts Wednesday, April 6 and lasts for a week. There are now about 2 dozen stacks of wine in the various aisles for a preview of what’s to come. The Villa Stellaria 2020 Petite Sirah looked interesting.
Isle de Cheese de Groceriana Outletandia
$8.99/1 lb (in wedges around $4 each ) -Prairie Farms Guoda, grass-fed,
$1.99/5.3 oz - Port Salut semi-soft cheese, product of France.
$1.99/7 oz - Ammerlander Havarti, sliced, product of Germany.
$4.99/5.29 oz wedge - Parmigiano Reggiano, aged more than 12 months, product of Italy. certified.
Deli -
$1.99/8 oz (4x2oz single containers) - Good Foods Avocado Mash, Hass avocados, lemon juice, black pepper, sea salt, no preservatives, product of Mexico.
$1.99/16 oz - Strauss Family Creamery Organic Sour Cream, from pasture-based herds.
$1.99/8 oz tub -Good Foods Spicy Queso Blanco-style dip, plant based, with cauliflower, chiles, almonds, cashew butter, from Good Foods of Pleasant Prairie WI.
Edited to add:
50 cents/16.9 oz - Vita Coco Boosted, coconut water, coconut cream, caffeine from tea, coconut mct oil, with added B-vitamins, product of Canada.
$1.49/3.53.oz - Polar Kipper Snacks naturally smoked boneless herring fillets in brine and own juice, 1500mg of omega-3 fatty acids per serving, no preservatives, wild caught from North East Atlantic, product of Germany.
These are my favorite kippers and I’ve gone heavy on small canned fish during the pandemic. This is a very good price and will go well with the Strauss Family Organic Sour Cream.
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I like this Isle de Cheese de Groceriana Outletandia. 
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Thought I’d share one of my favorite recent finds – Partanna Castelvetrano Olives at Grocery Outlet, I believe $4.99/jar at the San Rafael GO in Marin (I keep forgetting to take photos in store).
I really love castelvetrano olives, and I (shamefully?) prefer the pitted ones (so I can eat them faster!), and these are great pitted castelvetrano – nice and crisp. I find the few at the top of the jar are a little soft (like canned olives), but past that, they’re lovely – just as good as any olives I’ve bought from Whole Foods or local specialty delis (I’m pretty sure very few of these olive bar olives are actually “local” or “fresh” anyways).
$4.99 had seemed a touch high to me, but I just did the math and it’s not bad: the jar claims a dry weight of 9oz, so around $8.87 a dry weight pound. Most olive bar prices I’ve seen vary from $9.99 to $11.99, and you’re probably getting a bit of the brine in there too.
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Ahh thanks for the reminder I forgot about the wine sale. I like that Acacia rose.
Thought I’d share a handful of recent “finds” from the San Rafael GO.
There’s definitely other interesting stuff there (e.g. I keep wanting to try the “TRUFF” Mayo/Hot sauces but feels like it’s still priced too high), these are all things I’ve bought and enjoyed.
Obligatory cheese section shot.
I think this is a pretty decent discount on the small perfect bars ($4.99/8, $2 off), which our toddler is a huge fan of.
I actually really like this Scandinavian cider. The label design leads one to expect a grossly sweet cider (which was keeping me from trying it), but it’s actually pretty balanced. It’s not super dry, but avoids cloying sweetness. Smooth vs. acidic. $2.99 I think.
OK, these I haven’t tried but threw in for the novelty. CBD Water! 
I have bought some of these (not this brand) for $$$ at like, Oliver’s Market. $1.99
Tried this Artikaas “Hay There” cheese w/ Walnuts (and cranberries?) $9.99/lb (the chunks seem to land around $5) the other day and thought it was pretty good for the price. Slightly soft cheese complimented by the walnuts (I didn’t really taste the cranberries much but I assume they’re in there.
Galbani grilling cheese $1.49. We’re Haloumi fans, and this, if pan fried gently, gets you somewhat close to Haloumi for a pretty good price (generally I’ve seen haloumi chunks this size around $8, cheapest is at TJ’s but they don’t carry it all the time). I think it has less milkfat than the haloumi, and it’s … less squeaky? It’ll melt instead of crisp like Haloumi if you don’t get the pan temp just right.
Grabbed these pita chips ($1.99) to go with some hummus the other day not expecting anything special (the bag design gives one the impression of a cheap chip), but they’re quite good – the package claimed “made from real sliced pita” and the appearance supports this. Nice and thick (usually twice the thickness I’d expect from most bagged pita chips), great for dips.
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Santa Cruz.
Wine sale is in full swing, but some stuff won’t be put out until the weekend. The Truff mayos are still on shelves. I’ve never tried them, but I do like the Truff hot sauce. I need to try this halloumi, it’s not often on shelves here. There is a good price on Ricotta Salata (front of store case) but I haven’t tried this brand.
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Hi anaxgorous,
I think that the Ricotta Insalata ($12/lb?) is made with goat’s milk, saw it in Oakland today but didn’t get it which I’ll do next time.
Did pick up the Haras de Pirque 2016 Reserva de Propriedad which Bargainwhine at grossoutwine liked for its earthiness after 4.5 hours of air.
Villa Stellaria Petite Sirah 2020 ($12 before discount) was recommended and will open it up this weekend.
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Wine Sale visit today: Our local SouthOC GO had an EOS white blend and another made by Etude. Otherwise not a lot I could recognize but I usually go by variety and fruit source anyway, so I put together a case and will have fun going through it. I’d found a few ‘keepers’ at the GO in Hayward last month, but none of them were here today. Sometimes I get lucky enough that they have more of something we enjoy. Usually not but, hey, I’m not complaining at these prices.
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Did anyone try the Apiterra honey, specifically the forest variety? (They also have other types - maybe a wildflower and one other.)
I like dark maple syrups, so I thought this dark amber-colored raw honey from Belarus might be a good buy. But I just opened the jar and it has a very strong funky mushroom-y note along with the usual honey flavor. Is this just how honey from this kind of source typically tastes, or did I get a bad batch? (The jar has a “best before” date of 2026, so doesn’t seem likely to me that it’s just past its prime.)
Excerpt:
…
So I called Greg Kobayashi, Grocery Outlet’s director of wine, beer and spirits, to ask how the whole operation works. He described the company’s wine-buying strategy as “opportunistic”: As with the food it stocks, it’s taking advantage of excess inventory that suppliers are willing to get rid of at a major discount. “If a winery estimates it’s going to sell 10,000 cases of wine, it may produce 12,000 cases,” he said. At the end of the year, when the winery wants to move on to selling its next vintage, it could sell the extra 2,000 cases to Grocery Outlet.
…
If wine writer Esther Mobley had done her research, she would have known that the one bad bottle she did get was returnable for a refund. She did find some gems like Skyfall’s 2017 Walla Walla Cabernet Sauvignon ($5.99) and some others.
Correction:
An apology to Esther Mobley - according to Grocery Outlet’s web site, returns and refunds on items such as wines are temporarily suspended due to Covid. Previously returns and exchanges were allowed with a receipt within 30 days at the store of purchase.
“Temporary Return Policy: Due to health concerns regarding COVID-19, refunds or exchanges will not be accepted at this time. Thank you and stay safe!”
https://www.groceryoutlet.com/our-story/frequently-asked-questions
Recently at Oakland Grocery Outlet -
$2.99/7 oz. - Emporium Selection Halloumi Grilling Cheese, product of Greece, made with cow’s milk.
$6.49/lb - Old Country Farms, organic colored cheddar cheese, repackaged into 14 or 15 oz. chunks with a generic label, from WI. After some digging, I found that Old Country Farms is made up of a co-op of about 250 Old Order Amish dairy farmers who milk cows by hand, use old style-milk cans and the milk travels only about 50 miles to be processed.
Cheesemaking recommences in the wee hours of Monday morning and might wrap up around 4 p.m. It’s a long day, since all of Sunday’s milk is processed.
The co-op’s milk is coaxed out of the cows the old-fashioned way: by hand. It’s cooled the old way, too, with the cans immersed in cold water in tanks, in buildings whose function gave rise to the term “milk house.”
Since the milk is picked up six days a week and travels only 50 miles or so, the freshness is unreal, Everhart described.
What’s more, this milk is handled relatively little. The cans are unloaded and dumped, one a time. This milk does not “go through pump after pump and get broken down before they even start making cheese out of it,” Everhart said.
That remarkable freshness of the milk carries over to the cheese. A bag of K&K curds - acquired on a Tuesday morning - was still squeaky three days later. Curds from many other factories lose their delightful squeak as soon as 24 hours after being scooped from the vat.
https://www.oldcountrycheese.com/
99 cents/10 oz. jar - Mezzetta Diced Hot Jalapeno Peppers, hot.
99 cents/11 oz. plastic jar - Peter Pan Natural Almond Butter
50 cents/16 oz. carton - Nut Pods Almond & Coconut Creamer, non-dairy, French Vanilla flavor, unsweetened.
50 cents/16.9 oz. carton - Vita Coco Boosted Coconut Water with MCT oil, 40 mg of caffeine from tea, B-Vitamins, Chai flavor.
$4.99/750 ml btl - Silver Totem 2017 Red Blend from Columbia Valley, Washington. I might give it another try because of the price and some favorable reviews but on the first day I found the sweet cherry a little overpowering for me.
Maybe a couple days and some air might bring out what others saw in it.
https://www.vivino.com/US/en/silver-totem-red-blend-us-columbia-valley/w/6170254
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thank you, great report! I’m eager for the halloumi to make it to my store in the North Bay and will give the generically packaged cheese an extra look from now on!
EDIT: Maybe to add something to this thread, I’ll say this: watermelons have shown up at my local Grocery Outlet ($3.99/ea). I am curious to cut into it and see how it is. I love watermelons and often buy at Costco (price is pretty similar), but in the shoulder season I try to avoid it because I constantly seem to get bad ones.
Curious how people feel about produce at Grocery Outlet? I most regularly buy berries and find their pricing is competitive but I’ve bought basically across the spectrum. Generally I’ve been happy with the produce, although you often need to be choosy.
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Santa Cruz:
Ocean Naturals canned solid tuna in olive oil: albacore $2.99, yellowfin $1.99. As promised, solid cut. Tasty! Responsibly caught. Company is in Bellevue WA though it’s packed abroad. Would love to try their jarred confit style tuna belly. https://oceannaturals.com/sustainability/
Kent mangos 4 for $5
Milk Bar confetti cookies $1.48 (mentioned above). Kids happily ate them but found them too soft.
I find their produce staples affordable and fresh. Today got celery, cilantro and parsley, cucumbers.
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