Don’t know if you shop at TJ’s @kobuta, but they usually carry Kalamata EVOO. It’s a good one with great quality.
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We used to use California olive ranch religiously but then as @small_h mentioned above, there were supply issues and now the “Destinations series” is simply a marketing spin for a blended olive oil. It’s fine but it doesn’t taste the same as the original single origin stuff. We managed to find two lone bottles at some random Target and snatched those up. We also buy oil from a local Greek market Sophia’s periodically.
(Apologies for the flipped photos… I’ve been trying to fix it but to no avail.
My husband B just recently bought a gallon of Burroughs which we haven’t cracked open yet. We’re both really into full-flavor olive oil so I’m hoping this is a good one. With so much recent controversy over the veracity of olive oil, we try to be as careful as possible.
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Jesus! that’s a lot of olive oil! If I bought olive oil in that size it’d go rancid before I had time to use it.
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We use A LOT of olive oil on a daily basis. All manner of cooking, dressings, marinades, bread dipping, fish cooking/grilling, finishing dishes, drizzling on avocado toast, etc. With this big jug, we’re planning on decanting into our daily-use cruet and keeping the jug in our basement which stays in the 60Fs. Hoping we can go through it before it goes rancid.
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I use a lot too, but there are only two of us. How many are you? When I first moved to NYC I bought a half gallon jug of Italian olive oil on sale and felt very frugal and efficient - but it went funny before we had used up a third of it. Never did that again. I guess if you have a colder storage area you’d have better luck.
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I’ll go through a gallon in 3-4 months but I use it for almost all my sautéing and I roast nuts with it regularly. There are just two of us and we eat at home most nights.
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I use a lot of the above pictured California Olive Ranch for everyday cooking. Today I tried a bottle of the COR arbequina oil…good but not as good as the below one from Spain.
But this is my true love. Used for salads, bread, and finishing dishes. Both WF and Gelsons have stopped carrying it so now I’ll have to resort to Amazon or some other online source. 
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We eat at home almost exclusively too. But I realize we use many different cooking fats and not just olive oil. Sesame, avocado, mustard, bacon fat, butter, etc. So that’s a difference too.
I often buy different brands of olive oil when they go on sale at the various Greek and Balkan markets around here so that’s a liter by liter thing. But probably the bigger thing is not having a basement or some similarly temperature-reliable place for storage.
Basically 2.5 people (spring onion is not quite 5 years old but we tend to douse his salmon in olive oil with hopes that the benefits of the Mediterranean diet are real).
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Anyone have expertise with olive oil from Portugal?
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I can attest to that.
Yep, Northern California Olive Oil is good enough for me. It’s not that I have anything against Spanish, Italian or Greek. But I don’t know enough about them to pick the legit ones and supposedly they’re exporting and the U.S. is buying a lot of bogus ones. I use the California Olive Ranch Everyday for everyday and I like the Arbequina, @celeryvictor, for finishing and special stuff, but I haven’t seen it lately so I’m trying out the Arbosana & Miller’s Blend.
Tips I got for selecting good olive oil is it should be in a dark bottle (lessens exposure to elements) and good producers confidently stamp the harvest date on their bottles. I got more tips but I forgot them.
Great Thread!
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Is that what the deal is? I wonder if that’s also why I can’t find the Arbequina, and they’re selling oils with new names like Miller’s Blend. Mass producing?
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Folks trying to establish olives and oils as a cash crop in Oregon.
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So, I had yet to give the Arbosana & Miller’s Blend a good testing when I posted this. Now? My verdict is the Arbosana is buttery, nutty, olive oil goodness. The Miller’s Blend makes me miss the Arbequina even more. If your idea of “bold & peppery” is an unpleasant sharpness in the back of your palate then this one is for you. 
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If you live near one of the We Olive Stores (mostly in California) they still sell an Arbequina BLEND, mixed with Arbosana and butterier than the 100% Arbosana they sell.
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The closest is Pasadena 20 miles. They might ship though. The Arbosana isn’t typically buttery? I’m wondering if the one I have is a blend. It has a slight sharpness, in a good way, but it’s very buttery. Are they required to divulge on the label?
I also noticed olive oil flavors seem to change a bit after being opened for a while, like wine breathing. Or am I imagining things?
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Yes, they do ship. The advantage of the stores is that you can taste first and they will re-fill bottles at around 30% discount.
The Arbosana I’m familiar with there is smooth but nowhere near as buttery as the pure Arbequina they used to have. The Arbequina BLEND is just that… in between. I’ve assumed the blend is a result of the Arbequina shortage mentioned here earlier and in other sources.
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Sweet!
My olive oil taste buds must be off. I thought the texture of the Arbequina was a little buttery, but in taste it was fruity, peppery, slightly astringent. The Arbosana was the most buttery in flavor (great on baguette w/a little maldon smoked salt). The problem with the Miller’s Blend is it’s almost all astringent. But, again, I’m only judging by one company. I haven’t bought anyone else’s in a while. I used to get Olio Santo but started liking all the different varieties of COR better.
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