May be boring, but I am a fan of the Toscano EVOO from Costco. It’s often recommended in blood, etc too. It’s reasonably priced (or was… gulp… We’ll see when they can get a next batch out). I know, I know… waste to cook with EVOO, but I like this oil for light or quick sauteeing. I think it also works really well for salad dressings and marinades. Adds a nice enough olive flavor, but not overwhelmingly fruity. It’s a good week rounded olive oil.
For drizzling or dipping, I prefer a much greener and fruitier olive oil. I really enjoyed the Iliad Kalamata olive oil. Really nice on your tomato, mozzarella salads.
For quite a while my Costco, SF and SSF, doesn’t have the Toscano, no olive oil in glass. Now they have a 100% extra virgin California one in glass … haven’t yet opened it to sample.
9nly here wouldI even bother asking. I couldn’t bear to be missing out!
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CCE
(Keyrock the unfrozen caveman lawyer; your world frightens & confuses me)
27
CO2 diffuses through plastic, glass, aluminum cans, but as you’ve noted it seems to happen faster in plastics. I think glass bottles are better than aluminum but it’s been too long since I looked at this stuff to be sure.
One thing I am sure of is that when I used to drink a lot of Coke, I thought it tasted a lot better from a glass bottle than from plastic and hated it when the plastic bottles became ubiquitous.
Hmmm… my favorite way to drink coke is from a 2 liter plastic bottle. Not so much the first serving, but once air is introduced into the bottle it is less like drinking a glass of fizz and more liquid like, but still has the carbonated edge.
I also freeze coke ice cubes so it does not get diluted with water.
CCE
(Keyrock the unfrozen caveman lawyer; your world frightens & confuses me)
30
I wonder if it’s possible that California Olive Ranch sells into store-brand channels like Costco?
My first job as an engineer was working for a personal care company that had the number 1 best selling item in a number of their channels. I was shocked to learn they also made competing private-label versions of those items for Target, Walmart, major national grocery chains.
Wouldn’t be a bit surprised as they are huge. While COR has no orchards or facilities in Cuyama Valley, they do state they process fruit for more than 4,000 contracted acres.
Do you think the olive thieves will stop at bottling unadulterated olive oil? Wanna bet other oils will be diluting the "olive " oil they sell? And, with the retail price of olive oil doubled and worse, I suspect the established distributors will be cutting the real stuff, too.
I’ve been buying olive oil from this company https://sunshineinabottle.com/collections/olive-oil for several years. It’s really good. The boxes of their “marsala” brand are great for refilling glass bottles. The varietal oils are excellent. I think I first read about this company on CH, perhaps, if my memory serves.
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CCE
(Keyrock the unfrozen caveman lawyer; your world frightens & confuses me)
35
Thanks for posting, but man, that’s just insane.
ETA
Have you tried any of their flavored oils? The Mediterranean Medley sounds interesting; they say it’s cold pressed with oregano, basil, garlic, and rosemary. But I’m not sure what you get out of those herbs when pressed - I’d think it’d be an aqueous liquid rather than oily and wonder how well they mix with the evoo.
Would anyone here be able to chime in on any of these olive oils - any comments on quality, flavor, price/value would be super helpful as I am not familiar with any of these brands.
