Quick Facts

1. IT’S REALLY GOOD FOR YOU

Incorporating olive oil as a part of your daily diet has shown to promote heart health, lower blood pressure, and decrease risk of diabetes.

2. YOU CAN PUT OLIVE OIL IN EVERYTHING

Extra virgin olive oil has a wide range of flavor profiles which makes it an ideal cooking oil whether for a sweet or savory dish. We love olive oil on ice cream. We swap out butter for olive oil in our banana bread. We definitely cook and fry with olive oil. It truly is the only oil you need in your kitchen.

3. OLIVE OIL IS A FRUIT JUICE

Olive oil comes from the flesh of the olive. If you live near an olive tree try this: pick a fruit and smash it in your palm. You will have both water and olive oil on your hand. For that reason olive oil is considered a raw fruit juice. It is a healthy mono-unsaturated fat that is extracted with a simple crushing process, using no chemicals or solvents like other refined oils.

4. CHOOSING AMONG ALL OF THOSE BOTTLES ON THE SHELF CAN BE CHALLENGING

With so many choices we are faced with at the grocery store, it’s especially hard to choose a good olive oil when we are bombarded with confusing terms that are sometimes misleading. When in doubt, look for clearly labeled country of origin, seals of authenticity, and harvest date. That will help you differentiate between the real stuff and the maybe not-so-real stuff.

5. TASTING OLIVE OIL CAN BE NARROWED DOWN TO THREE KEY FACTORS

Fruity, bitter and pungent. When you open that bottle from the grocery store, smell it and see if you perceive fruitiness like apple, banana, or even fresh herbs. Next take a little slurp: little bitterness on the back of your tongue is an indication that the oil is a good one. If after you slurp it you get a slight burn in your throat, that’s a sign that your oil is full of antioxidants. With those three characteristics you can be fairly sure what you bought is a real extra virgin olive oil.

6. UNLIKE WINE, OLIVE OIL DOESN’T GET BETTER OVER TIME

After opening a bottle, try and use it up quickly- within about a month. We work hard to store your oil in the best of conditions with temperature and oxygen control. Once you buy it, we recommend storing it in a dark cool place to keep it fresh. Unlike wine that can improve with age, olive oil is meant to be consumed fresh. We recommend you don’t replace the cap with a pour spout that cannot be capped, unless you plan to use the bottle within a few weeks. These fancier pour spouts can let oxygen in and negatively affect the olive oil.

7. OLIVE OIL CAN MAKE OR BREAK YOUR DISH

As the godmother of Italian cuisine, Marcella Hazan, once said “Do you know what really matters in the end? It’s how the food you cook tastes. There is no more powerful agent for good flavor than genuine EVOO” If you think about it, olive oil is one of the only ingredients that you may put in almost every dish you make in a meal, and it will either add great flavor to the dish, or it could add subtle off-flavors. So choose wisely!

8. EXCELLENT OLIVE OIL IS MADE ALL OVER THE WORLD

Yes! Many of us associate great olive oil with Italy, and yes, they make great olive oil in Italy. But in the last 50 years many countries have improved their oil quality through refined production methods and we can now discover great oils coming from as far as Argentina and Australia and as close to our own backyards in the United States.

9. ALL OLIVES START GREEN AND MATURE TO PURPLE

It’s true! When olives are harvested and made into oil when they are on the greener side, they tend to yield a smaller amount of intensely bitter and pungent oils, which is preferred by some oil aficionados. If we wait for the fruit to turn purple, we may get more mild and buttery oil, which some of us prefer, too. At California Olive Ranch we aim for a 50:50 ratio for a nice balanced oil with great fresh flavor.

10. OLIVE OIL CAN BE LOCAL TOO

We are so proud to make extra virgin olive oil right here in California. Our fruit is grown by 70 family farmers who are committed and proud of what they do. For those of us that try to support local agriculture by buying seasonal vegetables, supporting locally owned businesses, and even growing the US economy, we can now do that in our kitchens by also using domestically grown olive oil, made with love.

11. ADDING OIL OR FAT TO A DISH IMPROVES FLAVOR

When you cook with a fat like olive oil, the fat molecules coat your taste buds and your mouth to accentuate flavor similar to how salt does. Adding fat to your dish will allow for a more flavorful dish.