13 of the Very Best Olive Oils

Use: Cooking | Tasting notes: Mild

California Olive Ranch has been the brand of olive oil I’ve used most over the years. It’s affordable enough that I don’t feel guilty using a decent amount for shallow-frying, and mellow enough that it can take the background in marinades (but still not so neutral that the taste totally disappears when I whisk it into a salad dressing).

Many of our experts told me it is their go-to as well (not to mention, it’s a brand often used in professional test kitchens). Anna Hezel, senior editor at Epicurious and cookbook author, calls it a “mild olive oil that is still pleasant-tasting.” She uses it for frying, baking, and drizzling, noting that she’s “never had a bad bottle.” This is because California Olive Ranch is one of the few bigger producers that always notes that harvest date. Nick Coleman, olive oil expert, educator, and co-founder of the olive oil subscription service Grove and Vine, says, “it has a light to medium body, is a little buttery and viscous in the mouth, and isn’t too assertive.” Plus, “it’s at a price point you can really cook with,” he adds. That’s certainly true for Matt Hyland, co-founder of New York City’s Pizza Loves Emily. He says it works just as well in a dressing as it does drizzled on top of a sizzling pie straight from the oven.

Use: Cooking | Tasting notes: Mild, smooth

Iliada’s tins of olive oil have become my more recent go-to. This is in part due to the large size. I go through a lot of olive oil, so buying in bulk allows me to shop less often and the shape fits compactly in my skinny pantry cabinet. One note: It’s not easy to pour this oil directly from the hole in the flat top of the container, which creates an unsteady stream and drips down the side. You’ll want to decant into a separate squeeze bottle or glass bottle with a slim spout (this is the one I’ve been using for years).

But I also love the taste. Though Jenkins calls it “less assertive” than the distinctly flavorful oils she prefers for finishing (like the Pianogrillo listed below), I find it to have slightly more peppery notes than California Olive Ranch. While that bite disappears when cooking with more aggressive flavors like onions and garlic, it lingers on grilled bread and roasted potatoes (and is a welcome addition when applied raw).

Still, it’s mild and smooth, Jenkins says. “You don’t want to use a fine Italian estate bottle of olive oil for cooking any more than you would use up Chateau Lafite Rothschild to make beef Bourguignon,” she says. It’s also well-priced at 54 cents an ounce, one of the reasons her daughter uses it at her restaurant, Nīna June in Rockport, Maine, for almost everything. (That’s about half the cost of California Olive Ranch, which comes out to close to a dollar per ounce.)

Use: Cooking and finishing | Tasting notes: Well-rounded, green fruit, peppery

Cobram Estate’s olive oil is another I’ve used quite a few times. Because of the price point, it’s well suited for dipping and dressing, both of which benefit from something I can use liberally but is distinctly tasty in its raw form. I’m less inclined to pour from it than the Iladia tin when I’m charring roasted vegetables in the oven or sizzling chicken cutlets on the stove. “It’s buttery and grassy at the same time, which is a combo you don’t usually get,” says Hyland. “It’s complex but also easygoing. Get a nice bread, dip it, add some Maldon salt, and eat that for dinner.” Lycopolos points out that the taste can vary slightly from year to year, but that the California blend is “typically well balanced, with lots of green fruity notes on the front of the palate (artichoke, green olive, Granny Smith apple) and peppery notes on the finish (arugula, mustard greens, peppercorn).”

The company also produces a few varieties of less expensive extra-virgin olive oil — right around the price point of California Olive Ranch — that are all a bit mellower in taste. The classic — in between robust and mild — is another bottle I’ve tested that hits a similar sweet spot: subtle, especially when cooked, but flavorful enough that a raw drizzle over, say, roasted vegetables still gives you some flavor.

Use: Baking | Tasting notes: Fruity, plum

Sure, you can use any extra-virgin olive oil when baking. But I’ve found that certain, more mild varieties (California Olive Ranch, for example) fall more to the background, still adding their fattiness to the texture but not so much in flavor. If you want whatever you’re making to really taste like olive oil, you’re better off going with something more pronounced. For Lycopolus, that’s this bottle from Sicily from a producer who has been in the business for over two decades. “I use it in muffins and scones. It pairs so well with fruity desserts. It’s really good in chocolate cupcakes, and just drizzled on vanilla ice cream, sprinkled with sea salt,” she says. “I bet you didn’t think an olive oil could taste like plums, but this one actually tastes like plums. It’s so fruity.”

Use: Cooking | Tasting notes: Mild

I’ll note up top: This pick comes with two characteristics that Jenkins and Lycopolus deemed undesirable. It’s packaged in a plastic container (though, granted, a darkly shaded one), and it contains olive oil pressed from olives across the Mediterranean. But “don’t laugh,” Danielle Oron, author of Food You Love But Different, told us when she mentioned it as one of her favorites. “I go through a lot of EVOO.” A quick Google search backs up her claim — it’s well-reviewed across the internet (including by the one and only Samin Nosrat), especially compared to other olive oils in the same price range. “It’s definitely a light-flavored olive oil, and balanced, not overpowering or too bitter,” says Oron. “I might not use it for straight dipping bread, but I make really punchy salad dressings and it totally blends into the background. I also make a chili oil where you pour hot oil over chili flakes and scallions and it sizzles up.” Plus, at about 30 cents an ounce, it’s the best value buy on this list.

Use: Finishing | Tasting notes: Fruity, sweet, green tomato

While I go through cooking olive oil with abandon, I have to have a bottle of the finishing kind on hand at all times, too. This is, without question, my favorite one I have ever tried. It tastes a bit different year to year depending on the given climate and harvest time, but according to Italian-food importer Beatrice Ughi, there is one constant: “Because of the soil, it always has the flavor of green tomatoes.” Ughi likes using it to prepare seafood, but a fruity olive oil can enhance the flavors of everything from white meats to cakes to vegetable dishes — making the last sweeter and more caramelized. Pianogrillo is also one of the olive oils that Jenkins will drizzle on almost anything: “It has a distinctive fruitiness, but it also has a piquant kick in the back of the throat, which indicates a high level of antioxidants.”

Use: Cooking and finishing | Tasting notes: Grassy, peppery, balanced

For those curious to learn the difference between Koroneiki and Picudo olives or the history of how olives were crushed to make oil, Lewin recommends Fat Gold, a small-batch producer in the Bay Area. Every order comes with a zine with tasting notes and details on how that bottle was produced — anything from the subtleties of the olive varietal to the science of how it was grown and harvested — as well as recipes and sometimes even literary pairings (the September 2020 issue recommends poems and a novella “to read with your Fat Gold”). Lewin is also a fan of the flavor and texture. “It’s grassy but not bitter, and it’s super-versatile,” she says. “It’s rich and really mouth-coating.”

Use: Cooking and finishing | Tasting notes: Peppery, bitter, mustard greens

According to Lycopolus, one common misconception about olive oil is that it can’t take high heat. “If your oil is fresh, you won’t get a lick of smoke,” she says. This means that searing a steak in olive oil is perfectly acceptable, and for that, Lycopolus prefers Frantoio Grove. “I call this my steak oil,” she says. “I love to use it both to sear the steak itself and then to make a chimichurri to go with it.” According to her, the tasting notes — peppery, bitter, with hints of mustard greens — pair well with meat. And while a milder, creamier olive oil may get lost in the flavors of a chimichurri, this one is “super-robust, and it can stand up to all those herbs and garlic,” she says.

Use: Finishing | Tasting notes: Roasted garlic, buttery

Sometimes flavored oils can skew artificial-tasting — but that’s not the case with Brightland’s chili, garlic, lemon, and basil oils, all of which contain the essence of their infused ingredient in a clear and appealing way. I have the garlic one in my own pantry, which I use to make an easy version of garlic bread and to whisk into yogurt for a dip that has an allium backbone without being too biting. Noreen Wasti, creator of Noni’s Place especially loves the chili oil, which she says is “smokey and fiery” and “gives this nice hit in the back of your throat.” Nisha Vora, creator of Rainbow Plant Life, is a fan of the lemon, which she says is “really bright, and doesn’t taste at all bitter or muddied,” as well as the “super fresh” basil. If you’re curious about the flavors but don’t want to splurge on a 375-milliliter bottle, Brighland sells a tasting set that includes 100-milliliter bottles of each.

Use: Cooking and finishing | Tasting notes: Mild, mellow (Sizzle); Spicy, assertive (Drizzle)

If you follow any chefs, recipe developers, or food personalities on social media, you’ve probably spotted Graza in their images and videos. The company, which launched a year and a half ago, has made its way into countless kitchens (including mine) and grocery-store shelves with a straightforward idea: It packages its high-quality oil in squeeze bottles, a method pros have always used by decanting. They make a milder flavor for cooking (Sizzle) and a more assertive one for finishing (Drizzle). With both, as Strategist writer Dominique Pariso writes in her ode to Graza, “the squeeze bottle means no slippery caps, no greasy bottles, and, most important, no accidental overglugging. Never again will I overdress a salad or drown my roasted veggies. Instead, I drizzle and douse with precision and control.” One note: While the bottles are made from recyclable plastic, their opaque finish (and the fact that they only house 500 or 750 milliliters of liquid) means that the oil inside stays stable.

Use: Cooking and finishing | Tasting notes: Bold, herbaceous (No. 1); Delicate, buttery (No. 2)

While Graza is indeed a set with one variety meant for cooking and the other for finishing, cook Ethaney Lee swears by Branche, which sells a similar duo. She says she likes them better than Graza’s for two reasons. First, the flavors are distinct, but not so mild or precious respectively that she worries about using them somewhat interchangeably: She has glugged No. 2 raw on top of a bowl of brothy beans and it still stands out, and she has whisked the “very bright and peppery” No. 1 into a dressing without it overwhelming the other ingredients, she says. She also likes the design of the vessels themselves, which she calls “more sophisticated.” Of course, this comes down to aesthetic preference, but what she’s talking about is quite clear: The material is substantial glass instead of plastic, the colors are more subdued, and the logo is minimal text instead of bold and cartoonish.