I tried 25 olive oils and the best is one you can buy in bulk

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There's a reason California Olive Ranch Extra Virgin Olive Oil is a best-seller — it's got complexity, it's versatile, and all at an accessible price point.

For a fantastic all-purpose extra virgin olive oil, California Olive Ranch's flagship oil is for you. Made from 100% California-grown olives, this is a rich-tasting oil that has delicate notes of fresh grass and a hint of floral. It's the brand's top-selling bottling likely, in part, due to its versatility. 

Thanks to its milder flavor profile, it's ideal for baking, sauteing, or making salad dressings and marinades without an aggressively olive flavor. Available in three sizes, you get the most bang for your buck with the 1-liter version, and the label's QR code is a fun way to learn more about the chemistry data and origins of the oil.

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Domenica Fiore Reserva is a luxurious olive oil that is perfect for drizzling over a beautifully grilled aged steak or fish — every drop is undeniably flavorful.

When seeking out the best olive oils, I asked chef and author Nadia Caterina Munno, known as The Pasta Queen, for a recommendation. She turned me onto Domenica Fiore, an ultra-premium brand out of Umbria that produces four high-quality, small-batch extra virgin olive oils that quite honestly, all taste like heaven. 

The 2021 Reserva bottling is made from a blend of Leccino, Frantoio, and Moraiolo olives, hand-harvested and pressed within four hours, then blended to DOP (Denominazione di Origine Protetta) Umbria Colli Orvietani standards. The result is a flavorful oil with notes of almond and grass, with a smooth and vibrant, peppery finish that is ideal for finishing steak or grilled fish but also tastes great as a dipping oil. (If you prefer something a little more delicate, you can opt for the Novello bottling, a fresh and herbaceous oil made from the first harvest batch of the season.)

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Graza Sizzle is a Spanish standout that holds up well to heat and has a pleasant and mild flavor profile that also lets you create aiolis and marinades with a more subtle olive flavor.

When this arrived, I side-eyed the squeeze-bottle presentation as "gimmicky," but I've come to the conclusion that this is actually a genius packaging choice, especially for an oil that is meant to be used on the stove. 

This extra virgin olive oil by Graza hails from Jaen, Spain, where much of the world's olive oil is produced. Made from 100% Picual olives picked towards the end of harvest, it has a distinctively olive aroma but is not at all pungent. It has a lighter flavor profile, so it's an excellent oil to make aioli or mayonnaise since it's not loaded with robust olive notes that might overwhelm you. Graza calls this designed-for-cooking oil "super stable", presumably in comparison to early-harvested EVOO, whose aroma and flavor notes tend to be stronger but more delicate when exposed to heat. 

I reach for Graza's "Sizzle" often, taking full advantage of the squeeze bottle to douse my pan with oil when sauteing vegetables, making paella, or whipping up one of my favorite pastas, aglio e olio.

Read our full review of Graza olive oil.

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Kosterina Organic Everyday has a fresh, delicate flavor ideal for salads or dipping, packed in a Santorini blue bottle.

Kosterina is one of the first premium Greek olive oil bottlings in the US that is widely available, but also captures the spirit of Greece thanks to its clean white and blue packaging — you can't help but think of the cliffside homes of Santorini when you look at the bottles. 

Aesthetics aside, this extra virgin olive oil is really beautiful, with notes of green almond and cut grass, light and bright on the palate, with just a touch of spiciness. This bottling is made of 100% early harvest Koroneiki olives, organically grown in Southern Greece, and boasts six times the polyphenol content (the antioxidants that make olive oil a health food darling) than many other supermarket brands.

Compared to Kosterina's "Original" Extra Virgin Olive Oil, the "Everyday" bottling is noticeably more subtle, which makes it a nice choice for making salad dressings and marinades so it doesn't overpower the other herbs and spices that go into the mix.

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Villa Manodori delivers the flavor and complexity you'd expect from an oil that comes with the seal of approval from a Michelin-starred chef.

Italian chef Massimo Bottura uses this olive oil to finish the dishes at his Michelin-starred restaurant in Modena, Osteria Francescana. Knowing that set the bar high for my expectations, but thankfully, this extra virgin bottling by Villa Manodori did not disappoint in the least. 

Made of a blend of Moraiolo and Leccino varieties, this has lots of big aromatic notes of ripe olive with hints of grass, and a lovely buttery finish. It's also pretty high in polyphenols, which gives this oil a big, spicy kick that you can feel at the back of the throat — it might make you cough, but that's a good thing in this case. 

I love this for dipping bread because of how fragrant and fruity it is, but it is also an absolutely stunning choice to drizzle over fish, grilled steak, or your favorite pasta.

Branche; Marianne Ayala/Insider

Two types of olive oil — one gentle, one robust — are included in this stylish, elegant bottling from Branche that comes from Andalucia. 

Branche's packaged set has a minimalist, upscale vibe that feels a lot like luxury spa products. The olive green and cream-colored ceramic bottles are nestled in a presentation box and accompanied by a beautifully shot informational pamphlet, and a postcard from Andalucia. 

Not just stylish, these extra virgin olive oils have plenty of substance too: No. 1 is the brand's more robust olive oil with vivacious notes of tomato and cut grass, and No. 2 is a gentler, more delicate bottling that has hints of nuttiness with touches of warm hay. Branche uses hand-picked, single-sourced Picual, Arbequina, and Hojiblanca olives grown on a farm run by a lineage of seventh-generation growers in southern Spain, and prides itself on the closed-loop system that keeps the process as sustainable as possible. 

Colavita Olive Oils: As one of the top-selling brands in the US, Colavita is an overall excellent brand with a wide variety of extra virgin olive oils that can be used in both cold and hot applications. I tasted six types of EVOO from this brand and found that they were all generally good, but many had a bitter aftertaste that I didn't enjoy. While bitterness can sometimes be a good sign in olive oil, there were other options that were more balanced on the palate. 

Brightland Awake and Alive: I'll preface this by saying I am a fan of Brightland and think the product quality is fantastic — both bottlings are fresh, with nice layers of flavor (think fresh hay and hints of walnut), but I found Branche to be super similar yet just touch more elegant and harmonious on the palate. 

Pineapple Collaborative Extra Virgin Olive Oil: The playful packaging of this brand drew me in, and the oil inside has a nice scent of dried straw and a touch of fruitiness. But it was almost too delicate on the palate, not enough of a standout to place on this list.

Chef's Life Extra Virgin Olive Oil: I was excited to try this chef-driven brand — it's part of the collection of oils from Top Chef star Brian Malarkey — but right off the bat, the oil smelled as if it was oxidized. There was a strong olive flavor, but the palate felt flat and heavy, and any other aromas that might have been there were masked by the smell of oxidation. 

Mina Extra Virgin Olive Oil: This is one of few Moroccan olive oils to make it to the US market, and it's very pretty with notes of fresh hay and a rich mouthfeel — this did really well when used for cooking, but when tasted on its own, felt a little plain. 

California Olive Ranch Global Blend: I'd consider this the bolder, international cousin of California Olive Ranch's 100% California bottling. It's a great, accessible oil but was edged out of this list by the competition.

Kosterina Original Extra Virgin Olive Oil: Since I tend to enjoy pronounced flavors, I actually really like the Original Kosterina bottling, but for this buying guide, I opted for the Everyday version since it was the more versatile of the two.

Domenica Fiore Novello Notte Extra Virgin Olive Oil: This is arguably my favorite olive oil from Domenica Fiore because of its purity in flavor and aroma, but it is mind-bogglingly expensive compared to the other two bottlings available from the brand.

Trader Joe's Organic 100% Spanish Extra Virgin Olive Oil: This was my go-to olive oil before I started spending a little more on kitchen staples. It's a great budget-friendly oil for cooking with nice aromas, but it has a very strong bitter finish when tasted on its own.

I tested 25 individual olive oils and put them through a standard testing methodology:

Plain: The traditional tasting included pouring olive oil into a glass, swirling, sniffing, and sipping (aerating the oil in the mouth as you do with wine). 

With bread: Each oil was tasted as a dip with a piece of plain baguette. 

In salad or with vegetables: Lastly, each oil was used in some sort of food preparation — cold oils were drizzled on a tomato and mozzarella salad, while oils that could be used for cooking were used to saute vegetables.