How the Hell Do You Pick a 'Good' Olive Oil?

It’s hard to navigate when an industry lacks transparency

After we partnered with Gustiamo a few months back, we talked about how we buy olive oil and what we rely on when we’re picking one off the shelf or online. Are we into that super grassy flavor profile, the classic peppery one, or something smoother? Do we have “cooking” olive oil and “finishing” oils? Do we look at the harvest date? Try to find the source? 

This is one of those situations with a thousand variables and no clear resolution, as we discovered when we turned this into a group discussion with Kate, Mark, Melissa, and Daniel of The Bittman Project; Danielle Aquino Roithmayr, then-managing director of Gustiamo; and Rick Easton, Melissa’s partner, owner of Bread and Salt Bakery in Jersey City, who carries Gustiamo olive oils and other Italian products. 

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