The Best Supermarket Extra-Virgin Olive Oil

If you care about flavor, we can help. We tasted 10 of the top-selling, most widely available national brands sold at grocery and big-box stores. We hid labels, sampled them in random order, and assigned them code numbers to avoid prejudice. In the end, we found a few favorites—at a reasonable price—and learned how to reliably find the best, most flavorful olive oils.

We focused only on olive oils labeled extra-virgin—the highest grade. By definition, extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO) must have flavor with some olive fruitiness and zero defects and pass certain lab tests. This is a one-ingredient product, mechanically pressed from olives with no added heat, which maintains its fresh taste. (For more information, see Olive Oil 101: How to Shop.) 

Why did we skip supermarket products labeled just “olive oil” or “light-tasting olive oil”? Those are refined oils, which means they’re made from the lowest grade of mechanically extracted oil (called “lampante” for its history as a lamp fuel) and then—just like any other neutral-tasting vegetable oil—they are further processed to strip out defective flavors. Finally, a hint of extra-virgin olive oil is added for an olive-y note. They’re made primarily for cooking, designed to be mostly flavorless. They make a solid economical choice for heated applications, but there’s no real point to tasting them.

Here in the test kitchen, we want a high-quality, flavorful, everyday supermarket extra-virgin olive oil, because we like to keep it simple. We plan to grab it for nearly every application, hot and cold, including for shallow-frying, dipping chunks of bread, dressing salad, and drizzling over a finished dish. (For an extra flavor boost, we also recommend keeping ultraflavorful premium extra-virgin olive oil for cold applications.) 

With an average price of $0.67 per ounce, supermarket extra-virgin oils are not overly pricey, and we think the best choices contribute flavor that is worth every penny. 

Contrary to rumor, nothing bad happens if you cook with olive oil, except that most of its fruity flavors dissipate with the heat; even extra-virgin olive oil is safe at high temperatures, with a smoke point ranging from 350 to 415 degrees.

Even after focusing just on extra-virgin olive oils, our lineup was hard to narrow down. Most brands offer several, of varying flavor intensities, with hints about how to use them, such as “for frying” or “for dressings and marinades.” Some were labeled “smooth-tasting” or “robust” (see “What is Smooth-Tasting Olive Oil?”). This trend of offering multiple choices has boomed in recent years, with the goal of educating consumers that all olive oil is not the same—and also to encourage everyone to buy multiple bottles. We love sampling different flavor intensities in premium extra-virgin olive oils. But in our experience, for everyday use we can stick with one good-tasting, medium-intensity EVOO. So we asked brands to recommend their best-tasting, most widely available all-purpose choice, and we sat down to sample them.

We didn’t hate any of the oils we tasted, but our tasters weren’t thrilled with some of these prominent brands. At its best, extra-virgin olive oil smells and tastes bright, fresh, rich, and complex, with a broad range of potential flavors including grassy, buttery, floral, nutty, fruity, peppery, and more. In disappointment, tasters called one oil “bitter and flavorless at the same time” and said another was “medicinal” with an “unpleasant aftertaste.” Even when they weren’t actually bad, neutral oils depressed us. One taster despaired: “It’s weak and I’m underwhelmed. It’s just . . . oil.” 

Luckily, we also found some we loved. Tasters raved, “This had a full body and a big herbaceous flavor,” “grassy and delicious.” Another said, “I went back for a second bite because it was so good.” What made the difference?

Olive oil is a fresh, perishable product. The lifespan of extra-virgin olive oil should be measured in months not years. There are two ways experts judge its quality: lab tests and taste tests. But even if a lab test shows that an oil technically passes the quality standards set by the International Olive Council (IOC), it can have flavor defects. If the olives aren't in peak condition when picked or if they are left to sit and ferment before they are pressed—or the oil itself isn't transported and stored properly—the olive oil degrades. And even if it was handled well, olive oil can sit on a store shelf for too long. Exposure to heat, air, light, and time makes olive oil quality go downhill, even if the bottle is unopened. 

The bottom line: Freshness matters and you want to gauge it. Most of our lineup’s labels had “best-by” dates. Frankly, these are not very useful: They’re added when the oil is bottled, which can be up to a year after it has been harvested and pressed, and the “best-by” date can be upwards of two years later. That means some of the oil on store shelves could be nearly three years old. Best-by dates are not regulated, so every manufacturer can choose whatever time span they like. If a bottle is close to its best-by date, skip it.

Your best bet—and the easiest way you can gauge freshness at the store—is to look for a harvest date on the label. Here’s what you need to know: Olives are harvested once a year. In the northern hemisphere, including Europe and the United States, olives are harvested in the fall and winter, and oils reach stores the following spring. (From the southern hemisphere, the freshest oils from countries such as Australia and Chile arrive here in the United States by the fall.) So to get the freshest oil, look for a harvest date within the past year. 

Only half of our lineup had harvest dates. And the two oils most highly ranked by our tasters were from the most recent harvest—just a few months before our early summer tasting. 

The three other oils with harvest dates—including our former longtime favorite—didn’t rate as well. Why? Their harvest dates showed they were one full year older, and that took a toll on their freshness and flavor. We scoured area supermarkets to buy the freshest oils possible, but that was what was available in our grocery stores—and we wanted to taste exactly what regular home cooks would get. If brands can’t or won’t keep their freshest extra-virgin olive oils available, avoid them.

Our top scorer was Carapelli Original Extra Virgin Olive Oil, which won fans for its grassy aroma; medium intensity; fruity, buttery olive flavor; and fresh taste.