What is the best olive oil? Which olive oil is best for cooking? What is the best olive oil for dipping bread? Ideally, it should all come from the same bottle. The best olive oil is liquid gold in the kitchen, that’s for sure. If you’ve never sat down and tried many, many olive oils side by side, you might not know just how different olive brands can taste. Lucky for you, we did exactly that. And we found the best olive oils to buy—whether you’re looking for the best olive oil for salads, the best olive oil for bread dipping, the best olive oil for cooking, or the best tasting olive oil that can do it all.
Over the course of three taste tests we tried more than 40 different olive oils. We sourced everything from grocery store brands (like Trader Joe’s olive oil, Aldi olive oil, Whole Foods olive oil, and even Walmart olive oil) to artisanal brands. And we tried to keep them all under $25 a bottle (preferably, way under). You can get some terrific olive oil for $50, sure. But that’s not going to be your everyday olive oil unless you’re a multi-millionaire (in which case, have you considered donating to Sporked?). We conducted our taste tests searching for the best olive oil brands that you will use a lot of and not feel like you’re pouring money into a pan.
What we looked for in the best olive oil
When it comes to the best olive oil flavor, there’s a whole spectrum. (That’s why this list features the top 13 best olive oils and not just the one best grocery store olive oil.) You can have ultra buttery smooth olive oil, you can have grassy, tannic olive oil, you can have olive oil that really tastes like olives. But there were a few qualities that we looked for across the board.
Robust character. We’re looking for richness, but also acidity and perhaps even a little bit of peppery kick. Anything flavorless didn’t make this list.
Smooth texture. The best olive oil should glide down your throat. I’ll say no more.
After sipping olive oil brand after olive oil brand from a spoon and soaking it up with bread, we found 13 of the best olive oils around. Check out the best olive oil brands you can buy in the grocery store.
Best Olive Oils, Ranked
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Best Olive Oil at Walmart
Great Value Classic Olive Oil
After tasting all the Great Value brand olive oils at Walmart, I can firmly say this is the best one to buy. Is it an olive oil revelation? No. Is it a dupe for Graza? No, sir. But it’s clean with just a little bit of grassy sweetness. And, at just over $6 for 17 ounces, it’s cheap. If you’re just looking for the best olive at Walmart to use when you’re sauteeing up some veggies or chicken or fish, then you can go ahead and feel good about buying this. — Justine Sterling
Credit: Liv Averett / Walmart
Best Whole Foods Olive Oil
365 Mediterranean Blend Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Skip Whole Foods’ Greek olive oil. Skip the Spanish. Skip the garlic-infused stuff. This is the best olive oil to buy at Whole Foods under the Whole Foods branding. This is a nice, basic EVOO. It’s unctuous and smooth and has just enough of a bitter edge to give it some flavor. Good for dipping and cooking. — Justine Sterling
Credit: Liv Averett / Whole Foods
Best Peppery Olive Oil
Carapelli Extra Virgin Olive Oil
This olive oil has a lovely, peppery kick. Give it a taste and you’ll see what I’m talking about—there’s an earthy, spiced flavor that’s delicious. For that reason, I think it’s some of the best olive oil to use to finish a dish. If you were to put a little drizzle of this over some, say, pasta, it would add really great extra flavor. Carapelli is a global blend of olive oil using an Italian name (kind of lame), but it’s one of the only global blends whose flavor I actually like. And when it comes down to it, flavor is key when you’re shopping for the best extra virgin olive oil. Also, this is a reasonably sized bottle (not a big ol’ jug), meaning that you’ll use it before it goes bad. Most people agree that once you open olive oil, you should use it within six months. Smaller bottles are great for that reason. — Danny Palumbo
Credit: Liv Averett / Amazon
Best Smooth Olive Oil
O Organics California Extra Virgin Olive Oil
O Organics California EVOO is really tasty and one of the best olive oils on the market. It’s smooth and rich and almost buttery in a way, too, and it’s a single source olive oil, which I have found to be superior to others. Unlike Carapelli, this olive oil isn’t peppery and it’s not as acidic as some of the other olive oils on this list, but it is quite rich and fruity. — Danny Palumbo
Credit: Liv Averett/Albertsons
Best Olive Oil for Salads
Heraclea Early Harvest
Made with Memecik olives grown in the Aegean region of Turkey, this olive oil makes your mouth salivate. It’s bitter in that green almond kind of way, but balances out with round, buttery notes. It’s some of the best olive oil for salads, because it really adds a ton of flavor and complements peppery greens or milky cheese, if you choose to go with a caprese-style salad. It’s also the best olive oil to buy if you want to know intimate details about your olive oil. The version I tried was an “early harvest” bottling made with olives harvested in October of 2022. Do you know what you were doing in October of 2022? I can’t remember. But I’m glad to know what these olives were doing. It’s also sold in a glass bottle that not only looks great, but it’s also UV-coated so your olive oil won’t be damaged by the sun.— Justine Sterling
Credit: Liv Averett / Heraclea
Best Trader Joe’s Olive Oil
Trader Joe’s Sicilian Selezione Extra Virgin Olive Oil
What is the best olive oil at Trader Joe’s? I tried eight (read the full ranking of Trader Joe’s olive oil), and this one was by far the best tasting olive oil TJ’s sells. It’s bright and zingy with a faint hint of lemon zest—it’s definitely one of the fruitier olive oils on this list. It’s extremely gentle, too, without any bitterness. If your motto is butter not bitter, then this is the best olive oil for you. — Justine Sterling
Credit: Liv Averett / Trader Joe’s
Best Garlic Olive Oil
Heraclea Garlic Infused Extra Virgin Olive Oil
If you want the best garlic olive oil, I’m sorry, but you’re going to have to pay a premium. This stuff costs around $14 for 6 ounces. But you’re not going to use it that often and it really is so good. It has a deep olive flavor that is infused with a subtle sauteed garlic flavor. It blends together really wonderfully. No fake, acrid jarred garlic flavor. No clunky, heavy-handed roasted garlic flavor. It’s a real garlic olive oil connoisseur’s olive oil. And it comes in a cute little can to boot. — Justine Sterling
Credit: Liv Averett / Amazon
Best Olive Oil at Aldi
Specially Selected Sicilian Extra Virgin Olive Oil
You can find some really great stuff for really cheap at Aldi. We’re all still pretty obsessed with their Rao’s dupe, and you can add this olive oil to the list. It has a really nice olive flavor. I know that seems redundant when talking about olive oil, but so many of the olive oils I’ve tried (especially store brand olive oils) are so bland you’d think they were vegetable oil. But this stuff is peppery and olive-y and flavorful. At $12 for 17 ounces, it’s not dirt cheap but it’s still much cheaper than a lot of the best olive oils and it’s practically as good.
Credit: Liv Averett / Aldi
Best Spanish Olive Oil
La Espanola Extra Virgin Olive Oil
First of all, you can buy this Spanish olive oil in a beautiful green aluminum can. Really nice stuff to have on the counter. Secondly, it tastes delicious. It’s very gentle with a soft, buttery flavor. And it goes down so smooth. Much of the best olive oil is peppery and zesty and zippy. This shows the other side of olive oil—the gentler, rounder side. It’s almost like the oil was made from castelvetrano olives. It’s really unique and definitely the best Spanish olive oil I tried, apart from our #1.
Credit: Liv Averett / Amazon
Best Greek Olive Oil
Kosterina Organic Everyday Extra Virgin Olive Oil
There are a lot of olive oils out there, so, chances are, you’ve bought a bottle because of the packaging. A lot of times, that’s a mistake. But in the case of this tall drink of oil, it’s not. The beautiful blue bottle (inspired by, I assume, the blue of the Mediterranean sea) doesn’t just look good, it also contains some of the best Greek olive oil. It also has a built-in spout, which, as an extremely clumsy person, I very much appreciate. The flavor is light, mild, and gentle and it finishes with a peppery, grassy flavor. Obviously, this will work well on a Greek salad—the briny, salty feta is a perfect match—but it will also complement foods like grilled veggies, fish, and chicken. — Justine Sterling
Credit: Liv Averett / Amazon
Best California Olive Oil
California Olive Ranch 100% California Extra Virgin Medium Rich & Vibrant
California Olive Ranch olive oil is valuable because you can use it for just about anything. It has a pure olive taste that’s rich, mellow, and balanced with just the right amount of peppery, grassy flavor. As a result, it’s the best olive oil for cooking (at low temperatures—olive oil burns because of its low smoke point), or you can use it as a finishing oil for pastas, salads, and proteins. California Olive Ranch produces a great product made from olives grown right here in California. The flavor is consistently rich, delicate, and delicious. The price is great, too, and it’s available at a variety of stores. — Danny Palumbo
Credit: Liv Averett/Instacart
Best Italian Olive Oil
Bono Sicilia Sicilian Extra Virgin Olive Oil
I couldn’t get enough of this olive oil when we tried it in our taste test. It’s so unique. It is extremely complex, with layered flavors. It really takes you on a journey. It starts rich and buttery, then you are hit with a twinge of bitterness, and then it finishes with a salinity that really makes it the best Italian olive oil to put right in the middle of a table. No vinegar or seasonings needed for this olive oil. Just dip your bread right in. It’s delicious on its own, but it would also be great on classic Italian salads like a caprese or panzanella. And it’s also affordable enough that you can cook with it and reap its flavorful benefits without feeling guilty. — Justine Sterling
Credit: Liv Averett / Amazon
Best of the Best
Graza Drizzle Olive Oil
I didn’t expect to love this olive oil. The packaging is too cute. It’s too hip. It’s too Brooklyn. It’s too Insta-ready. But it’s so, so, so good. Made in Jaen, Spain, it’s really light, so it won’t overpower other ingredients, but it still has a pronounced green olive flavor. It’s silky and buttery and just a hint peppery and salty. Plus, it comes in a handy squeeze bottle. I love a squeeze bottle. Though it’s designed to be a finishing oil, I think it could perform double duty in recipes. That said, the brand also offers Graza Sizzle, which is designed specifically to be the best olive oil for cooking. It is milder and less complex than the Drizzle, which makes sense. It’s good, for sure. But it’s not as impressively flavorful as the Drizzle. You can get a two-pack of both the Drizzle and the Sizzle at a discount from the Graza site. If you use a lot of olive oil, it’s probably the way to go. It’s the best tasting olive oil, so you’ll definitely use it up. And if you don’t, just send it to me. I’ll squirt it right down my gullet. — Justine Sterling
Credit: Liv Averett / Target
Other olive oils we tried:
Cento, Simply Nature, Bertolli, California Olive Ranch Global Blend, Kirkland Spanish Extra Virgin, Cobram Estate 100% California EVOO, Trader Joe’s Organic Extra Virgin Spanish Olive Oil, Trader Giotto’s 100% Italian Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Trader Joe’s California EVOO, GAEA Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Good & Gather Signature Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Good & Gather EVOO, Pompeian Drizzle EVOO, La Tourangelle EVOO, Heraclea Mature Harvest, Great Value Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Great Value Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Priano EVOO, Smash Kitchen Organic EVOO, Smash Kitchen Organic Robust EVOO, 365 EVOO Spanish, Whole Foods EVOO from Greece Infused with Lemon Peel and Mediterranean Herbs, California Olive Ranch Roasted Garlic, Specially Selected Garlic Infused EVOO, Whole Foods EVOO Infused with Garlic, Corto Truly EVOO, Garcia de la Cruz
Dining and Cooking