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Costco’s Kirkland brand delivers quality products, and many of them secretly come from pretty famous name-brand producers. The best part is that they come in large portions at a cheap price. Even olive oil, a notoriously expensive pantry staple, can be found in two-liter bottles for less than 30 dollars. We taste-tested five different types of Costco Kirkland Signature olive oil to find the bottle worth putting in your cart and the bottle that you should avoid. The worst Costco Kirkland Signature olive oil, according to our ranking, is the Italian Kirkland Signature 100% Italian extra virgin olive oil.
Each bottle of extra virgin olive oil has a different mouthfeel, coloring, and tasting notes that we sampled by sipping, but we were also looking for versatility. An Italian olive oil stands out from the more common Spanish olive oil, with greener hues and spicy, bitter, grassy, and herbal tasting notes. We were prepared for a more abrasive olive oil going in, but this Italian olive oil was too bitter for our liking. At first sip, we were delighted by the grassy herbal notes, but that moment of bliss was fleeting. Soon we were hit with an abrasive bitterness and a peppery, fiery finish that coated our mouth and wouldn’t leave the back of our throat. Because Italian olive oil is much more rare than Spanish or California olive oils, it was also the most expensive olive oil at 14 dollars per liter; not worth the cough-inducing bitterness in our opinion.
What did other Costco customers think?
Rebecca Andersson/Tasting Table
You might be able to use Kirkland Signature Italian olive oil to cook robust dishes like red meat or hearty, complex stews. But, the intense bitterness and spiciness makes it an unsuitable olive oil for bread dipping, finishing, or in salad dressings. We agree with this Influenster review via Google that said it’s only good for cooking, calling it “thick and the taste is slightly on the bitter side.”
Other bottles of extra virgin olive oil are much more versatile. Dipping, vinaigrettes, and other oil-based sauces are a great way to use up a massive two-liter bottle of olive oil. According to a Redditor, “the biggest problem with this bottle of EVOO is its size. Olive oil is like juice, even in a light-protected bottle, it’s not going to stay fresh unless you’re using a tremendous amount of it.”
Plus, as another Redditor points out, “it’s in plastic, which is stupid.” Experts say that you should never store olive oil in plastic bottles because harmful chemicals from the plastic will leach into the olive oil after a certain amount of time. Considering how long it would take to get through two liters of oil on sauteing or roasting alone, you’d be running a risk. Kirkland does sell glass-bottled olive oil, like our second favorite Kirkland Signature Siurana extra virgin olive oil.
Dining and Cooking