The Best Olive Oil in all of Italia

Best is subjective. What you'll get are people's opinions.

And then the Spaniards, Greeks and Portuguese may differ from your thinking that Italy has the best.

When buying olive oil, there are a few things to think about:

1) Where are the olives grown? Just because is says "Italian" or "Made in Italy" that doesn't mean the olives are from Italy. Somewhere on the bottle will be printed where the olives are from. This will not be on the label.

2) Was it machine pressed or hand pressed. Most olive oils today are machine pressed and filtered. They are the ones that are clear when you look at them. Hand pressed olive oil, considered best, is slightly cloudy and will have a longer shelf life.

3) In the U.S., Extra Virgin olive oil is not necessarily extra virgin. The best place to buy this is at a specialty food store with a knowledgeable staff.

4) How will you use the olive oil? For salads, or eating direct, extra virgin is best. For cooking, extra virgin burns easily and regular olive oil should be used.

5) If you're buying in Italy, find olive oil that is not distributed outside that region and is hand pressed. It's probably going to be better than the ones found everywhere. And by all means, taste it just as you would wine. Olive oils from different regions have different tastes.

Olive oil is like wine. There are so many factors that affect it.

Hi neighbor...I think the best olive oil is the kind you buy from the person who makes it. We happened to have a chance to "learn" about olive oil on a day-long tour/cooking/wine/oil adventure. We learned about how oil is pressed from the gentleman whose olive orchards and oil pressing has been in the family for generations. That experience in itself, made it memorable - eating slabs of bread saturated with his oil in the orchard. The "brand" is Cioccolini (http://www.frantoiocioccolini.it/). They will ship to the US but don't sell it here anywhere. It is expensive to ship - about as much as the original cost of the oil. Like you, we did NOT bring back wine and we DID bring back a suitcase (exaggerated) full of olive oil!

Interestingly, Spain produces far more olive oil than Italy. As it is here in California, you may find that the best olive oils are produced by small local farmers. You'll also find that that your taste will vary between the different varieties of olives used in the oil. We've had blind olive oil testing parties in our house using olive oils from Greece, Italy, Spain and California. The choices are all over the map. No stand-out winners. It's a matter of your taste.

It's nice to bring something home from Italy but if you want to check out one of the best rated olive oils in the U.S., check out www.pasolivo.com. Yep, it's from California.

I used to bring olive oil back from Spain or Italy. Now I buy unfiltered olive oil at my farmer's market. California doesn't just have great wine, it has great olive oil. Once a year I can get the first fresh pressing of olive oil from my guy at the farmer's market. Totally different taste experience (but can be a bit rough on the tummy - go sparingly).