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After learning a few years ago about the large-scale fraud involved in the export olive oil industry, I started trying domestic olive oil instead (I'm in the US
by dewitt 10y ago
After learning a few years ago about the large-scale fraud involved in the export olive oil industry, I started trying domestic olive oil instead (I'm in the US).
My favorite domestic oil, which is available everywhere now, is California Olive Ranch (e.g, http://amzn.com/B005CT8R90 http://amzn.com/B005CT8R90). It's delicious. Tastes nothing like the horrible oils I had been unknowingly eating for years, and there's no way I could ever go back.
- erichurkman 10y agoThere's a write up from America's test Kitchen about olive oil taste tests [0] (click 'read more'); spoiler: California Olive Ranch is their top pick. [0] https://www.americastestkitchen.com/taste_tests/1637-supermarket-extra-virgin-olive-oil?ref=new_search_experience_1&incode=MASAD00L0 https://www.americastestkitchen.com/taste_tests/1637-superma...
- HorizonXP 10y agoThanks for linking this! I just bought a couple of bottles, going to have my sister bring them up to me when she comes home. Always on the hunt for good olive oil.
- themartorana 10y agoThanks for this. We use a lot of olive oil in our family and I've read plenty on these abuses, but the articles never call out brands. 69% of all EVOO off the shelf in the US doesn't pass muster? Tell me which 31% did! And for crying out loud, shame the shit out of the ones that failed. In any case, gonna buy some of this now. Cheers!
- alvarosm 10y agoThey don't name names because it's probably scaremongering propaganda. Somebody wants to boost local oil consumption or other oils (other than olive) or something
- azinman2 10y agoIf you don't name what you want people to get instead, how could this even be true? Mother jones has great reporting in general -- they're not an outfit that is a corporate ad extension.
- alvarosm 10y agoI'm not thinking of corporations. Local govt, etc. The study was made by -surprise- a university in the state where olive oil is produced. Btw about ads there's nothing more effective than a journalist that does it for free. There's another thread now in HN about marijuana's awesomeness. Don't people think for themselves anymore? do you all take a package of propaganda and ideology and blissfully swallow it without thinking twice?
- stanmancan 10y agoThe problem is that people should be able to trust the news, not that they don't think for themselves. I do plenty of "thinking", I just don't have any time to evaluate the authenticity of my olive oil. Think about how many decisions you need to make in a day; if you had to verify every article, product, or piece of information you ingest on a daily basis you wouldn't have time to do anything else. We have a huge problem where you really can't trust anything you hear or see; especially news. However, what's the solution? If I want to be up to date on world politics who do I trust? How do I know I can trust them? What about a new product? The manufacturer says it's healthy; an "article"says its not. Who do I trust? Is the article genuine or paid off by a competitor to boost their own sales? Do I have to do my own research and studies to find out the truth? That's hardly scalable.
- CuriousSkeptic 10y agoOTOH a site like HN do produce this analysis for each link, by means of comments. It would be pretty interesting to have something like HN, perhaps a bit broader in topic selections, where the analysis was captured in a more structured manner and published for other services to reuse in various ways to aid the reader.
- analog31 10y agoIt could vary over time, depending on where the packagers get it from.
- bmelton 10y agoExactly. I don't know much about olive oil, but in the world of bourbon, it's fairly common for bourbon-makers to win awards with recipes that they bottled years ago, and leverage those awards to sell sub-standard distillate that they've rushed out the door to keep up with demand.
- eropple 10y agoThis is cool, thanks for this. I've largely stopped using olive oil (safflower for cooking, walnut for salads) entirely because finding something that doesn't taste off is difficult without spending a lot or going well out of my way, but my local place has this and I think I'll give it a shot.
- fpgaminer 10y agoThe most delicious olive oil I've ever had was at a random restaurant in San Diego. It had a very distinct "this came from olives" flavor, unlike all the bland stuff I'd had before, and tasted very fresh and clean. It was so good that we asked the waiter what it was. Unfortunately he didn't know the brand, but apparently it was made at a farm in Arizona. That was quite shocking. Arizona is a very hot, arid state, and yet somehow they make great olive oil. We've been on the hunt ever since and now, like you, tend to buy domestic.
- reza_n 10y agoDitto, I have been buying this olive oil for the past 2 years. Its a beautiful olive oil and cooks amazingly well. It was such a relief finding this brand given the amount of choices there are for (bad) olive oil!
- zdean 10y agoI used to buy large quantities of olive oil from an importer a few years back. He worked directly with the producers in Europe and N. Africa and told me about the fraud that happens in the industry. One interesting thing he told me was that the domestics simply don't have enough supply to meet year round demand. So one of the things they would do is buy his imported oil and mix it with theirs to make it last through the year and bottle it as domestic. The lesson for me was that domestic/local doesn't mean more honest...you still have to ask lots of questions to verify.
- honkhonkpants 10y agoIf you're buying olive oil in the US it is very unlikely to be domestic. USA consumes about 20x as much as it produces.
- lobster_johnson 10y agoSame here, California Olive Ranch is great and a safe choice. It's worth pointing out that there are some genuine European brands, of course. One of them is Terra Medi, which is Greek. More expensive but very good.
- notadoc 10y agoYes that stuff is good.
- jessaustin 10y agoWe are grateful to... California Olive Ranch... for their financial support of this research.