How to buy the best olive oil (and what's the difference between them)

Hello everyone! My name is Ivo and welcome to Cooking with the Coias. You know, one of the questions I get asked most often is about olive oil. How do I know which olive oil to buy? Which brand is better than another? What am I looking for? Well, having gone to a number of seminars over the past years and visited olive farms and olive oil producers, I'd like to share some information with you that's going to help you make that decision the next time you go to the grocery store. In fact, we're go

ing to cover the whole gamut. We're going to talk a little bit about olives, which is important to understand. And then of course about olive oil processing, then the packaging that it goes in, which is, you know, very, very important. We're also going to talk about extra virgin versus virgin versus pumice, olive oil. And all of those are going to lead into what you need to look for when you go to the grocery store to make your decision on which olive oil to buy. And then, of course, we'll also

talk about different designations and certifications so that you understand them. And a summary. And then we're going to do a taste test. And we're going to look at each one of these bottles in a little more detail. And that'll help tie everything together and show you what I mean. So let's get started right now. Okay. So first point olives. Let's talk about olives. The way I can explain to you the quality of olive is like the quality of a banana. Okay. You know, when you have a banana is nice a

nd yellow and ripe. Tastes great. Then it goes from yellow and ripe and perfect to kind of spotted brown spotted. And then the banana goes from brown spotted to dark, dark brown. And as it moves from those stages, the quality deteriorates. Well, folks, the olives are exactly the same. When that olive hits its peak, nice and green and ripe, that's the time you want the olive oil producer to pick that all of. And make olive oil. When it goes to Spotted Brown, it's deteriorating in quality. And the

n when it goes to all brown or black, it's even lower quality. So when it's green and they make the olive oil, you're going to have a more pungent olive oil, a peppery, when you taste it in that real strong peppery taste, you have a good concentration of aromas, the greatest concentration of aromas with that green olive. You also have the highest level of health benefits. So you're looking at benefits like antioxidants and nutrients, heart healthy. All the benefits are packed into that particula

r green olive. The issue is for the producers, you have, less of a yield. When you squeeze that green, all of you get less juice, less oil out of it, so you have a less yield. And because of that less yield, it drives up the price. So that's one of the reasons why some olive oils are pricier than others. So that's the green olive oil. Now when you work your way over to, let's say, the black olives, well, the producers like the black olives because they get a lot more oil from it. But you know wh

at, folks? You lose the quality. You lose the health benefits. Of course, you still have some, but not as much as the green. Okay. So you're deteriorating in quality or deteriorating in health benefits. So there's less nutrients and it has a blander, more neutral taste, let's say. And because of all that and because they get a higher yield, there is it's less expensive. So when you see it in the shelf, it'll be less expensive. But understand you're getting a poor quality, olive oil. So, keep tho

se factors in mind when it comes to olives. The other thing to keep in mind are different olives produce different olive oil. It's kind of like wine. Different grapes produce different varieties of wine. So a Cabernet Sauvignon tastes different than Amarillo. Well, it's the same with your olives. Each olive brand is different. So when you find the bottle that you like and a brand, if it mentions the brand of olives on there, you want to stick with that, because that's what your tastes enjoy. So

keep that in mind. Also, where they're grown makes a difference in how they're grown. So where they're grown, which country of course, but how they're grown. I went to some farms where they prune their trees right back and they open it up. So they're all those get lots of sunlight penetration. So you get less of a yield because the true trees have been pruned so you don't get as many olives, but the olives they get folks are number one quality and they're Sunkist, you know, so they have all the

vitamins and nutrients they've been growing properly. And then if they do all the rest of the steps, it's a perfect olive oil as compared to the farmer who just lets the tree girl wild because they get more olives, they get a higher yield. But not as good quality. So those are some, general, facts about, olives. So now let's move on to point number two which is going to be olive oil processing. So the key to olive oil processing is that once the olives are picked they need to be processed within

24 hours. The sooner the better because folks olives begin to oxidize and they deteriorate very, very quickly. So those who pick the olives and let them sit for a day, two days, three days already, that quality is deteriorating. The olives are oxidizing. You're going to have a poor quality olive oil. So key number one, pick and press right away. Now how do you press them? The cold pressed olive oil are the best. So you take the olives. Press them right away. Cold okay. You don't heat them up. T

hey're just called the room temp. And that is going to retain the nutrients. You're going to retain all the health benefits. The antioxidants will be there. And of course, you're going to have a better taste. The aromas folks are going to be better and much stronger. The olive oil itself will be darker. The only thing with cold pressed, it's got all those advantages. But the disadvantage to the producer is the fact that they get a lower yield. So, you sacrifice quality or quantity, so they keep

the quality. By cold pressing you get all those benefits that I talked about. Unfortunately it's a lower yield. So the price is going to be a little higher. But ultimately that's what you want. So on the flip side the heat extracted olive oil. So they take the olives assuming they do it within 24 hours which is good. But now they're going to heat the olives, and when they heat them, they get a higher yield. The problem, though, folks, is that you're going to lose some health benefits. Lose some

of the antioxidants. You're going to have a lower quality olive oil overall. So, yes, you're going to produce more olive oil and sell more olive oil, but it's a lower quality. So because of that, they could also lower the price of that. So those are two general factors to olive oil processing. To keep in mind we're going to move into the next point which is now extra virgin versus virgin versus parmesan. So of course extra virgin olive oil folks is the best olive oil. Okay. Extra virgin. It's co

ld pressed. Okay. So sometimes the packaging will say extra virgin cold pressed. It's the same thing. To be extra virgin, you have to be cold pressed. Okay, so but that's the key. We talked about the benefits of cold pressed. Well, that's why extra virgin olive oil is the best. It has the most because it's cold pressed. It has the nutrients, it has the benefits, health benefits. It's not refined. They don't use any chemicals when they're producing or extracting. It has a fatty level, fatty acid

level of 0.8% or less, less than 0.8%. And that's where you get all your health benefits from. And of course, you have the aromas and the taste to go with it. The most flavor you're going to get is from the extra virgin olive oil. And no, there's no such thing as extra extra or extra extra, extra. There's only one extra. That's it. Cold pressed. But that's where all the benefits are, the flavor. And as I mentioned, the fatty acid level less than 0.8%. That's a European standard, by the way. In t

he USA they have a higher standard, actually 0.6% lower than 0.6%, which is actually better. Okay. So that's extra virgin virgin olive oil is the opposite. It's the one that we talked about earlier. It's heat is extracted. So right off the bat it's going to lose. You're going to lower your health benefits. You're going to lower the aromas. Lower the taste, lower the quality. Okay. And the the fatty acid level is higher. It's between 0.8%, but it has to be under 2%. It can't go higher than 2%. So

it's in that range. But again you lose the health benefits because of that. So the last one is Thomas olive oil. Well Thomas folks is what they make with all the leftovers. Okay. So you're getting you're really trying to get an extract every ounce of oil from those olives. So what you have with Thomas is the third rate olive oil, the very lowest of benefits that you're going to get taste, flavor, etc.. It's kind of the bottom of the barrel, of olive oils. But there is one benefit. It's supposed

to be really good for dry skin. So there you have it. And I'm serious. It's really good for dry skin. But, anyhow, those are your three different olive oils. And sometimes with the promise, they make it, they even make it. Worse because it'll say pumice and, vegetable oil. They'll even mix it and even dilute it even more. So anyhow, the takeaway there is, number one is your extra virgin olive oil. That is the best. Okay, let's talk about packaging because that's important too. So glass versus p

lastic. Well folks glass is by far the number one best choice. The glass is non-reactive to the olive oil. It doesn't interfere with the olive oil in any way, shape or form. It stores better. It ages better. It's all around better. Glass is your best choice. Plastic, on the other hand. Not so good. When I see plastic, I see an inferior olive oil right off the bat. The plastic itself, it allows oxygen. It allows light. It allows humidity because it's it's porous. So it allows those external facto

rs to come in and basically contaminate, let's say the olive oil in a way. So, it begins to deteriorate. The oil and oxidation takes place and it starts to lower the shelf life. And it could lead to a more rancid tasting, slowly rancid tasting olive oil over time. So plastic, in my opinion, should be avoided. Glass is your best bet. A dark glass, of course, is, the way to go, because it also protects against light penetration. And it's the light penetration, folks, that causes the, the accelerat

es aging is what it does. The light penetration actually accelerates aging. So that's why a darker bottle is is good. And the bottles help maintain that quality of olive oil. And if you bought a quality olive oil, you want it to stay a quality olive oil. Okay, now that we've covered those, they lead into the next, let's say, point number five, which is what do I look for when I buy olive oil? How can I buy the best bottle? Well, let's get into that right now. So, folks, do you know which country

produces the most olive oil in the world? Would you say it's Spain, Italy or Greece? Well, if you guessed Spain, you guessed right. When I went to Spain, that's all I saw. Olive oil trees everywhere. They are the number one producer in the world. And that's what you want to look for, folks, when you're buying olive oil. Where is that olive oil made? If it says made in Italy, then you know it was made in Italy. If it only says imported from Italy. Well, now, what could have happened is that oil

could have came from some other country. It was shipped to Italy, stayed there, and then somebody in your country imported it from Italy. So they put imported from Italy. But it's not Italian oil. It could be from anywhere. So if it says made in Italy and imported from Italy, okay, I can I can agree with that. But if it only says imported from Italy and it doesn't show where it's made. Well, that oil could have came from anywhere to Italy and they just brought it in from that. So look for that m

ade in Italy versus just imported from Italy. Very important. The other thing I mentioned, if there's an olive oil that says it comes from multiple countries, comes from 2 or 3, some, some olive oils come from four different countries and they'll say, right on the label, blend from here, here, in here. Well, we talked about how important it was, for the olive oil processing. We're talking about accountability and traceability of olive oil. You can't do any of that when it's imported from four di

fferent countries. You have no idea what olives they are, where they came from. You know, the country, but you don't know the region. You don't know how they were processed. There's no accountability, no traceability. If it's bad olive oil to go back to who. So those kind of olive oils I personally stay away from. Okay. So another thing. When you look at the label, the trans fat on the label should say 0%. If it says more than 0% on the trans fat. Then they've added some other oil in there like

vegetable oil or canola oil. So the trans fat should always say 0% not to be consumed confused with the fatty acid level, which is the good one we talked about earlier. If it's under 0.8%, it's good. This is different. This is trans fat. There should always be 0% trans fat in your olive oils. Okay. The next thing to look for on your olive oil, is a harvest date. Okay. Olive oil typically lasts for up to three years. Give or take, but both three years for olive oil. So if they have the harvest da

te on there, you can calculate the best before date. Or if they don't have the harvest date, they at least need to have a best before date. And that best before date better be three years within three years when you're buying that that bottle. Otherwise it's not a good best before date. So look for the look for the harvest date first. If you can find that, then you already know three years from there and you're good to go. So that's that's also important. And of course when I'm buying olive oil

I look for extra virgin because we talked earlier. That's also where you're going to get the most health benefits. Right. So the extra virgin olive oil. Now the other very important thing to look for, besides those things I mentioned already on the label and I talked about transparency and accountability as to who's making this olive oil, the label folks, if it just says Made in Italy, imported by X, Y, Z company, great. You know, it's made in Italy and it's been imported by someone from Italy.

No problem. You've got Italian olive oil. But who made it? There's no accountability there. So if you look at a label and there's the name of the producer, the address, the phone number, a website, any information that links the olive oil to the actual producer, you already have a better chance of having a good quality olive oil because now their name is on the line. There's accountability, there's traceability. Okay, so that's very, very important without that information, okay. It came from It

aly. It came from somewhere in Italy. And there's no accountability. So look for that level of detail, on on the name and address. The more information about the producer that you can find on the label, the better it is. Then, of course, if there are, designations or certifications, that's a good thing too. Let's talk about that right now. So here is a close up of two bottles that I just picked out. And this one here I want you to see has a designation of DOP. And it also has this official desig

nation, logo and emblem on there signifying that it's DOP and DOP. This is the best designation you can get that stands for protected designation of origin. But what this does, folks, this designation ensures that it was, produced and originated at that location, that it was processed in that location and packed in that location. So everything was done in that one location with this particular, designation. So that's the top designation you could have. This one is decent as well. Right here it's

IGP, okay. And IGP stands for Protective Geographical Indication. And this is a European Union, designation. And there's the emblem there. Okay. Or their logo, their seal of approval. But this is not as good as that because this particular designation only ensures, mainly origin, but it has to ensure I had mentioned this insured origin process where it was processed and where it was packed. This one only ensures one of those three. Okay. And typically it's the origin, where it was produced. So

again, it's a good designation, just not as good as that one. Okay. So now that we understand our designations, what we're going to do folks, we'll take a look. We're going to I'm going to summarize quickly. And then we're going to look at each one of these bottles and the pros and cons. Yes. In case you're wondering that's why I wear my glasses today because we're going to look at all of these bottles. Now I only bought a few different varieties. There's all kinds of varieties out there folks t

o choose from. And definitely some are better than others based on that criteria that we've talked about earlier in this episode. And having said that, next time you go to the grocery store, keep those things in mind. Maybe bring home 2 or 3 different brands, and try them, taste them and see which one you like the best. Once you find the one that you like that meets the criteria that you're happy with, stick with it and you might find one brand that might have three different kinds of olive oils

. While it's probably three different varieties of olives that they used. So again, find the exact bottle that you like and then you stick with it. And speaking of that, when you bring it home and you crack it open now the meter's ticking on the oxidation, scale. So what you want to do is consume that olive oil within six months, ideally within three months. But you could definitely push the envelope and go six months. After that, it starts to turn, so you definitely want to consume it before th

en. In my household, it's more like six days. I go through a lot of olive oil. Seriously. Do, specify. I'm making focaccia. But anyways, once you've opened it, like I say, shelf life less than six months, please use it up. The other thing, because in my case, I use olive oil every day, so why not put the olive oil right beside the stove? Keep it there handy? Not a good idea. So again the olive oil. You want to avoid heat light penetration. Avoid all that. So just put it in the cupboard next to y

our stove. Keep it handy but out of the elements. Okay so now let's dig in. These are actually in order of what I paid. They're all extra virgin olive oil. So they're already a little more pricier than just virgin olive oil, which we talked about is heat extracted. These are all cold extracted. That's why they're extra virgin. So starting from the. Lower. Highest priced one. And we're going to work our way through this one here. Now, I could give you a close up of these labels, but I don't know

if you'll be able to see everything, but maybe here with this one, I'll just show this one if I can. Okay, so there's the front of the label, and I just want to show you the back. The back of the label. Okay. Here, you can probably see it better here. Okay. So I just wanted to show you because I'm going to go over this one, because this one is very, very interesting. I'm going to move these ones over. Okay. All right. So on the front of the label, this one here says extra virgin olive oil. Okay.

That's good. 100% pure. That's good. Trusted name. Robust flavors. Okay. That's good. So the label. Front label. Just some general information. Extra virgin olive oil. I look on the back. On the back label. I didn't see a best before date or a manufactured or, harvest date, but it's on the bottle. So look on the bottle, too. It's printed on the bottle, and it says best before. April of 2026. Okay, so it doesn't have a harvest date, which again, I said is one of the best things to look for. But

it does have a best before date. So okay, that's not bad. Now let's see what else. Where is this olive oil from. So it says here imported by and it names the company here in Ontario. Okay. So that's who imported it. Nowhere on this label does it say where it's imported from. So I have no idea where they imported it from. It just says imported by and it lists the company. It doesn't say where it's imported from. It doesn't say where the olive oil is made. I have no idea. There's nothing on this l

abel that says where it's made or even where it's not, even where it's imported from. So it's missing that information. It says here, trans fat. Okay, 0%. Okay. Zero grams. That's good. So that's good. And then just some general information, not a significant source of fiber and less sodium. And that's it. So really what we have here is a bottle of extra virgin olive oil. We have no idea what country it came from, and no idea what country or countries there could be olive oil in here from ten di

fferent countries. Who knows? Because there's nothing on the label. Folks, the label goes a thousand miles to putting you in the right direction. Of which olive oil to buy. Okay, so. And I'm not I'm not here to say anything bad about any company. I just got these bottles because there are a lot of companies out there and a lot of labels that are very similar to these ones. The main intent here is to just explain to you that some companies just don't put anything on there. And in this particular

case, like I said, no idea. Take your pick. So this one was a little more money. This one here says that it is extra virgin olive oil. Great. It says cold extraction, but we know it has to be cold extraction to be extra virgin olive oil. It says that it's, organic and that it's from Sicily. Okay. That's what it says on the front of this label. It also says that it's Canada certified organic. That's good. Oh, and then here is a designation. This is the IGP designation right here. And you see the,

it's got the label on there, so that's good too. So right off the bat, the front of this label to me is more appealing than the other one. Now, if I turn to the back of the label, okay, on the back of the label, it says extra Virgin called extract. Okay. It's got trans fat. Zero. Okay. We said that's important. Then some other information and ingredients. Organic extra virgin olive oil. Okay. That's good. I like the organic part. That's great. Then it has here a harvest date and the best before

date. I like that, too. Harvested in the year 20 2223. So it could have been in that window for their harvest time. So it's a bit of a big window, but it's a window nonetheless. And it says best before August of 2025. So I'm okay with that. That's good information. And then on this side it's got the it talks about the designation okay. And then it says, you know, some general information, but then it has here product of Italy. So it said Sicily on the front and now it says product of Italy. So

I know it's Italian olive oil. And then because of that designation I know it's from Sicily. And then it goes on and it says pact by and it has the name of the company, the address where they are in Italy. And it also gives a website. So there's no phone number, but there's still lots of information here tying you directly to that particular company and their location. So that's really good. They've got some certifications here is clearly says Product of Italy. I like it. So that label to me wou

ld be appealing. I would bring that home and taste it and see if I like the taste, if I didn't like the taste and then I wouldn't buy it. This one here. Okay. Let's take a look at this one. So this label right. It says organic on it as well. Extra virgin olive oil. Okay, great. That's what we want. And here that's interesting. It says trace me, and then, I could scan here, and it's. I could scan this, and I could. It says here, scan to check the entire journey of this, from orchard to you. So yo

u could scan this, and you can go online and check out the exact journey. That's pretty good. You talk about accountability or traceability, and then there's some information here about talking about their family and pesticide free and all that, which is all great stuff. But looking at the other label here now, it says here Certified Organic Buy and it mentions the company here and it's got a, designation, which is great. So I know it's, it's organic and certified produced by it mentions the nam

e of the company. And it gives the address and therein to Tunisia. Tunisia. So this is an African, extra virgin olive oil. And again, I look and it says, trans fat zero zero grams. So 0%, which is perfect. So this one is from Africa. It's not from Spain, it's not from Italy or Greece, but doesn't mean it's bad olive oil. Africa makes good olive oil. So again, this would be one I would be confident with the label. Take it home, taste it. If you like it, go for it. Okay. Next one. Okay. Let's take

a look at this one here. This one here. Okay. This one has that DOP designation. So right off the bat you got my attention because it's certified in those three different areas that we talked about earlier. So that's good. And of course it has the official seal the designation seal on there. And it says Terra the body. So that means land of Bari, which is in Italy. Okay. So that's what it says on the front label. So according to this, it's from Bari, and I know it's from Bari because I have tha

t designation. So I know it's from Bari, Italy. So that's a great step. And then on the back of the label I'm seeing lots of information as well. So here folks it says zero trans fat. Perfect. Okay. then it goes on some general ingredients. Extra virgin olive oil. Great. Imported by a certain company here in Canada. Okay. That's great. But then it says produced by and it gives the name of the company, the address of the company, complete address, where they are in Italy. Then it gives their webs

ite and a phone number. So lots of traceability, lots of accountability here. Then over here they have just some general information and writing about, you know, what they do with their olive oil. You know, basically some general information from the company, which is fine. But it's the other stuff that I was interested in. Then it says certified by a controlled body, authorized by the competent ministry in Italy. So, then it has here a harvest date. Which is again 2223. And then over here, it h

as a best before date of February 2025. So lots of great information on this label as well. Very very good. I would be okay to buy that. Take it home and taste it. Okay. We're moving up to even more expensive olive oil. So this one on the front, it has fancy little tag here. I'm not impressed by fancy tags, but on the backside it's scannable. So, it says here that they are the winner of more than 700 prizes and awards. So right off the bat, they have some sort of credibility with awards. And the

n I can scan and go right to their site and check them all out. So that's very good. It says here Sicily that they're from Sicily. There's that designation, okay. The IGP designation. So chances are again, it's not as good as the DLP, but it's a good designation. So already I've got confidence in it that it's from Sicily. Okay. And then it says, extra virgin olive oil. Great. And it says, also, as we talked about earlier, product of Italy. So I'm pretty confident this is Italian olive oil from S

icily. It's got the designation. We're good. Plus it's it's got a scannable label there, which is great. And now on the back, I take a look and it has some general information about their quality and that sort of thing called extract and product of Italy. That's all great. Zero. Percent. Oh, I don't I don't see it here. So the transfer. Interesting. They have the fats, the saturated fats, but they don't have the trans fat on the label. So for some reason they don't have the trans fat on the labe

l. All the other labels had trans fat 0%. This one doesn't have it. So even though it has all these other positive things about it now, I'm not skeptical, but it's one less thing. I'm not sure why they didn't put it on the label. I would have been more comfortable if they had it on the label, but besides that, I know they're designated. I know it's from Italy, so I have a fair, good amount of confidence. It also has here, a best before date and a harvest date. Harvest date 2023. Best before Sept

ember of 2025. So I'm good with that. And then it says imported by Aurora importing here in Canada. But then it goes on to say produced and packed by. And it gives the name of the company which is also right on the bottle. The address, complete address of the company, which it says specifically in Sicily, Italy, and their phone number and their fax number. It even gives a serial number here for the olive oil produced. So. Again short of that one information missing on the transfer. Everything el

se on here is very, very good. I would buy this with a level of confidence for sure. This is the same company now I remember now I mentioned about you could have a brand but different olive oil as well. This was one this is the same company but a different olive oil. So same thing here. It's the same tag, winner of 700 awards and I can scan it. It has a web address there, so that's great. Again, for traceability, the name of the company is on the front. This one says extra virgin olive oil again

called extraction. fine quality. But this is interesting. There's a symbol on here. It almost makes you want to think that it's the European symbol of one of the designations, but it's not. So it's just, some sort of logo that they've put on there. So don't be don't be fooled by that. But besides that, it's just their logo. I'm not saying they're trying to trick you. I'm just saying it looks like a certification logo, but it's not. Okay. And then, of course, it also says Product of Italy. So so

me good information on the front label. I'm happy with this. And then on the back, basically I'm seeing the same sort of information as was on the other label from the other olive oil. Some general information about how they made it. Again, it does not list the trans fat on here. Again, I don't know why, but, again, it goes on with the name. Address, all the information is there. Website is on here. Fax number, phone number. Everything is on here. The, best before date is on here. And the, produ

ced date. So 2023, it was produced or harvested, and it's best before September of 2025. So again, although it's missing that one information, I would feel pretty confident buying this one as well. So out of all these bottles, I would feel very confident buying any one of these and not so confident with this. In fact, I would my own personal I would avoid buying that one myself. But if you like it, by all means please do. I'm not here to tell you what the buyer would not to buy, but based on eve

rything we said earlier, this one is very vague on the label. So if anyone's listening from that company, maybe they can add some more information on the label and help us make more of an educated decision in buying our olive oil. So, that's just some of them that I picked out. And it's interesting to see how some are labeled, differently than others. But again, now it comes down to taste. So I would like to taste I don't want to taste this one because I already know it's. Well, you know what? I

will taste it. Okay? I will taste it. So let's get that one open. Let's give that one a quick, quick little taste. So the color looks the color looks decent okay. So again, nothing wrong with that. It's just I don't know where this came from. How many different countries it came from who, like, I have no information on it at all. Well. I'm going to say zero flavor. It tastes just oily. That's all it tastes. It tastes oily. Zero flavor. Period. So am I surprised? I'm not surprised. Okay. Let's p

ut that one aside, and let's put that spoon aside. A little more water just to clear that. Very, very oily. Non tasty at all. Okay. Let's pick this one. Let's go. Midrange pricing. Let's pick this one here. I like it because it has the best designate designation. It comes from body. It's 100% Italian. So let's take a look at this one and take a test of this one. All right. We use my other spoon. And color looks really good. Similar to the other color, actually, from the other one. This one actua

lly has a good aroma. Oh, yeah. That's a bit peppery. It takes about a second, but on the back of your tongue, when it goes down, when you swallow it. Very strong. Excellent olive oil right here, folks. This one here. Beautiful. Beautiful taste. Very flavorful. Nice and peppery. Pungent. That tells me that there's a very good possibility with all the information we talked about earlier. Everything that I see on the label, chances are this olive oil was produced, was picked, processed within 24 h

ours. Cold pressed, packaged in glass. Dark label. This one to me. It's got the designation. I would be happy buying this one, without even tasting any other ones. This one for me is is excellent. But having said that, like I said, next time you go to the grocery store, maybe you may want to buy 2 or 3 and see which one you like best. I definitely am going to taste these other ones. I have to be honest with you, I've had tried this one and this one before and I tried this one, but not this one.

So I will do that when the time comes. I don't want to open them because as I mentioned, once they get opened, they the shelf life starts to deteriorate. But having said that, it'll take me no time at all to use these up. And honestly, for this one here that had zero taste and just was just oil. I'll probably just use that for maybe just everyday stuff just to use it up. But this one I'll use for my. And if I'm going to pour it over my salads or I'm going to drizzle some on my, on my vegetables,

or I put it in my pasta, anything I'm going to be directly eating and definitely going to use that one. So, folks, I hope that this episode has helped you even a little bit. And if it helps you make a better decision on buying olive oil, then that makes me happy because that was the goal of this episode, folks, is to try to help as many people as possible to pick a good olive oil and get the most health benefits that they can from a good olive oil when they go to the grocery store. Because, as

we know, olive oil is one of the key ingredients to a good Mediterranean diet. And why not get one of the best ones and enjoy the maximum nutrients and health benefits that you possibly can? So folks, I want to thank you for spending time with me today. I'm not in the kitchen cooking, but I'm still kind of in the kitchen. But thanks for tuning in. And as always folks, until next time. Want a potato? Oh, and one more thing, folks. I know I mentioned how important the harvest date is, but I want t

o let you know why it's important. Because if they don't have the harvest date on the label, then they might have harvested that oil, those olives, one year or two years earlier. You have no idea. So by the time they bottle it, it could already be two years old. So now that doesn't mean the best before late, you can't put the best before date of three years down the road. So that's why it's very important to have that harvest date on the label, because, you know, that's when it was harvested. Th

en, you know, you've got up to three years beyond that point without that harvest date. Okay. Again, I'm not saying that they're going to give you old oil to begin with, but it now becomes a level a questionable thing. So that's why if they put the harvest date on there, there's no question. There's no doubt. All right. I've cleared up harvest date. I'm happy now.