My Favorite Cheap Olive Oil

Or, Why I stopped buying the absolute cheapest olive oil.

I was raised to be a bargain shopper. (Thank you, Mom!) This usually serves me quite well; it certainly saves us money; I am often perfectly happy with “the least-expensive acceptable thing.” I admit that as I’m exposed to a greater variety of things, especially higher-quality things, my definition of “acceptable” sometimes changes.

We like to watch “America’s Test Kitchen” videos over here. They’re known for developing excellent, nearly fool-proof recipes for home cooks, and for writing reliable reviews of various kitchen products. On one segment of the show, they do a taste test of different brands of a product/ingredient, talk about what their tasting panel liked and didn’t like about each one, note what one should look for in any standard sample of that product (because they can’t test every single brand), and then name an overall winner.

You know watching TV has inspired me to get busy in my own kitchen before. Today, I am sharing how we did our own ATK-esque olive oil tasting at home, and what our favorite was.

So, one day, we were down to the last tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil. I usually try to buy more before we actually run out, because we use it almost daily to sauté and roast veggies, sous vide chicken, toss with noodles, etc. I was frustrated that I had to break into the fancy, expensive, infused olive oil—generally reserved for homemade caprese or salad dressing—for some everyday usage. The next time I went to Aldi, I bought five bottles of it: one of each kind they had. I was not going to run out again any time soon.

I was used to only buying the plainest, cheapest one. It had never ruined any chicken, vegetables, or pasta. By all means, it had been “acceptable,” and therefore our go-to.

But since I impulse-bought five different kinds, a taste test was in order! I admit I was a little bit afraid to find out what we thought. What if the more expensive kind is way better than the cheap kind? I may not be able to go back. I haven’t gone back to canned pumpkin purée, after all. It could happen….and it would cost more. Would it be worth it like the home-roasted pumpkins?

So, one night after all the kids were in bed, I poured a little bit from each bottle into my cute tiny bowls, and got out my adorable teensy spoons, a loaf of Italian bread, and a pen and notebook. Justin and I sat down for a little snack and a little judging.

We didn’t go to any lengths to ensure 100% unbiased “blind” tasting, but I couldn’t remember the prices of any of them except the one we usually buy, so it was 80% price-unbiased.

We took notes on color, aroma, flavor alone (a lick from a tiny spoon), and flavor on bread (we dipped hunks of bread into the oil and took a bite).

It was immediately clear to me that I would stop buying the cheapest kind. 😬 It just didn’t taste good by itself. It had a sour note that was not pleasant. It also had a very thin mouthfeel that made it feel…cheap. A second bottle, the organic olive oil, had a similar sour note; I didn’t like it either. One bottle was middle-of-the-road: nothing wrong with it, but not exceptional, either. Two bottles came out significantly ahead: they were nice and thick, were on the greener end of the color spectrum, had notable flavors, and were all-around tasty. One of them had an earthier, grassier taste, and that was Justin’s favorite. My favorite was the more mildly-flavored of the two “good” ones.

At this point, we looked up the local prices of each bottle online. In case you’re an Aldi shopper and might want to take our word for it, here’s how they stacked up:
Carlini ($3.89) — will not buy again
Organic ($4.99) — will not buy again
California ($5.99) — my favorite: fruity, earthy flavor; mild smell
Texas ($6.99) — okay, but not great, especially for the price
Sicilian ($7.99) — Justin’s favorite: very earthy, “funky”/strong flavor; fruity smell

The difference between our two favorites was $2 per bottle. Over the course of a year, that would add up. The upcharge for the less expensive “good” bottle was for sure going to be worth it. Would the extra upcharge for the funkier-tasting bottle be worth it?

Of course I had to devise more experiments to decide. First: olive oil cake. We’d seen this recipe on America’s Test Kitchen, too. At the time, I never thought I’d care to make it. If I’m making cake, I want layers and frosting and maybe even sprinkles. This is basically pound cake but with olive oil instead of butter. (Well, there’s a little more to it than that, but basically.) It turns out I had a need for it!

I made two olive oil cakes: one with each type of contending oil. I brought both cakes to a potluck and asked my friends to try both, then tell me if they could tell a difference, which one they liked better, and—if they could articulate it—why.

The results of The Olive Oil Cake Test were that the difference was indeed palpable; that the milder one made a nicer flavor for cake; that the difference wasn’t quite noticeable enough to justify $2 more per bottle.

I wasn’t quite satisfied. I wondered if the “sweet” application skewed our perception of whether the earthier oil might really be “better.” So, I did another test. I sautéed zucchini in each type of oil, one after the other on the same night. I seasoned only with salt and pepper to leave room for the subtleties of the oil. I actually measured the oil, salt, and pepper, and set a timer on my cooking, to control as many factors as I could. (Typically I just do dashes and pinches and “okay it looks done now.”)

The results of The Zucchini Test were that the difference was utterly undetectable. So, those extra $2 per bottle would not serve us anything for our everyday uses. If we want a fancier taste, we’ll turn to our actually-fancy infused oil—that’s what we buy that for.

In conclusion, our new go-to, still relatively inexpensive in the grand scheme (it is from Aldi after all), extra virgin olive oil is the “Specially Selected” California olive oil for $5.99 a bottle. Now, the most recent time we ran low on olive oil, during stay-home orders, Aldi was out of this kind. Go figure. I got olive oil from a different store later that week….which brings me to my next point.

I hope to do more olive oil tasting in my kitchen in the future! I plan to branch out to the similarly-priced brands at other grocery stores, and eventually to try some top-shelf brands, too.

Tell me in the comments: what’s your go-to extra virgin olive oil? And/or: have you ever done a taste test at home—and what was the winner?