Olive oil upgrade

[dave28]

Have been using Filippo Berio / Napolina / Supermarket brand EVOO for as long as I can remember.

Looking to hopefully upgrade now and wanted to try Greek brands for a change.

From what I can tell there are a bunch of Greek EVOO brands that work out about £8 - £12 a litre if you buy a 3L or 5L tin.

Does anyone have experience, there are too many brands to list them but here are a few very easily available online.
They may have different grade products, like good, better, best type thing.

Theoni, Odysea, Kleos, Lyrakis, Memilon, Enios, Eora, Nostalgaia, Olea.

I understand that much of this is down to personal flavour preference and use cases but I`m just looking for a good all rounder that is an upgrade to what I usually buy.

I suspect they are very similar to each other and you cant go far wrong.

 

[Raymond Lin]

1 main thing.

Cold pressed. Heat kills the key compound that you want, and the main reason that extra virgin olive oil is so highly prized for health - polyphenols. So when you pick up a bottle, just google the brand and look up its polyphenols count. The one I got recently is from Waitrose, weird name … it’s call The Gay Farmer. It has 900mg/kg for Polyphenols for their black label.

Most EVO that is considered high in this have like 400mg/kg, this is double that. Their white label is around 400mg/kg. Most cheap EVO has levels under 100mg/kg with the highest around 2000mg/kg.

Look for early harvest, cold pressed, with flavour profile like pepper, intense on the label. Sold in a dark bottle, a metal bottle is even better IMO. Never get those in clear or light colour bottles, you might as well not bother, you are not getting the benefits from having EVO.

The Gay Farmer Early Harvest Picual October 2025 Organic Extra Virgin

The Gay Farmer Early Harvest Picual Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil 500ml Picual October 2025 Harvest Sourced from a Single Estate in Alcaudete, Jaen, Andalusia, Spain Harvest - Early Harvest October 2025 Variety - Picual Polyphenols - 900 mg/kg Acidity - 0.16 Intensity - Intense Fruitiness -...

www.thegayfarmer.com

Ps not sold in a clear transparent bottle, UV kills the polyphenols.

 

[arc@css]

I think as long as the olive oil is cold-pressed, in a glass bottle and is not the product of multiple countries, then you should be fine.

AFAIK, some Greek olive oils are among the best available.

It may be of interest to check out a comparison, e.g.:

 

[NickK]

Here's the two I have from Rhodes. The black is more intense. Managed to put mess from the open one to the black one.

EDIT - thought I'd addd more about the differences:

Black tin:

Selected from black olives at month February. Collected from 400-800 years old ancient olive trees from our fields and pressed by our new olive factory. Centrifugal power extract excellent the extra Virgin Olive oil until the last drop.
Taste is intensive, aromatic and fruity. Excellent for cooking, frying and bread dipping. It’s an all time classic selection.
Cold extraction, acidity 0.3, no cholesterol

Extra Virgin Olive Oil Archangelos tin 750ml – Anastopoulos Estate

www.anastopoulosestate.com

White tin:

Selected from very small green olives at month November. It’s an early harvest first press extra virgin olive oil. Collected from 400-800 years old ancient olive trees from our fields and pressed by millstones, it’s an ancient and medieval method to press the olives.
Taste is bitter and spicy, excellent for salad and vinaigrette
Cold extraction, acidity 0.3, no cholesterol

Extra Virgin Olive Oil Millstone tin 750ml – Anastopoulos Estate

www.anastopoulosestate.com

 

[droyden]

There are 3 versions of this, cooking, dressing and dipping. Larger ones were on special at Sainsbury's when I was last in.

https://www.sainsburys.co.uk/groceries/product/karyatis-greek-extra-virgin-olive-oil-1l