Michael Sullivan: Halt is the acronym for it, but heat, air, light, and time are the things that really degrade oil. So exposing it to the air, the light, and then the time, obviously, like the longer you wait, the more likely it's going to go rancid. Those that's kind of an easy way to remember like, oh, what should I be doing with this? How should I be storing this olive oil? That's an easy way to remember it.

Christine Cyr: Those just happen to be the same things that make us look old, right? Heat, air, light, and time. Yeah,

Michael Sullivan: exactly. Yeah, I guess it applies to us, too.

Christine Cyr: I'm Christine Cyr. I'm Kyra Blackwell.

Rosie Guerin: I'm Rosie Guerin. And you're listening to the Wirecutter Show.

Christine Cyr: Hey there, it's Christine. I wanted to pop in and let you know that today's episode is a rerun all about finding great olive oil. It's such a great interview and so relevant for summer cooking, we wanted to share it with you again. We'll be back with a new episode next week. In the meantime, enjoy.

Rosie Guerin: Today we're talking about olive oils.

Kyra Blackwell: Yes, I love olive oil. It's olive oil. One of my favorite fats, especially in the summer, especially on like some really fresh veg.

Rosie Guerin: Oh yeah.

Christine Cyr: Yeah. on a super ripe tomato

Kyra Blackwell: or like when you make your own homemade salad dressing.

Rosie Guerin: Mhm.

Christine Cyr: Yeah, that's good.

Kyra Blackwell: I recently heard this hot take by a food journalist who said if you're going to splurge on anything at the grocery store, it should be oil or vinegar.

Rosie Guerin: And I kind of subscribe to that. I like being adventurous with taste testing different olive oils.

Christine Cyr: That's interesting. I've never thought about the thing that I would spend the most on like what like I I think about that with a wardrobe like always shoes. Got to get the good shoes. But um but yeah, I I I I could see that.

Kyra Blackwell: I have a couple of items that Yeah. butter.

Rosie Guerin: These things that are the fats that you cook with.

Christine Cyr: Yeah, I like the idea, but honestly, I'm just going to splurge on like the protein every single time. I'd rather spend my money there. But I get it.

Rosie Guerin: Well, given it is prime tomato season, olive oil is the thing that you want in the summertime. We thought this would be a great time to talk about our olive oil review with our writer, Michael Sullivan, who has been on the show before. He's awesome. He is just a wealth of knowledge. He is going to come on with us today and talk about olive oils, the ones we've tasted, the ones we recommend, but also he's going to give us a real schooling on how to shop for olive oil. So, if you're out there in the grocery store deciding what you're going to buy, I think you'll be able to walk away from this episode with a lot of really actionable tips on how to get a great bottle.

Christine Cyr: Yeah. And it turns out one of the ways to identify good olive oil is to taste it. And we're going to do a little bit of that as well.

Rosie Guerin: That's right. So, we're going to take a quick break. When we're back, we'll chat with Michael.

Christine Cyr: Welcome back. With us now is Michael Sullivan. He's a senior staff writer on our kitchen team and he's reviewed a ton of kitchen gear for Wirecutter. So, for our review of olive oils, Michael researched over 40 oils and tested over a dozen. And he used to work at an olive oil store. So, cool.

Kyra Blackwell: Michael, welcome back.

Michael Sullivan: Thank you for having me.

Rosie Guerin: Who better but you?

Michael Sullivan: Yeah, absolutely. I'm really excited to talk about this with you today.

Christine Cyr: Michael, just to lay a picture a little bit of what our tastings look like in our test kitchen, we have something about like 10 staff writers and editors at this point. And I'm always intrigued when you're doing a tasting.

Rosie Guerin: It's like this very serious thing that's going on in the test kitchen. I see like a group of people sitting around a table. They're quiet. They've got notes in front of them. There's like little bowls or whatever you guys are eating. And I always like to go in and kind of peek in when nobody's in there. I'm going to admit it that I'll go in and look in the fridge and see what you guys are testing. And it's like a wall of butter or, you know, yogurt or whatever. Yeah. And so it's really fun and you guys do a lot of work and we're going to talk a little bit about that. But we thought it would be fun to start this episode by you testing our olive oil knowledge just to get kind of a baseline of what we know.

Michael Sullivan: Great. Okay. Yes. So I came up with some true or false questions for you.

Michael Sullivan: Okay. First one. True or false? Olive oil doesn't get better with age.

Christine Cyr: True.

Kyra Blackwell: I think it's true.

Rosie Guerin: True.

Michael Sullivan: Yeah. True or false? Italy is among the biggest importers of olive oil.

Christine Cyr: True, true, true,

Rosie Guerin: true. Yeah.

Christine Cyr: Oh my gosh, we know so much.

Kyra Blackwell: Yeah, that one. I feel like that was a tricky one.

Michael Sullivan: Um, okay. True or false. It's fine to store your olive oil near the stove with a pour spout.

Christine Cyr: I'm going to say true.

Rosie Guerin: Oh, it's mixed. Yeah, I'm going to say true.

Michael Sullivan: Okay, it's false. Yeah, you don't want to keep it near like a heat source. So, you want to keep it away from heat and you want a nice tight sealing lid on it. You don't want to keep it open to the air.

Christine Cyr: So, you're saying that bottle that's

Rosie Guerin: With the pour spout and near the stove, bad. Because the pour spout is constantly letting air in, and then the stove is giving off heat, which speeds up rancidity.

Michael Sullivan: Hit all the things.

Christine Cyr: Every single thing. Okay, Michael, school us. When we go to the grocery store to buy olive oil, there's so many options, so many labels with words on them. What are we looking for?

Michael Sullivan: So when you're looking on the grocery store shelf, you want to look for extra virgin olive oil. That is the highest quality oil.

Rosie Guerin: What does extra virgin mean?

Michael Sullivan: Extra virgin olive oil means that it's unrefined. There are no chemicals involved in the process. It's low in free fatty acids, and it's also gone through a panel of tasters to make sure it doesn't have any sensory defects. So, that is what extra virgin means.

Christine Cyr: What about the oils that say "pure" or "light"?

Michael Sullivan: Pure and light olive oils are actually refined oils. "Light" refers to the flavor and color, not the calories! Refined oils have been processed with chemicals and heat to strip away defects, but that also strips away flavor and antioxidants. You want Extra Virgin.

Rosie Guerin: What else should we be looking for on the label?

Michael Sullivan: Look for a harvest date! Don't confuse it with a best-by date. Best-by dates can be arbitrary. High quality producers will put the actual harvest date on the bottle. You want to consume olive oil within two years of harvest, ideally within one year.

Kyra Blackwell: Does the bottle material matter?

Michael Sullivan: Absolutely. Choose dark glass bottles or tins. Light degrades olive oil quickly. Clear glass bottles sitting on brightly lit store shelves are a red flag.

Rosie Guerin: Now that we know the theory, are we going to taste some right now?

Michael Sullivan: Yes! I brought a few different olive oils for us to taste using proper tasting techniques.

Christine Cyr: How do we do a professional tasting? Just drink it straight?

Michael Sullivan: Unfortunately, the process is to swirl, sniff, slurp, and then swallow.

Kyra Blackwell: Great.

Rosie Guerin: Which is just

Christine Cyr: horrifying.

Kyra Blackwell: Horrifying to do on air.

Michael Sullivan: Don't be shy. Hold the little cup in your hand, cover it with your other hand, and swirl it to warm the oil up with your body heat. That releases the aromatics.

Christine Cyr: Okay, warming it up. Now uncover and smell.

Rosie Guerin: Wow, smells very grassy and fresh!

Michael Sullivan: Now take a small sip, keep it in your mouth, draw air through the oil across your tongue—slurp it into the back of your throat, then swallow.

Christine Cyr: (loud slurp followed by coughing) Cough! Oh my goodness! That burn in the back of the throat!

Michael Sullivan: That throat burn is actually a sign of high polyphenols and quality! In professional circles, they rate oils as "one-cough" or "two-cough" oils. That peppery kick means it's full of antioxidants.

Kyra Blackwell: Nothing like that first burn. That first burn like whoa.

Rosie Guerin: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. This is number three.

Michael Sullivan: Okay. And tap it and warm it.

Christine Cyr: Well, I truly feel that I have now the olive oil walk of shame to do on this show where I need to admit that I've been keeping my olive oil in a clear bottle with a spout near the stove because it's super convenient. And I guess I'm going to have to stop doing that when I get home. Yes, for shame.

Rosie Guerin: For shame! And I think because of the way I've been storing my oil, I will taste it when I get home to make sure it hasn't gone rancid.

Kyra Blackwell: Wow, you're brave.

Christine Cyr: Yeah. Uh, yeah. I'm just gonna assume that my olive oil is bad and I'm just going to buy a new one. No need to taste it.

Rosie Guerin: What are you going to get?

Christine Cyr: I think I'm going to get the Bertolli because I definitely seen that in every grocery store I've ever been to. So,

Kyra Blackwell: very accessible.

Rosie Guerin: I think I've decided that I'm not going to be an olive oil person. It's just I'm happy with whatever works and is cheap. I feel like this conversation validated uh the fact that I am an olive oil person and will continue to be. Um I'm taking away that extra virgin is king of the hill. That's what you look for, the designation you look for when you know you want to have something that is that real authentic olive taste.

Christine Cyr: Um and then the other thing to look for on the bottle, harvest date. really trying to ensure that you see a harvest date and that it's within 2 years that you're consuming it from harvest

Kyra Blackwell: and not to be confused with the best buy date.

Christine Cyr: Not to be confused with the best buy date. And older is not better here.

Rosie Guerin: Older is not better. We're not aging like fine wine. If you want to find out more about Michael's reporting, you can check out our show notes and our website. That's it for us. Thanks so much for listening.

Michael Sullivan / Christine Cyr: Bye bye.

Rosie Guerin: The Wirecutter Show is executive produced by Rosie Guerin and produced by Abigail Keel. Engineering support from Mattie Maziello and Nick Pitman. Today's episode was mixed by Katherine Anderson. Original music by Dan Powell, Marian Lozano, Rowan Nemoto, Katherine Anderson, and Diane Wong. Cliff Levy is Wirecutter's deputy publisher and general manager. Ben Frumin is Wirecutter's editor-in-chief. I'm Christine Cyr. I'm Kyra Blackwell. And I'm Rosie Guerin. Thanks for listening.

Michael Sullivan: It's Yeah, if you're not used to trying it, the reaction was just like people like choking in public in the store. You're like, "Oh my gosh, are you okay?"