*a fun, jaunty little royalty-free tune that feels like walking through a spanish olive farm on a sunny day*
NARRATION: You know it, you love it. It’s spicy and herby. It’s fruity and mellow. It’s extra virgin? Duh, we’re talking about ✨olive oil. ✨
As strange as it is, it kind of feels like olive oil is having a moment. But then again, olive oil is nothing new. Wild olives originated around what is now Turkey approximately 6,000 years ago. It’s been used for centuries, by multiple cultures, for everything from religious rituals and fuel to skincare and, of course, cooking.
So why the current buzz?
TALIA YAAKOBY: I think one of the biggest things with social media and just like the availability of information in general via Tik Tok, and search engines, is transparency about your food.
That’s Talia Yaakoby (yuh-kobe), community manager at Graza, a New York City-based olive oil company. Graza is a young brand, but they’ve exploded onto the olive oil scene thanks to their unique product design
YAAKOBY: It started two years ago, our founders, Andrew and Alan. It really just started with Andrews’ obsession and passion with olive oil, wanting to make a great product available in an easy to use bottle at a mid-range price.
It also helps that Graza’s fun packaging makes it stand out on the shelf. The visuals and the social media effect are definitely part of the brand’s appeal. And Yaakoby said that the current pop culture climate seems to be very favorable towards olive oil.
YAAKOBY: You kind of do feel like a little chef like I think, olive oil is even in pop culture, like The Bear going viral. And I think there’s a lot more Netflix shows that are coming out…all these celebrities and people that we look up to maybe for other things, but they’re also caring about their food. And a lot of them are using Graza as well. So I think that’s how we’ve really kind of grown in with these trends. And then of course, with Dua Lipa saying on the podcast that she likes vanilla ice cream with olive oil and sea salt, it was honestly this gift that kind of fell into Graza’s lap because if you look at our Drizzle bottle, we have ice cream as one of the uses. And that’s been since the beginning.
The celebrity effect is always a strong driver of the trend cycle – remember Gigi Hadid pasta? Even though Graza may have been putting olive oil on ice cream for years, I was skeptical. But I gathered the necessities —
*voice memo of me describing the olive oil and ice cream setup*
– plus a co-taster, ice-cream enthusiast Nate Jayaram —
*voice memo of nate saying something silly*
And gave it a try.
*voice memo of us trying the ice cream and reviewing*
NARRATION: This isn’t the only olive oil trend going on. Last February Starbucks rolled out their “Oleato” line of drinks across their Italy locations. Each beverage boasts about a spoonful of extra-virgin olive oil. As of the end of January 2024, they’re now available across all U.S. locations.
*voice memo of me trying the olive oil latte at Starbucks*
Tik Tok trends aside, there’s also been new interest in health and wellness since the COVID-19 pandemic.
AL COURCHESNE: I think that the demand for olive oil has increased worldwide, really, because of all the reasons we’ve been discussing mostly because of the health benefits.
That’s Al Courchesne (Cor-shane), also known as Farmer Al. He has a farm called Frog Hollow in Brentwood, California. Courchesne said that their olive oil is special for its purity.
COURCHESNE: It’s got a sharper and more pleasant, stronger flavor, which is just it’s a matter of taste right? A lot of people are put off by because they’re so used to oil which is bland and as softer and softer and in the way it lands up the way it makes your tongue feel. And so it’s just it’s easier to understand. But when you get into the Tuscan bland is it does have that bite to it that pungency that that bitterness and it’s it’s, it’s once you get you once you once you acquire a taste for it, it’s hard to go back to to the bland olive oil which is what you find on the on the shelves of most retail stores.
Courchesne also noted that a lot of California olive oil producers are known for high-quality product, which don’t cut their blends with lesser-quality oils. Frog Hollow in particular prioritizes organic growing and uses green olives, which produce less juice. Though it’s a higher cost of production, it produces a more delicate flavor.
COURCHESNE: It’s it’s definitely the way to go if you if you’re willing to, to, if you can afford it, and you’re willing to go that extra go that extra effort to make it work with your recipes or, or your food, your food choices.
This increased commitment to quality is a promising turn for the olive oil industry. It seems that maybe there’s a lot of stars aligning to make olive oil popular right now, at least in the United States. Now more than ever, there’s high-quality olive oil on the market and more interesting brands to choose from. Olive oil is not just another item to check off the grocery list – it’s something that people can care about. If you don’t like it on ice cream, no one will blame you. But it seems like the olive oil renaissance is here to stay.
For WNUR News, I’m Allison Rauch.
