Okay so I tried "real" olive oil and now im confused

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Hi everyone, first time posting here. Found this forum while googling about olive oil lol.

So here’s the thing. My sister came back from her trip to Italy last month and brought me this bottle of olive oil from some farm she visited. I was like thanks I guess?? Because honestly olive oil is olive oil right? I just grab whatever’s on sale at Costco usually.

Anyway she kept bugging me to actually TASTE it, not just cook with it. So yesterday I poured a little in a bowl and tried it.

WTF??? It burned my throat. Like I actually coughed. And it tastes so strong and like… green? Peppery? The smell is really intense too. I thought maybe it went bad or something but she said that’s how it’s supposed to be.

Then I tried my regular one from the pantry (it’s in the big plastic jug, think I paid like $8 for it?) and there’s basically no taste. Just oily.

So now I’m wondering if I’ve been using fake olive oil this whole time?? Or is the Italian one just different because it’s from Italy? I’m reading some of the posts here about fraud and testing and honestly it’s making me more confused lol.

Couple questions if anyone can help:

  • Is it normal for olive oil to make you cough? Or did my sister get ripped off?

  • What’s the deal with the bottles at the grocery store, are they actually olive oil or not?

  • Does it even matter for cooking or is this just a snob thing (no offense)?

  • The bottle she got me was like €30 which seems insane for oil?

I showed my husband and he said I can’t tell the difference and that I’m being dramatic but I swear they’re completely different. Am I crazy or is this a real thing?

Sorry for the long post, just genuinely confused about what I’ve been buying all these years.

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:rofl: That cough you got? That’s literally the sign you’re drinking the real deal. It’s called the “peppery bite” and it comes from polyphenols which are the antioxidants that make EVOO actually good for you. The stronger the burn, generally the better quality the oil.

Your Costco jug probably isn’t fake per se, but it’s likely been sitting in warehouses for months, exposed to light in that clear plastic, and by the time you open it most of the good stuff has degraded. Or yeah, could be cut with cheaper oils. Happens more than people think.

The €30 bottle isn’t insane at all for proper EVOO straight from a farm in Italy. That’s actually pretty reasonable. Real extra virgin costs more because it takes like 5kg of olives to make 1 liter of oil, and good producers harvest early when olives have more flavor but less oil yield. Fresh oil from small farms just costs more to produce than industrial stuff.

So yeah the cough is normal and GOOD. Grocery store bottles are hit or miss, most of the cheap ones are either old, refined, or blended with other oils. It matters if you care about taste and health benefits. For high heat cooking like deep frying, fine use the cheap stuff. But for salads, finishing dishes, dipping bread - the good stuff makes a huge difference.

Your husband probably genuinely can’t taste the difference because most people have been conditioned to think olive oil should taste like nothing. Once you know what fresh EVOO tastes like though, you can’t go back.

Look for harvest dates on bottles (not just “best by”), dark glass or tin containers, and stuff that actually lists the farm or region. Stay away from big plastic jugs and anything that just says “Product of Italy” without specifics. You’re not crazy. You just had your olive oil awakening lol.