For anniversaries, house parties, and other special occasions, sometimes even your best extra virgin olive oil won’t do. No, instead you need the finest, most high-quality olive oil you can get your hands on. What is considered the costliest olive oil out there?
The six most expensive olive oil brands in the world are:
- Olmais
- Saica Castelvetrano
- Lambda
- Seggiano
- Manni
- E-La-Won
In this article, we’ll talk in much more depth about each of these very pricy olive oil brands. You’ll learn more about who they are and where these products come from. In the second half of this post, we’ll share links to some luxurious olive oils on Amazon if you need faster shipping.
Let’s begin!
These Are the Six Most Expensive Olive Oils in the World
Olmais
Portugal’s Quinta dos Olmais is the brand that produces Olmais olive oil. All olives used for this smooth olive oil are grown on hillside trees in Vila Flor in Portugal. They’re then hand-selected for superior quality.
The Quinta dos Olmais farm is an organic one owned and operated by the Gomes Alves family; they also manage the Olmais brand. The family is very specific about which trees they grow to harvest olive oil, using only Madural, Verdeal, and Cobrancosa varieties, all of which you cannot find outside of Portugal.
Olmais olive oil has flavors of chicory, walnut, artichoke, tomato leaf, and olive leaf, giving it a rich, varied depth of flavor. Bottles start at $35 a pop, which isn’t bad, but then again, we’re just getting started with this list.
Saica Castelvetrano
From Portugal to Italy, next, we’ve got Saica Castelvetrano. This brand maintains a classic production method for its best-selling olive oil. Here’s how it works: all olives are squeezed to get every last ounce of juice out of them, lending this brand’s olive oil a more traditional taste you don’t always get today.
Acclaim and renown follow Saica Castelvetrano, as the brand frequently tops lists ranking the best olive oils. Per liter, prices may start at $20, but these costs are often higher. Saica Castelvetrano olive oil makes the perfect accompaniment when you want to dip your bread or if you want to whip up a sauce or marinade that will wow your friends and family.
Lambda
Hailing from Greece is Lambda. Their extra virgin olive oil is an ultra-premium variety you can’t find in everyday stores. This olive oil is so fancy it’s only available in the poshest hotels and gourmet food shops.
To make their olive oil even more sought-after, Lambda produces it in limited batches. That’s because their olive oil production process is anything but simple. They use only Koroneiki olives from Greece, which are picked by hand and then scrutinized under strict standards. When the olives pass, they’re cold pressed for a fruity taste without a lot of acidity.
Seggiano
An Italian company that specializes in desserts, cheeses, and pasta, Seggiano’s olive oil is also much beloved. Their biggest seller is the costly Italian extra virgin olive oil, which comes from the Olivastra Seggianese olive in southern Tuscany. Such a premium olive oil carries with it a major price tag, as you had to expect.
With just a touch of peppery flavor, Seggiano’s olive oil also boasts a buttery, nutty taste as well as rich creaminess and a light, fresh smell. It will liven up your raw or cooked vegetables, potatoes, rice, chicken, and cooked fish.
Manni
We also have to talk about Manni, a company that sells organic extra virgin olive oil out of Tuscany. Founded by Armando Manni in 2000, Manni’s experience in wine collecting and gourmet food allowed him to create the Live Oil production process. This was formulated with the National Research Council of Italy and the University of Florence.
Beloved by publications like Washington Post, W Magazine, Los Angeles Times, and New York Times as well as television programs such as the Today Show, some of the biggest chefs in the world also use Manni olive oil. These include Daniel Boulud, Pierre Gagnaire, Tetsuya Wakuda, and Thomas Keller.
E-La-Won
Our final pick for expensive olive oil is E-La-Won, which is yet another Greek brand. Their long-lasting company has a history of tradition that goes back more than 3,500 years. This Mycenean olive oil has won plenty of positive sentiments as well, with the World Olive Center calling E-La-Won’s olive oil “liquid gold,” precious natural juice,” and “nature’s secret in a bottle.”
One thing’s for certain then, you need to taste the excellence for yourself. Doing so won’t come cheap by any means, but then again, you had to expect that by now. If you’re wondering about the name of this brand, it comes from Mycenae Linear B symbols, so the name itself translates to olive oil.
Amazon’s Top Picks for Pricy Olive Oil
You’re now aware of some of the world’s costliest olive oils, but what if you want to shop on a more familiar site like Amazon? You don’t have to worry about skimping on quality here. We did some digging to share six of the most expensive olive oils you can find on Amazon that will liven up any of your dishes.
Frescobaldi Laudemio Extra Virgin Olive Oil
The Tuscany-based Frescobaldi brand dates back to the 1960s, when the 29th generation of family began producing olive oil and other Italian delights. Their Laudemio extra virgin olive oil is named after a Middle Ages term that refers to the harvest’s best part that would go to the lord’s table.
Each time you prepare a meal with Laudemio olive oil, know you’re using an award-winning Frescobaldi product. These accolades include national awards like the 2019 Best of Armonia, the Olio Dell’Emozione Slow Food in 2010, and the Grande Olio Slow Food for 2015, 2018, and 2019.
Cucina & Amore Extra Virgin Robusto Olive Oil
If you don’t mind spending over close to $75 on olive oil, you can get your hands on Cucina & Amore’s extra virgin olive oil through Amazon. The price per fluid ounce is about $$30/Liter, but this Italian olive oil is worth every penny.
It’s cold-pressed for a higher quality. All olives used by Cucina & Amore are the Coratina variety, which are sourced from Puglia, Italy. This robusto olive oil has a peppery flavor that’s also described as complex. Try it as a marinade or add some olive oil to grilled vegetables, bruschetta, mozzarella and tomato, or salads.
MarDona White Truffle-Infused Olive Oil
When you combine the finest ingredients like olive oil and truffle mushrooms, you get a truly top-of-the-line product. MarDona’s white truffle-infused olive oil has a hefty price tag of about $22 for 8.5 oz, but once you taste it, you may never go back to another olive oil.
This truffle olive oil makes a great topping on deviled eggs, mashed potatoes, pizzas, pastas, and truffle fries.
Olio Taibi Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil Monocultivar Biancolilla
Quality comes at a price, as Olio Taibi’s organic extra virgin olive oil proves. This olive oil is the monocultivar Biancolilla variety. It’s unrefined, has a high polyphenol count, and it’s single-sourced in Sicily.
The extra-large container, which is 1.32 gallons, costs almost $400, so you’ll only want to bust this one out on those very special occasions. A family reserve product, Olio Taibi’s extra virgin oil is produced with olives picked by hand and certified organic without any genetic modifications made.
These cold-pressed olives are referred to as having a “cashmere glow” in terms of flavor, Olio Taibi says. Fresh cheeses, steamed fish, and some salads pair especially well with this cultivar. Olio Taibi received the gold at NYIOOC in 2019 for the Biancolilla cultivar, just so you know.
Premiato Oleficio Vanini Osvaldo Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Yet another great, costly olive oil available on Amazon is the Premiato Oleficio Vanini Osvaldo extra virgin olive oil. This purely Italian olive oil also has one of the larger price tags at close to $50.
Okay, so what makes this olive oil so incredibly high-priced? It’s an artisan oil, for starters. The olives are harvested at Lake Como, where the typicality of the olive oil is just different. This is likely due to cultivars around the lake as well as the lake’s latitude.
Cobram Estate Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Our last pick is a little easier on the wallet. Cobram Estate’s extra virgin olive oil costs closer to $26, which seems a lot cheaper after the last brand we recommended. This is also the first olive oil on our Amazon list that comes from a different part of the world: Australia!
Each bottle is 12 ounces with a slim profile. Cold-pressing the first harvest olives delivers a flavor that Cobram Estate says is complex, robust, and rich. It’s definitely one of those olive oils you’ll have to try for yourself to experience!
Related Questions
Why Is Olive Oil So Expensive?
If you’re wondering why the above olive oils fetch such a large asking price, it’s because olive oil itself is a luxury item. If a brand is considered artisanal and only produces their olive oil in small batches, then the exclusivity of the product will be reflected in the higher price tag.
Also, olive oil prices will get more expensive as you opt for higher-quality products. For example, virgin olive oil costs more than traditional or standard olive oil. Extra virgin is pricier than virgin and so on.
What Is The Most Expensive Cooking Oil?
When shopping for cooking oil, you have many options at your disposal. These include vegetable, peanut, canola, soybean, palm, and olive oil, among others. Which of these cooking oils is the most expensive?
That would be olive oil, although truffle oils can exceed some olive oil prices, like the MarDona white truffle olive oil we reviewed earlier.