Richmond Olive Oil Co. , maybe the cutest little standalone olive oil shop ever, opens Sunday at the top of Carytown.
Why it matters: You've probably been buying crap olive oil your whole life.
Driving the news: The shop is the brick-and-mortar version of the curated selection of imported and lab-tested olive oils shop owner Robert Granados has been selling at area farmers markets since 2021.
- Inside, shoppers will find more than 40 varieties and flavors of olive oil and balsamic vinegar (starting around $25 a bottle), plus imported European snacks, pastas, wine and beer.
- Plus, Granados will be there. He's a former boxer turned certified olive oil sommelier who can tell you everything you ever wanted to know about EVOO — and then some.
Zoom in: Granados got super into olive oil while on a personal health journey, interested in its "good fat" health benefits.
- Along the way, he learned that most grocery store EVOO isn't very good, or actually truly extra virgin at all, he tells Axios.
- The virgin part is where the health benefits come from and is often lost when olive oil is over-pressed and over-processed.
- To keep its V-card, olive oil should only be pressed once.
Granados and Richmond Olive Oil Co. sell good olive oil. He knows because he lab-tests every bottle to ensure:
- 🧪 It meets the right acidity levels (he uses the European .3 acidity standards).
- 👃 Smells right (good EVOO should smell like freshly cut grass).
- 🔥 And passes the drink test (it should sting the back of your throat).
If you go: Richmond Olive Oil Co. opens Sunday; regular hours are Tuesday-Saturday, 10am-7pm and Sundays, 11am-6pm.
Pro tip: If you prefer to keep buying your olive oil at the super market, Granados says buy olive oil made in California , Australia or Chile , where the EVOO standards are the most stringent. Italy's, he said, are not.
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