Richmond Olive Oil Co. opens Sunday in Carytown

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.