When you buy through our links, Insider may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more.

As an avid home cook and food journalist, I've often kept my finger on the pulse of trending ingredients — especially new versions of classic pantry staples, like olive oil. There's been an uptick in stylishly packaged, Instagram-worthy kitchen goods, and I often wondered if these beautiful brands perform as well as they photograph. (Spoiler alert: These do!)

I put these six brands through a few rounds of testing. First, a traditional taste test — much like wine tasting, olive oil is poured into a glass, swirled, sniffed, then sipped and aerated in the mouth. This allows all the aromas and flavors to shine. Secondly, the bread dip — plain baguettes dipped in olive oil allowed me to experience how the oils taste in their most basic application. Third, oils were drizzled over a simple caprese salad — a fantastic litmus test to see the olive oil against complementary ingredients. And lastly, for each of the olive oils that are meant for use with heat, sauteing vegetables to see how it stood up in a real cooking application.

California-based Brightland works with a family-run olive farm to make its extra virgin olive oil, which comes in two bottlings packaged in aesthetically pleasing ceramic containers. Awake is made with early-harvest Coratina olives and is a bolder oil designed for use with heat. This version has notes of fresh almond and a hint of spice and worked wonderfully when sauteing vegetables on the stovetop, though for the price, I probably wouldn't use it for dishes requiring a hefty amount of oil. 

Alive, made with a blend of early-harvest Coratina and Frantoio olives, is the more delicate of the two oils, giving touches of fresh-cut hay with an undertone of walnut. Since it's light on the palate, this is ideal for making salad dressing or for dipping bread and made my Caprese salad very enjoyable.

As far as picking between the two, I prefer the Alive bottling because of its lighter mouthfeel — I'll use this for vinaigrette or to drizzle on top of a freshly made gazpacho this summer. (At this price point, I'd rather find a more moderately priced olive oil for cooking.) If you want to try both of them, they're available in the Duo Set, which includes a 375ml bottle of each, nestled into a pretty gift box, but they're also available a la carte, so you can buy one at a time.

This brand was recommended to me by cookbook author Nadia Caterina Munno, known on TikTok as "The Pasta Queen." Domenica Fiore is an ultra-premium brand hailing from Umbria, and its extra virgin olive oils are certified organic by the QCertificazioni, which is regulated by the Italian Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Forestry. 

There are three bottlings from this brand: Novello di Notte, a small-batch press of early harvest ​​Leccino and Frantoio estate olives, picked and processed at night; Reserva, a robust blend of Leccino, Frantoio and Moraiolo olives pressed within four hours of harvest; and Novello, a delicate and fresh olive oil made with Domenica Fiore's first batch of olives of the season — also a blend of Leccino, Frantoio and Moraiolo olives.

As expected with a super-premium imported brand, these are quite pricey, but the quality is outstanding on all three bottlings. If I had to pick one from the lineup, Novella di Notte is the clear winner. Concentrated and bright green in color, it's the most pungent of the three. It has notes of straw and fresh grass, a deliciously nutty aftertaste, and noticeably high polyphenols, the compound that gives extra virgin olive oil a pepper kick in the back of your throat. Given that it's $75 for a 500ml bottle, I'll use this for drizzling on fresh salads, dipping bread, or to finish an uncomplicated, lightly sauced pasta dish — you don't want the flavor from this oil to be upstaged by other ingredients. 

Led by Michelin-starred chef Massimo Bottura, Villa Manodori is primarily known for its line of traditionally crafted balsamic vinegars. This extra virgin olive oil was created as a complement to that line and Bottura uses this at his restaurant, Osteria Francescana, for finishing. 

Given the pedigree of this EVOO, I had high expectations going into this tasting and I was not disappointed — big olive flavors open up to grassy notes and a buttery finish. This oil is also unfiltered, so it looks a little cloudy, but that means it retained all the lovely and complex flavors from the moment it was pressed. 

Unsurprisingly, this olive oil is also pretty high in polyphenols, making it rich in antioxidants and quite peppery on the back end. It was one of my favorites to eat with bread alone, and taking a cue from the chef, it is a wonderful finishing oil for everything from salads to steak. At around $23 for 500ml, it's quite affordable as far as premium olive oils go.

Kosterina was founded by Katerina and Kostas Mountanos, who grew up with the extra virgin olive oil from their families' trees in Southern Greece. Working with farmers in the region to bring high-quality Greek olive oil to the US market, they created two bottlings of EVOO. 

The Original is made from early harvest Koreneiki olives, cold-pressed in small batches and meant for drizzling and finishing, and the Everyday, a more delicate, slightly less polyphenic bottling (also made from the same type of olives) designed for cooking and baking. 

Since they serve different purposes, it's hard to choose which one is best, but I will say I really enjoyed the Original because of its vibrant flavors, full of green, grassy notes and a rich mouthfeel. It was a delight on its own with bread, but gave my caprese salad a nice kick of spice (and also worked well, as expected, in a Greek-style salad with tomatoes, cucumbers, and feta). 

It's been said that Spain has some of the best olive oil in the world, and newcomer Graza showcases it well in two bottlings made from 100% Picual olives from Jaen, where over half the world's olive oil is produced. 

The Drizzle version, meant for finishing, comes from early harvest, hand-picked olives that impart strong vegetal notes and a freshness that carries through the finish. The Sizzle bottle is meant for cooking, made with mid-harvest olives that offer a mellower, riper flavor but without any sign of oxidation. Both come in convenient opaque squeeze bottles, making it easy to finish a dish or to oil your saute pan. 

Since these are meant for different applications, it's hard to pick a favorite version, but I found myself reaching for the Sizzle bottle multiple times to cook even after initial tasting and testing, from sauteing mushrooms to whipping up a Spanish tortilla. I could also see this being an excellent oil to make garlicky aioli from scratch, and at just $15 for 750ml, it's quite affordable. If you're curious about both, pick up the Drizzle and Sizzle Variety Pack and decide for yourself.

Corto hails from Lodi, California, and was recognized by Extra Virgin Olive Oil World Rankings (EVOOWR) as the number one EVOO in the United States for its TRULY bottling. 

Made from a blend of Arbequina, Arbosana, and Koroneiki olives, TRULY is all about freshness — they harvest early, press, and then pack the oil into oxygen-free packaging to maintain its integrity. Smooth, richly green in color with fruity notes and touches of cut grass, this olive oil is a delight for dipping bread or drizzling on salad, but also worked well when gently sauteing zucchini and baking focaccia bread. 

For those who use a lot of olive oil in their kitchen, it also comes in a 3-liter pantry-sized box for $70, designed with a spout that keeps air out so it lasts as long as possible.  

Extra virgin olive oils come from a number of olive varieties, giving each of them a unique flavor and aroma profile. While these standouts are some of the most noteworthy on the market now, there are hundreds of bottlings that come from all over the Mediterranean basin, including France, Morocco, and Tunisia, plus some exceptional brands in California, South America, and Australia.  If you'd like to explore more, don't be afraid of looking beyond store shelves—there's an entire world of olive oil waiting to be discovered.

Sign up for Insider Reviews' weekly newsletter for more buying advice and great deals. You can purchase logo and accolade licensing to this story here. Disclosure: Written and researched by the Insider Reviews team. We highlight products and services you might find interesting. If you buy them, we may get a small share of the revenue from the sale from our partners. We may receive products free of charge from manufacturers to test. This does not drive our decision as to whether or not a product is featured or recommended. We operate independently from our advertising team. We welcome your feedback. Email us at reviews@insider.com.