This Whole Foods Item Is Doing Olive Oil Different (And We Tried It)

For a lot of people who might not have access to more niche chain grocery stores, Whole Foods is this closest we can get to having the luxury to browse over more elevated options. And there’s nothing quite as extravagant, and thus celebratory, as a more niche, high-end olive oil. This is something that Whole Foods has no shortage of.

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We always like to keep our eye out for the new and interesting olive oils popping up in Whole Foods with fantasies of one day getting our own for a special occasion. But we always have the lingering question in mind of whether or not they’re worth the price tag, or if they’re even good at all. So, when Damya offer to send us some of their single-origin, woman-owned, and harvest-dated olive oil over for us to try, we were eager to get to the bottom of at least this one offering from Whole Foods. Now, we can finally let you all know the inside scoop. Here is our official Sporked review.

Our Official Thoughts

Pros — Sure, it does feel a little bit redundant to emphasize how smooth an olive oil is. But in the case of this particular olive oil, we’re not really talking about the texture. Of course, the texture is going to be smooth and silky as you would expect for any oil. But the my Mild and Robust olive oils that we were sent both have a distinctive, smooth flavor that flows in concert with the densely flavorful and aromatic profile. There’s no harsh bitterness or tannic aftertaste in either one of these.

Of course, we are expecting the Robust flavor to be much more bold, and that certainly was the case. It is fruity and delightfully peppery, making it our preferred oil of the two. But, that said, the Mild olive oil maintained so much of its fruitiness that we were thoroughly impressed. Usually with an olive oil being labeled mild it loses a lot of that aromatic flavor. But this one held that aromatic flavor close whilst mellowing out some of those more pungent peppery flavors.

For us, the Mild is the perfect example of what we would choose for something like homemade salad dressing that has a lot of other aromatics in it or to cook things with over heat. The Robust oil we would rather save for things like drizzling on top of a dip or dunking bread into so as to really take in the flavor.

Cons — To be honest folks, there is really not much criticism we could come up with for these oils. They are rich and deeply flavorful in every way we could’ve wanted. But that comes at a price. For the quality, $20 a bottle really is one of the most reasonable price points we’ve ever seen (in the current climate). These are far from the most affordable olive oil at the grocery stores, though.

That said, if there’s someone in your life that is deeply impassioned by food science, history, or heritage then this would make the perfect gift. Plus, it’s not so dramatic of a price point that we wouldn’t simply repurchase this for ourselves either. As we approach the holidays Damya’s dedication to transparency, flavor, and ethical food practices has our attention.