Olive oil containers: which ones are the best?

In Italy we buy our oil in large containers of from one liter to five liters, and quite a few containers at a time, just following the olive harvest in December. We estimate that we consume about 30 L and sometimes up to 50 L a year. We use olive oil for everything: to drizzle on our bread and use it for everyday cooking: from making a tomato sauce to deep frying and everything in between. The price for oil in Italy is so reasonable that it makes sense. And it's also such a healthful oil to use you just can't go wrong.

In the United States and other non-Mediterranean countries it's a little bit different. You're probably buying your olive oil in 1-2 L bottles. Still, you want to store olive oil in the same manner no matter what size contain you are purchasing so you can maintain the quality of the oil over time.

There are so many lovely and charming olive oil containers, usually pint sized, on the market to choose from. It's nice to have something attractive to have on your countertop for easy reach and usage but it also has to be practical.

I used to use the metal, and the yellow ceramic, containers pictured here.

The metal container has a very long spout with a thin flow of oil. From that standpoint it's wonderful but I found that each time I used the oil, no matter how I tried to avoid it, there were always some residual drops of oil...and often much more...that drizzled down the side of the container and onto the count countertop, or onto the plate where I'd placed the oil container. Same thing with the lovely yellow container decorated with olives; olive oil continually dripped down the side of the container and onto the countertop leaving a continual mess, and wasting oil. In addition, the spout on the yellow container has a wider opening and doesn't permit a thin flow of oil.

My favorite color is green. With this in mind my dear friend Thelma, who's also a passionate culinarian like myself, bought me a lovely green glass olive oil container to keep on my countertop. I don't know why I've never seen a container designed like this one but it's absolutely ingenious, particularly in its simplicity. It has a removable glass spout, that can easily be washed. The spout inserts into a wide mouth top. So what's the advantage here? Very simple: the olive oil drips out of the spout but instead of dripping down the sides of the container and onto the countertop it goes back into the widemouth and then back into the olive oil container. Such a simple thing but so sensible: no mess, no waste.

Now, of course, it seems I see this container design everywhere I go; I've since purchased a second transparent glass container. I love them both but I prefer the green container: it's dark and probably protects the olive oil from sunlight a bit more, and it's also wonderful because it gives a green luster to the olive oil which I find particularly appealing. As an aside: olive oil color has nothing to do with its quality: a green olive oil can be wonderful, just as a yellow hued olive oil can be. What's important with olive oil are other factors such as acidity.

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When you buy your olive oil commercially first and foremost take a look carefully at the label. It may say it's Italian olive oil, but if you read the label closely you may find the olive oil has been bottled in Italy but is a mixture of oils from southern Europe including Greece, Spain, Italy. Additionally, make sure that the olive oil is extra virgin, particularly if you're using the oil for your salads and bruschetta.

Keep your oil stored in a cool, dry spot away from direct sunlight, and keep the smaller pint sized container on your countertop for daily use. If you don't find the no-drip design of olive oil container in local culinary shops the best bet is to look online; there's always something lovely and extremely functional on the web. Here's one I love.

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All about Italian olive oil

Check out these two articles for lots of great information about Italian extra virgin olive oil:

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