The Premium Olive Oil Martha Stewart Recommends Isn't Graza Or Brightland

Martha Stewart has built a veritable empire out of domestic concerns, with legions of loyal fans who hang on her every word. She gives advice about organizing your kitchen, holiday entertaining, spring gardening tasks, and even wedding planning, and she does so with aplomb, applying her typically even-keeled yet direct personality to everything she does. She is also highly aspirational for her fans, a true perfectionist who seemingly does and has the best of everything. So it's fitting that her favorite olive oil brand isn't Graza (which you can find in Sam's Club these days), nor even the pricier Brightland. Instead, Stewart told Food & Wine that her preference is for Heritage Extra Virgin Olive Oil from the upscale goods brand Flamingo Estate, saying, "It is the only olive oil I use at home."

Of course, along with Stewart's high praise comes a rather high price tag: For a one-time purchase (as opposed to a regular subscription), a 16-ounce bottle costs $50. Still, the oil in question might just be worth the premium cost, as it is truly flavorful, with grassy, peppery notes and over 700 five-star reviews on the Flamingo Estate website at the time of writing. One person wrote that they have reordered a few times now and called it "costly but well worth the price," saying that they were quite pleased with it. Another reviewer, who self-identified as an olive oil connoisseur, simply called it "superb."

For all that Flamingo Estate sells a variety of luxury wellness, beauty, and culinary goods, it does not run its own olive orchard. Instead, the company sources its trendy and pricey Heritage Extra Virgin Olive Oil from the farm of Philip Asquith, whose trade has now been passed down for three generations in Ojai, California, just north of Los Angeles. While Asquith now owns and operates the Ojai Olive Oil Company, the entrepreneur also makes the proprietary olive oil that bears the Heritage brand name. And like all the oils produced at the Ojai family farm, it's produced from olives that are organic and sustainably grown.

The history of the farm is fascinating, too. Olives are not native to California, or indeed the U.S. at large, and the first generation of Asquiths actually found Spanish olive trees planted and left there by former tenants of their land (Spain actually produces the most olive oil in the world). Eventually, as their oil enterprise grew, cuttings from Italy were brought to the farm, where they flourished.

California, and the Ojai region in particular, is well suited to olive growing, as the arid, warm summers mimic Mediterranean climes. Olives are also environmentally compatible with the state, which is dealing with ongoing drought conditions, because their water requirements are much lower than those of many other crops. All this to say, Flamingo Estate's Heritage brand olive oil might be expensive, but the care taken with its production alone arguably provides ample justification for both Martha Stewart's endorsement and the price.