Richmond Olive Oil Co. opens Sunday in Carytown

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.