The Olive Pit

I really enjoyed this place. I walked in just wanting to browse and 30 minutes later I left with a bottle of oil and vinegar.
The store keeper was very knowledgeable and spent lots of time with explaining the subtle differences among their products and allowing me to taste around 7 or 8 different oils and vinegars… it was a great experience.
I’ll definitely be back once I need more!

Given the small and cavernous basement locale I was surprised by the extensive selection of olive oils, specialty oils and vinegars.
The friendly woman running the store had a sampling table set up and I was able to dip away and try some super oils and syrups.
Here’s a review of the some of the tasty selectons:
–10 year aged Balsamic Vinegar was sweet enough to drizzle over fruit. The $ 20+ for the bottle held me back a little bit. The 12 year aged wasn’t as sweet, but could be good with salads.
–The Organic Rose Syrup was like nothing I’ve ever tasted. Sweet, but not too sweet and a perfect perfume that wasn’t overpowering. Again I was having trouble justifying the $ 14+ because I couldn’t think of how many uses I’d get with it. (Though looking online that price might be a bargain)
–Blood Orange Olive Oil, this one was just perfect and unique in taste. I could see it with chicken, but I went with the old stand by of Lemon Olive Oil.
The Lemon Olive Oil was actually one of the ones they had imported from Italy. It is so richly flavored with lemon and is perfect over veggies on the grill. I thought $ 18 Canadian was just right.

Fantastic selection of olives ranging from fruity to grassy and spicy from relatively cheap to super expensive. A good place to check out if you want to see what olive oil’s all about. The elderly couple who manage the store are exceptionally friendly and will let you sample their oils and explain the differences in taste, region etc.