Where to Find the Best Olive Oils in London

Summary

London is known as the world’s sec­ond most inter­na­tional city and offers a wide vari­ety of award-win­ning extra vir­gin olive oils from around the world in var­i­ous spe­cialty shops. Some of the top shops in London include The Oil Merchant in Shepherd’s Bush, Olives & More in Dulwich, Harrods in cen­tral London, Delícias UK with mul­ti­ple loca­tions, and The Fine Cheese Co. of Belgravia. These shops offer a diverse selec­tion of high-qual­ity olive oils that cater to dif­fer­ent tastes and pref­er­ences.

Home to roughly nine mil­lion peo­ple from at least 159 coun­tries, London is widely touted as the world’s sec­ond most inter­na­tional city (after New York).

For food­ies, one of the perks of liv­ing in such a large and mul­ti­cul­tural place is the abil­ity to find just about any type of fare one could imag­ine.

The results of the 2021 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition revealed this year’s best extra vir­gin olive oils, and, for­tu­nately for Londoners, there are plenty of places to find award-win­ning Liquid Gold.

The Official Guide to the World’s Best Olive Oils fea­tures a retail finder to locate top-rated brands in retail out­lets around the world.

In London, top-rated olive oils turn up just about every­where, from small spe­cialty food shops to some of the world’s most glam­orous depart­ment stores.

Here are just some of the shops in the Square Mile that sell the brands that earned a dis­tinc­tion at the world’s most pres­ti­gious olive oil qual­ity con­test.

The Oil Merchant

Located in the busy and mul­ti­cul­tural west-cen­tral neigh­bor­hood of Shepherd’s Bush, The Oil Merchant is a one-stop shop for find­ing some of the world’s best olive oils.

Founded in the mid-1980s by Charles Carey, the Oil Merchant started as lit­tle more than Carey sell­ing olive oils out of his van, accord­ing to their web­site.

During the har­vest sea­son, the Cornwall native would travel through­out Tuscany pur­chas­ing olive oils and bring­ing them back to London to sell.

Eventually, his ven­ture grew, and Carey hired more van dri­vers and started to import a wider vari­ety of olive and nut oils from Italy and beyond. The store cur­rently stocks six dif­fer­ent NYIOOC-win­ning pro­duc­ers from Israel, Italy and Spain.

Among the selec­tion of 25 extra vir­gin olive oils fea­tured by the Oil Merchant include two awarded brands from Marqués de Valdueza and one each from Badia a Coltibuono, one of Carey’s orig­i­nal sup­pli­ers, Laudemio, Ravidà and Societa Agricola Sergio Delle Monache.

Olives & More

Named after south­ern Spain’s Sea of Olives, Mar de Olivos is a com­pany that sells online and runs a small del­i­catessen named Olives & More in the vil­lage-like neigh­bor­hood of Dulwich in south­east London.

The fam­ily behind Olives & More imports the best olives, extra vir­gin olive oils and tape­nades from their home­land, Andalusia. Their jour­ney into the world of olive oil started in 2013, after the fam­ily matri­arch, Mar, was diag­nosed with a health con­di­tion for which extra vir­gin olive oil con­sump­tion alle­vi­ated the symp­toms.

Mar and her fam­ily now con­cen­trate their efforts on edu­cat­ing con­sumers about the many health ben­e­fits of olive oil and also helps clients – from indi­vid­ual buy­ers to pro­fes­sional chefs and dis­trib­u­tors – find the right olive oils for their spe­cific needs.

Among the 13 extra vir­gin olive oils sold at Mar de Olivas are four NYIOOC-award win­ners: two from Almazaras de la Subbetica, and one from Aceites Hacienda El Palo and Sucesores de Hermanos López.

Harrods

While London’s depart­ment stores are mostly known for their high cou­ture, expen­sive jew­el­ery and deca­dent after­noon teas, they are also a solid bet for high-qual­ity and arti­sanal prod­ucts of all kinds.

Sprawling over two hectares in cen­tral London, Harrods is one of Europe’s largest and most famous depart­ment stores and is no excep­tion.

Home to about 330 dif­fer­ent shops, the 172-year-old London icon is well known for its Seasonal Christmas dis­play, lav­ish archi­tec­ture and, of course, its Food Halls.

Featuring more than 1,420 sep­a­rate prod­ucts, Harrods does not lack much in terms of choice. The mas­sive depart­ment store offers more than 40 oils and vine­gars, includ­ing var­i­ous truf­fle oils, peper­on­cino oil, hazel­nut oil and 11 dif­fer­ent extra vir­gin olive oils.

Included in its mostly Italian and Spanish col­lec­tion are two offer­ings from Domenico Manca, which sit side-by-side with Laudemio, Oro Bailen and Ravidà extra vir­gin olive oils.

Delícias UK

While most spe­cialty stores are lim­ited to one small show and mostly fre­quented by neigh­bor­hood inhab­i­tants, oth­ers grow into some­thing much big­ger.

For more than 25 years, the own­ers of Delicías UK have lived by the motto ​“where food, style and pas­sion meet.”

Starting from one store that spe­cial­ized in import­ing a wide range of Portuguese goods, they have expanded to three London loca­tions and one shop in Suffolk. Along with Portuguese goods, the team behind Delícias imports goods from Spain and Brazil too.

Among the numer­ous offer­ings are, of course, a selec­tion of 27 Spanish and Portuguese extra vir­gin olive oils. Among these include two offer­ings from NYIOOC-win­ning Gallo Worldwide, one from Sovena​’s Oliveira da Serra brand and one from Casa de Santo Amaro.

The Fine Cheese Co. of Belgravia

Olive oil has a ten­dency to turn up in some unusual places. For exam­ple, one London elec­tri­cal shop is well-known for its Cypriot extra vir­gin olive oil.

However, the green gold also fea­tures on a cor­ner shelf in The Fine Cheese Co. of Belgravia. Most well-known for its exten­sive col­lec­tion of cheeses and crack­ers – a famous British snack dat­ing back more than 200 years – The Fine Cheese Co. sells var­i­ous infused olive oils and Gradassi Lo Storico, which earned a Silver Award at the 2021 NYIOOC.

While the store is a ver­i­ta­ble library of cheeses, with more than 100 dif­fer­ent types, adding award-win­ning extra vir­gin olive oil as an accom­pa­ni­ment may well become the next great British culi­nary tra­di­tion.

So many specialty stores

Part of the allure for so many peo­ple liv­ing in London is the rich cul­tural diver­sity that abounds through­out the city. Nowhere is this exem­pli­fied bet­ter than by the myr­iad spe­cialty stores and del­i­catessens.

Usually run by fam­i­lies seek­ing to bring the best of their old homes to their new ones, extra vir­gin olive oil is a com­mon ingre­di­ent on their tightly packed and col­or­ful shelves.

Among the numer­ous shops boast­ing a selec­tion of award-win­ning extra vir­gin olive oils are bak­ers, green­gro­cers and wine mer­chants.

For those plan­ning to take their taste buds on a trip around the world at Camden Markets, pop­ping up to the Phoenicia Mediterranean Food Hall is also well worth it. On shelves full of exotic offer­ings, shop­pers will find Hizirlar Medikal Gida​’s Zeytin Reserve.

However, Camden Market is not the only out­door shop­ping locale and eatery near some of the world’s best olive oils.

Just south of London Bridge, the Taste Croatia Deli sits on the outer edge of Borough Market. The fam­ily-run shop serves as an ambas­sador for the coun­try and pur­veys some of its best award-win­ning extra vir­gin olive oils, includ­ing Ex Albis from OPG Chiavalon.

Continuing south, there are still plenty of oppor­tu­ni­ties to find NYIOOC award-win­ning olive oils in south London. Near the trendy Brixton neigh­bor­hood, Sweet Portugal offers a range of excep­tional prod­ucts. Chief among these is Gallo Worldwide​’s Reserva brand of extra vir­gin olive oil.