Australian olive oil taste test: $7 supermarket bottle is the best-value drop

Which Australian olive oils are worth splashing (or drizzling) out for? Tristan Lutze samples 10 products to find the ones worth buying. Photograph: Blake Sharp-Wiggins/The Guardian

Olive oil: to many it’s less of an ingredient and more an essential fuel, like oxygen or water. Australians down an average of 2.1 litres a person every year.

While much of Australia’s olive oil has historically come from Spain and Italy, more than 20m litres are manufactured locally each year, according to the Australian Olive Association.