Steven Jenkins is serious about “killer olive oil.” That’s how the renowned cheesemonger and specialty food authority describes the extra virgin olive oils offered by Olive Oil Jones, his recently launched online business with his wife, Michelle Sims. The oils are sourced from around the world and shipped across the U.S.
“My role in olive oil is the same as my experience in the cheese world—I am more a curator and geographer than a businessman,” Jenkins said. Drawing upon over 20 years of experience traveling to and importing olive oil from over 100 groves and mills, he curates his selection from trusted producers in Siena, Tuscany, to Priego de Cordoba, Andalusia.
They’re held to rigorous standards. They must be early-harvest, extracted from unripe green and beige olives still full of antioxidant-packed polyphenols, which impart spiciness and a bitter edge. They must be unfiltered, their rusticity and full nutritional potential kept intact. And they must be fresh, always from the latest harvest, imported in 440-pound barrels and bottled only immediately before shipping.
The result: oils that are fragrant and full-flavored, rich and grassy, with an incipient bitterness and a lingering pepperiness that dances in the back of your throat. In other words, killer olive oil.
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