Treat her with respect, or Popeye will give you the father and mother of all good hidings.
So you’re the guy who’s been corrupting all the “Extra Virgins.”
The difference between pure, virgin and extra-virgin olive oils has to do with acidity and flavor. Virgin olive oil is supposed to have an acidity level lower than 1.5%, while extra-virgin has an acidity of less than 0.8%. There are also organizations like the International Olive Council that publish standards for how virgin and extra-virgin oils should taste.
You should know that there is a lot of fraud in the marketing of olive oil. It is sometimes adulterated with other oils, and oils labeled as virgin or extra-virgin are often not up to standard.
Really high-quality oils are expensive, and I wouldn’t use them except where the flavor will make a difference. I wouldn’t use an expensive oil for frying or sauteeing, for example. Save the good stuff for things like salad dressings, pesto sauce (and other uncooked pasta sauces), finishing (i.e. adding a little to a finished dish for flavor), bread dipping. . . Also, an unfiltered oil shouldn’t be subjected to high heat, as it will scorch easily.
The number of different oils available in a well-stocked store can be overwhelming. One thing to look for is certification by a group like the California Olive Oil Council. You can also try to buy from places that put out tasters (some gourmet shops do this).
Good-quality oil isn’t always the most expensive. One of the best I’ve found in my area is the house brand of a local store. It costs about $10 for a 750 ml bottle, and tastes better than many oils that cost twice as much.
Bad olive oil is terrible, bitter and horribly, gaggy sharp. The problem buying is that it’s unrelated to price and also to seemingly reliable brands. Here in the Netherlands there is no good olive oil in the supermarket, guaranteed. Everything you can get there is foul, even if it’s expensive and looks chique with its Bertolli sticker (Bertolli is actually one of the worst brands). If you want edible olive oil you have to go to a deli. I’m not being snobby, it’s the sad truth. (It seems, from the above posts, that it’s different in the US. You lucky bastards 
The UK was better, too. The Dutch supermarkets are honestly just a travesty. Don’t even have bloody vanilla, half the time. :mad: )
So we have plain olive oil for frying and nice olive oil for raw uses. It’s delicious: silky-olivey and gently peppery.
If you go to a good deli they’ll let you dip bread into all their different kinds, and they’ll tell you what the differences are and what uses they’re good for. Doing that really helps your palate to learn what to look for in an oil. It’s like wine: a little practice, experience and learning about what you taste really helps you appreciate it more.
What Jeff Lichtman and Turble said about the rampant fraud/adulteration in the olive oil industry. There’s a book out by Tom Mueller called Extra Virginity that goes into detail. If you google the book name and author, a list of the more reliable varieties usually turns up, and California Olive Ranch was on it last I checked.
California Olive Ranch has more than one variety of olive oil, so the poster who found it bland might have tried a milder variety. Costco occasionally sells 2-packs of 1 liter bottles for something like $17, and usually have the “bold and peppery” Miller’s Blend variety.
And yeah, don’t cook/fry with the expensive stuff. Save that for making a salad dressing or a little drizzle over a finished dish.
Consumer Reports recently had an article rating olive oil and discussing the somewhat flimsy standards used to define “extra virgin” olive oil.*
More on the big olive oil controversy here.
*the article went into extensive detail on the testers’ supposed ability to detect floral/fruity notes in the very very best olive oil, to the point where it sounded like they were comparing the stuff to fine wines (where the reproducibility of taste claims is equally :dubious:).
As long as they’re not adulterating it with motor oil, ordinary supermarket olive oil seems eminently capable of serving as a backdrop for my signature eggplant dish. 
I don’t make any claims to detect any special nuances other than very basic flavors. I do, however, have a big issue with buying something labeled as 100% anything when they’re actually lying about the ingredients and it’s only partially that thing. So out of pure spite, as well as wanting to reward those companies that don’t lie about their product’s ingredient list, I try to buy the real thing.
I’m now worried the stuff I bought is going to be crap.
I never had that one, but Botticelli rated low in the Consumer Reports test. Don’t know if that’s just extra-virgin that they’re rating or not, but it doesn’t bode well. That said, it may be mild since it’s 100% Pure Olive oil and not straight extra virgin, so perhaps the flavors will be more subdued and not as noticeable.
ETA: I’m curious about that TJ’s California Estate now. Anyone here try it?
Ow, sorry. 
Think of it like this: if it is horrible, it’s just another taste experience. You need to know what terrible tastes like to know what the difference is. Like: terrible wine - regular wine - amazing-angels-pissing-on-your-tongue-wine.
Plus, if you bought the really big jar you have a pretty jar. And you can still use the stuff.
Well, the last thing I bought before this was Wal-Mart store brand extra-virgin and it didn’t send me or my family gagging from the room, so perhaps my palate isn’t as refined as all that. And the Botticelli I bought is a big 3-liter oil-can size thing. ($16 on sale from the usual $20)
But there is the painting on the front so it’s not a total loss. 
Cut the top off and use it to store your wooden utensils on the countertop.
My hometown has a shop that specializesin selling olive oil and gourmet vinegars, and ships nationwide. I haven’t tried their products yet (though I’ve been meaning to), but my roommate swears by them.
I just looked it up in Consumer Reports. Wal-Mart rated higher than the Botticelli! They called the flavor “barnyardlike.” Geez. I think I’m going to take it back. :mad:
True - as will any cooking oil. So by all means take advantage of this trick when your hands are greasy-dirty - but use the cheap stuff.
Note that the paper towel isn’t essential. Use about a teaspoon of oil on dirty but dry hands, then wash with soap & water.
I got some oil I’ll sell ya for the job! 
We get plain olive oil for dishes where the flavor profile is desired, but not a major component of the dish. Things like Italian, Spanish and Middle Eastern dishes primarily, but sometimes in other dishes with similar ingredients.
We have a couple bottles of super-spiffy extra virgin oil for dipping and olive-oil centric dishes- we have some Texas Olive Ranch, and Texas Hill Country Olive Oil Co. oils in our cabinet. (yes, it is nice to actually have local olive oil!) They’re the bright-green, super-olivey stuff like you get if you go out into the Tuscan countryside, although due to climate and soil differences, they’re not quite the same.
For probably 60% of our cooking though, we get big jugs of corn, canola or soybean oil, and fill a little bottle for near the stove.
Since I’m such a goofball, and enjoy the diversion of taking pictures while I cook, here are some glimpses into my dinner preparation last night.
Ditto on this book . . .it was a really interesting read, and gave me enough of a vocabulary and confidence to start tasting my olive oil.
And really, that’s the thing to do. When you buy a bottle/tin, pour some into a small glass and taste it. I had never really thought about the taste of olive oil before, but there is a wide variety of flavor profiles in similarly priced oils. I’ve taken to buying from California Olive Ranch (their arbequina varietal) as my regular non-cooking oil. It’s slightly peppery with a fresh ‘grassy’ flavor I really like.
I buy extra virgin oil in a large tin for my ‘bulk’ needs as well, but don’t worry as much about the peppery flavor. It still needs to taste good, though.