Flavor Favorites: Inside Olive Oil Divine's Best-Sellers

What Are Your Best Selling Products?

What makes certain olive oils "medicinal," and why are customers increasingly swapping wine gifts for premium oil and vinegar sets? The answers reveal fascinating shifts in culinary culture and health awareness.

Greg and Shirley Mueller, owners of Olive Oil Divine, take listeners behind the scenes of their gourmet specialty shop, sharing which products consistently fly off shelves and why. Their high-polyphenol Zoe olive oil (with an impressive 1870 count) tops the list as health-conscious customers discover its benefits, while their Italian Herb infused oil claims the flavor favorite spot. For those curious about the science, Greg explains how they carefully match polyphenol levels to intended uses – higher for health benefits, lower for flavored varieties to prevent overwhelming the infusions.

The balsamic vinegar conversation ventures into unexpected territory with bourbon-infused options perfect for grilling season and a champagne balsamic (made with French champagne grapes but non-alcoholic) that Shirley recommends adding to everything from egg salad to other vinegars for brightness. Perhaps most intriguing is their 25-year aged "Catch 25" balsamic that Shirley declares transformed how she enjoys steak.

Beyond individual products, the Muellers reveal a growing trend of customers choosing olive oil and balsamic sets as sophisticated alternatives to wine gifts for dinner parties and housewarming presents. Their custom gift baskets featuring olive wood accessories and personalized labeling options for realtors have created an entirely new market. With mentions of their natural margarita mix and versatile spice blends like the popular Tuscany bread dipping seasoning, it's clear why customers come for a specific product but leave with inspiration for entire meals.

Curious about elevating your cooking with these gourmet essentials? Visit Oliveoildivine.com or stop by their store to discover why these products are creating such devoted fans and turning everyday cooks into kitchen heroes.

To learn more about Olive Oil Divine visit:
https://oliveoildivine.com/
Olive Oil Divine
2517 N. Roan Street
Johnson City, TN 37601
423-707-7087

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to the Olive Oil Divine podcast, your go-to
source for culinary inspiration.
Join Greg and Shirley Muller,owners of Olive Oil Divine, as
they share tips, stories andinsights to make you a kitchen
hero.
From authentic extra virginolive oils to rich-aged Italian
balsamic vinegars, We've goteverything you need to elevate

(00:27):
your cooking.
Live divine.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
Ever wonder which gourmet goodies fly off the
shelves at Olive Oil Divine?
Greg and Shirley spill theinfused oil on their top fan
favorites.
Welcome back everyone.
Skip Monty here, co-host, slashproducer, back in the studio
with owners of Olive Oil Divine,greg and Shirley Muller.
Greg, shirley how have you guysbeen?

Speaker 3 (01:01):
We're doing great.

Speaker 4 (01:02):
Good morning, Skip.
We're doing good.
We got morning coffee in hand.
Welcome to our kitchen, by theway.

Speaker 2 (01:06):
Amen.
Well, I'm with you, brother,Got my coffee as well and I'm
excited to be in the famouskitchen of Greg and Shirley
Muller.
But before we get a tour andlook around and do some cooking,
I'd like to ask what are yourbest-selling products at Olive

(01:28):
Oil Divine?

Speaker 4 (01:33):
Golly, that's a hard one.
But you know there are a fewfan favorites that we can
certainly identify and I guessit really depends on which
category of product we'retalking about.
So maybe I'll take a few andlet shirley highlight a few.
But obviously, of course ouroils are our prime product and I

(01:55):
would say most popular bybottles going out the door would
be our zoe, which is our highpolyphenol medicinal oil,
because people are reallystarting to learn about that and
it's becoming quite popular.
But other than that, for theoils, the italian herb is high

(02:16):
up there in a number one spot.
You know some of our othervarietals that come from Italy
and Greece and Spain.
They would rival, coming inclose second behind the zoe.
The varietals are reallystarting to take off and people
are really starting to realizejust how good true extra virgin
olive oil is.
So what do you think, shirley?

Speaker 3 (02:39):
Well, I will make an announcement.
We just brought in a newvarietal.
It's called Lachino.
It's from Italy.
Polyphenol is around 500.
It has a really great taste toit.
We just brought that in and wegot it on the floor yesterday.
So it's out there.
It's ready for anyone to comein and do a tasting.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
I'm sorry, what's that called again?

Speaker 3 (03:03):
Lachino.

Speaker 2 (03:04):
Lachino.

Speaker 3 (03:06):
Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 (03:08):
And you said it had 500.

Speaker 3 (03:12):
500 polyphenol.

Speaker 2 (03:14):
And is that what's your target for polyphenol?

Speaker 3 (03:20):
Well, we try to get the highest that we possibly can
For medicinal purposes.
The zoid, that is 1870.
Um, another one is bequal.
That one is 1310 in polyphenol.
And then we also go down to themedium because a lot of people
likes just a good plain varietalmulled olive oil.

(03:43):
So we'll go down around low500s, 400s.
It really depends on the cropthat year, because we don't know
what the polyphenol is untilthey actually press it.

Speaker 4 (03:55):
Yeah, Skip, a lot of our flavored oils are actually
in the 200 and 300 range becauseyou don't want the polyphenols
to overpower the flavor thatyou're trying to produce with
the oil.
So we have the broad spectrumfrom absolute mild, low
polyphenol, low pungency, allthe way up to the extreme with
the zoys.
So everything and in betweenyeah.
Wow and as far as popular.

Speaker 2 (04:19):
I'm sorry, go ahead.

Speaker 3 (04:21):
The higher, the better for medicinal purposes
and the stronger it tastes.

Speaker 4 (04:25):
Yeah, it's gonna give you that kick in the back of
your throat the higher thepolyphenol number.

Speaker 2 (04:29):
And okay.
Well, that was going to be mynext question.
Is there a connection with theflavor and polyphenol volume?
I guess, and apparently theanswer to that?

Speaker 4 (04:39):
Yeah, the polyphenol can overpower the flavor.
If we flavor a too high of aphenolic oil then it could
overpower the flavor and wedon't want that.

Speaker 2 (04:48):
Gotcha.
So where does the?
I remember on the walking touryou talked about the bourbon
flavor.
Did you have a bourbon?

Speaker 4 (04:57):
flavor, or is that vinegar?
That's the balsamic vinegar.
And yeah, that bourbon flavoris made with wild turkey rare
breed and it's quite popular.
It's especially now time tofire up the grills and get the
steaks going.
That's a great grillingbalsamic.
Shirley's favorite the Cash 25,is probably our close to it's
running in a tie with ourchampagne balsamic as far as the

(05:20):
favorite goes there for lots ofuses and we'll show that in a
cooking video, perhaps next.
Okay.

Speaker 2 (05:26):
Tell me about the champagne vinegar.

Speaker 3 (05:31):
The champagne is a very light vinegar.
It's made with a Frenchchampagne grape, so it's
non-alcoholic, but it just has alight, airy flavor.
It goes with anything.
I like to mix some balsamicstogether and sometimes I'll take
the champagne and add just alittle touch to it and it really

(05:52):
livens up that balsamic there's.
Sometimes I'll even use twobalsamics and an oil together
just to get a nice flavor in.
It depends on what I'm puttingit on.
If I'm doing a pasta, I'll dothat with it.
The 25 I had a customer come inlast week and said he'll add
the champagne with the25-year-old balsamic.

Speaker 4 (06:21):
He froze.

Speaker 3 (06:32):
So there's just so much you can do with balsamic
vinegars.

Speaker 2 (06:35):
You froze.
Does the champagne balsamicactually have a champagne taste,
or can you taste?

Speaker 3 (06:41):
alcohol in it?
No, there's no alcohol in it,it's just the actual grape that
they use.

Speaker 4 (06:48):
It's made with a champagne vinegar which is
non-alcoholic.

Speaker 2 (07:07):
So it does have the flavor of champagne, just no
alcohol.

Speaker 4 (07:15):
Okay, well, go ahead.
The champagne that you weretalking about, um is, uh, is
actually flavored with champagnevinegar, so it's alcohol free.
You can taste the champagneflavor, but just not the alcohol
oh, wow.

Speaker 2 (07:22):
So, uh, not something you want to take a swig of
while you're, while you'recooking.

Speaker 4 (07:29):
Well, you could.
I mean, but you're not going toit's not going to relax you,
Dwayne, unless you just enjoythe flavor.

Speaker 2 (07:35):
Well, I know for past episodes you've been known to
take a swig of polyphenolstraight out of the bottle.
Oh yeah, yeah, that's healthyfor you.

Speaker 4 (07:45):
Now you could.
You could, I guess, take a swigof the bourbon and start to
feel it, but you probably getsick before you start feeling
the effects of the alcohol,because it's so small.

Speaker 2 (07:53):
I would imagine.
I would imagine Now you guyssell gift sets too, right?

Speaker 3 (07:59):
We do.
We do gift baskets.
We'll do them on demand.
If someone comes in and wants agift basket.
If we're busy we'll get it doneand ask them to come back.
But most of the time, as soonas they walk in the door, we can
create a basket with them andthen we'll put it together and

(08:20):
then they just walk out the doorwith it.
We do a lot of corporate gifts.
I do a lot of gifts forrealtors, um, because we
actually can put their logo on alabel.
So we get quite a few realtorsout there that comes in and does
, uh, housewarming gifts for uswith us.

Speaker 2 (08:32):
Wow, do you have anything that's really popular
or more popular than other giftsets?

Speaker 3 (08:39):
A lot of people, a lot of our realtors, like our
olive wood.
We'll do an olive wood cuttingboard with an oil and a vinegar
and some spices and a dip plate.
Or we'll do the bread olivewood piece that we have a bread
holder and we'll do an oil andvinegar in it and a spice skip.

Speaker 4 (09:02):
A lot of people just will come in and buy an oil and
a vinegar for for bread dippingand give that as a housewarming
gift or a dinner party gift andbring that instead of a bottle
of wine.
That's really becoming apopular trend now is to give
olive oil and balsamic vinegarin place of wine.

Speaker 2 (09:17):
Wow, that's actually a very positive thing.
Give people more healthy gifts.
Well, do you on both, eitherbalsamic or olive oil?
Do you have any garlic infusedolive oil?
I love, I'm a big fan of garlic.

Speaker 4 (09:35):
We actually have both garlic olive oil and garlic
balsamic vinegar, so come, getyour garlic breath at our place
and then we have a couple ofother oils.

Speaker 3 (09:46):
We have a Parmesan garlic and then we have a
Parmesan garlic rosemary.
We have a melange that's gotsome garlic in it, and it's got
garlic, basil, rosemary andoregano in it.
So we have a variety ofdifferent oils with garlic, or
you can get it just plain garlic.

Speaker 2 (10:04):
Oh, wow, and we can also get them in the seasonings.

Speaker 4 (10:07):
We've got bread dipping seasonings that are very
popular, that are going to havesome garlic in it.
Perhaps some of the cooking forgrilling seasonings and rubs
will have garlic.
And number one of our favoritesand most popular is the Tuscany
bread dipping.
For the bread dipping and then,of course, for cooking it's the
Austin Steakhouse rub.
And then I can't forget to tobring up the truffle parmesan.

(10:32):
That's becoming a really bigfan favorite because that's good
on just about anything.
It's it's a nice lightseasoning with some black
truffle and a little bit of saltand sea salt and it's.
It just flies out the door ohmy gosh and then,

Speaker 3 (10:48):
we have some pasta.

Speaker 2 (10:49):
It's way too early to be this hungry well, now we
haveas.

Speaker 3 (10:54):
That's got garlic in it too, so if you really like
garlic, you can get your garlicfix with us.
You sure can.

Speaker 2 (11:00):
Oh, wow, wow Pasta I think we talked about that in
our walking tour.
Wow, so you can basically comein and get an entire meal in
your store easily.

Speaker 3 (11:12):
You sure could.
Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2 (11:15):
Do uh, do folks do that Like come by and say hey,
for supper tonight I'm going todo pasta with uh uh bourbon
balsamic, oh wow.

Speaker 4 (11:28):
One of my favorite partying partying comments is
we're checking customers out iswhat's for dinner tonight?

Speaker 2 (11:34):
Oh, I can imagine that folks, you know, while
they're shopping, are thinking,okay, I'm going to make this
tonight.
Well, as far as balsamics, Idon't know if, Greg, if you
mentioned your favorite balsamic, but I wanted to ask both of
you that but I wanted to askboth of you that Well, there's

(11:57):
so many that I like because Iuse them for different things.

Speaker 3 (11:59):
For steaks, I love the catch 25 over my steak.
That's the only way I'll eat mysteak.

Speaker 2 (12:07):
Catch 25.

Speaker 3 (12:08):
And as far as oh yeah , that's the 25-year-old
balsamic.

Speaker 2 (12:13):
Ooh age.

Speaker 3 (12:16):
If I'm having crab legs, I like to take the bourbon
and I'll put the butter oliveoil in it, and I like to dip my
crab legs in the butter oliveoil with the bourbon.

Speaker 2 (12:27):
Oh wow, I'm starving now If I'm doing egg salad.

Speaker 3 (12:32):
I add a splash of champagne in my egg salad.
Instead of vinegar, I use thebalsamic vinegar in my egg salad
.

Speaker 2 (12:40):
I bet that's good Greg what about you?

Speaker 3 (12:43):
Oh, it's real good.

Speaker 2 (12:45):
Greg, what about you?

Speaker 4 (12:47):
Skip, I'm sitting here thinking about dinner
already, so you know I can't notbring up a margarita mix that
we just have.
We've just reintroduced.
It's all natural ingredientsand fresh real juices and it's a
citrus agave mix and it makeskiller margaritas.
So that would go great withthat steak that Shirley's

(13:08):
talking about.

Speaker 2 (13:10):
Oh, man, well, I got to tell you guys, I have taken a
lot of notes.
Catch 25, the Italian herb theZoe, the Lachino, is that how
it's pronounced, lachino?

Speaker 4 (13:25):
Yeah, it's Italian.

Speaker 2 (13:27):
Lachino, I've got a list so far and I'm starving to
death, so I think we need towrap this thing up before I'm
drooling on camera.
But I'm sure a lot of ourlisteners made a list as well of

(13:47):
your best-selling products andwe appreciate you sharing with
us and look forward to our nextepisode, where I think we're
going to be doing some cooking.
Huh, and we appreciate yousharing with us and look forward
to our next episode.
Well, I think we're going to bedoing some cooking.

Speaker 3 (13:59):
Huh, yes, sir, some ideas yeah.

Speaker 2 (14:00):
All right, sounds good.
We will see you guys.
Thanks for your time today andwe'll see you in the next
episode.

Speaker 3 (14:06):
Our pleasure, our pleasure.

Speaker 1 (14:11):
All right.
Thanks for tuning in to theOlive Oil Divine podcast.
Don't forget to visit us onlineat oliveoildivinecom for our
exceptional olive oils, agedbalsamic vinegars and more.
If you're local, stop by ourstore and discover how we can
make you a kitchen hero.
Until next time, live divine.