From Farm to Bottle: How Olive Oil Divine Stands Apart in Quality and Transparency

What Makes Olive Oil Divine Different From Other Typical Olive Oil Stores?

Ever wondered what makes truly exceptional olive oil? Greg and Shirley Mueller of Olive Oil Divine pull back the curtain on an industry rife with misinformation and adulteration. This eye-opening conversation reveals how their independently-owned business works directly with twelve small family farms to deliver authentic extra virgin olive oils that stand in stark contrast to many grocery store options.

The shocking reality is that many household olive oil brands have been repeatedly fined for fraud—cutting their products with inferior oils like canola, sunflower, or even undisclosed peanut oil. Greg emphasizes their unwavering commitment to certification: "If the farm doesn't certify their oils, we won't even entertain it." This dedication to transparency extends to their comprehensive labeling, which includes complete nutrition information often missing from competitors' bottles.

Freshness emerges as another critical factor, with high-quality olive oils delivering optimal health benefits when consumed within 2-4 months after opening. The Olive Oil Divine team expertly guides customers toward high-polyphenol varieties for medicinal purposes or more suitable options for cooking applications. Their showroom features prominent display of press dates and daily tastings of their nearly 90 flavors—including unique offerings like bacon olive oil and dairy-free butter-flavored olive oil made with sweet potatoes.

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):
With so many places selling olive oil.
What sets Olive Oil Divineapart from the rest?
It's more than just a store.
It's an experience rooted inquality, authenticity and
passion.
Welcome back everyone.
Skip Maughan, here co-host,slash producer, back in the
studio with Greg and ShirleyMuller.
Greg, shirley, how you guysdoing Good morning Skip Doing

(00:59):
great.

Speaker 4 (01:00):
Good morning.

Speaker 3 (01:00):
Skip.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
Good morning.
Hope you're doing well.

Speaker 4 (01:04):
Doing well with this beautiful sunshine outside.

Speaker 2 (01:07):
Amen, amen, love it.
I'm loving it.
Ready to warm up a little bit?
So I wanted to ask, shirley,we'll start with you.
You know, as the teaser said,there's a lot of different
stores selling a lot ofdifferent kind of olive oil.
What makes Olive Oil Divine,different from other typical
olive oil stores?

Speaker 4 (01:28):
There's several reasons.
One of them is we're not afranchise.
We're independently owned.
We actually have about 12growers that we deal with small
mom and pop farms and we believebringing the farm to the table.
Everything that you taste inour store is hand-selected by
Greg and I.
We bottle everything in store.

(01:50):
All of our oils and vinegarsare bottled by us, our employees
, our team.
We believe in quality andbefore we bring that quality in,
we actually do a taste test ofevery product in our store that
is edible, because I have skincare too but everything has to
meet our standards before webring it into our store.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
Very good.
Now, speaking of standards,what kind of quality standards
do you look for when you'reselecting products for Olive Old
Divine?

Speaker 4 (02:22):
A lot of it is.
Do we like the way it tastes?
Because we always keep ourcustomers in mind, is this the
best quality that we can come upwith, or can we also compare
our growers?
We do a side-by-side comparisonwith our growers on their oils
and vinegars.
Some oils taste better fromother growers.
Some balsamic taste better fromother balsamic producers as

(02:45):
well.

Speaker 3 (02:47):
Skip.
Let me add to that, though Oneof the main things that really
is top of our standard list isall of our oils are certified
extra virgin.
If the farm that we're dealingwith, or potentially dealing
with, doesn't certify their oils, then we won't even entertain
it, because we want to make surethat when our bottle says 100%
real extra virgin olive oil,that we are assured of that, so
we have the certificates forevery oil that we have.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
What other kind of stuff could be in there?

Speaker 3 (03:12):
Well, it could be adulterated with an inferior oil
, a cheaper oil, such as canolaor sunflower or even, in some
cases, peanut oil, unfortunately, Wow.
So we have to make sure we getthe results.
And it's sad because most ofthe olive oils on the grocery
store shelves with exception tothe stores that we're in, a lot

(03:32):
of that oil is household namesthat everybody knows and has
known for years.
But yet we can go to theInternational Olive Oil Council
newsletter and find that they'vebeen fined again for fraud, for
adulterating their oil.
This company, that company andthere are common names that I
won't mention, but everybodywould know oh, I've heard of
that if I did so.
It's really important that thecustomer, the consumer, knows

(03:55):
that when they come into ourstore, why is our oils a little
bit more than what they wouldbuy at the grocery store
price-wise?
And that's because, well, it'sthe real thing and we're selling
the real thing, unlike whatthey're going to get in a
grocery store usually.

Speaker 2 (04:10):
And I would imagine you could taste a difference in
that too.

Speaker 4 (04:14):
You can.
Another thing, too, is theydon't put everything in the oil
on their label.
That has been also a lot ofresearch on that.
I read a book called Real FoodFake Food.
It talks about olive oils.
It talks about the foods thatwe have in our country that's
just processed and what's in it.
It's a really good guide to goby and I like to give my

(04:39):
customers quality.
It's not quantity in this store, it's quality in this store
customer's quality.

Speaker 3 (04:45):
It's not quantity in this store, it's quality in this
store.
Let me add again one thing thatwe do differently, according to
our standards, is our labels.
You look at the back of ourbottles and our label has a
complete nutrition list.
It has the complete ingredientslist, so we're giving the
consumer every piece ofinformation that we can possibly
get about that oil.
So for them to make a goodchoice, you go into other olive
oil stores, specialty stores orgrocery stores Usually most of

(05:07):
what you think would be aspecialty store.
You look around the back andthere's nothing there.
Not to say that it's a badproduct, but we believe in
transparency.
We want everybody to know whatthey're getting when they take
it home.

Speaker 2 (05:18):
Are the bottles dated ?
Is freshness an issue?

Speaker 3 (05:23):
The bottles themselves are not dated unless
we sell to a wholesale consumer.
We're not required to do that,but we do have the stainless
steel container that holds theoil that we bottle from.
It's out there for display tothe public and we have the press
dates posted right there and wedo say on the bottle to call us
.
We have our number on the backof each bottle that they can
call and we'll give them thecurrent press date, the

(05:46):
polyphenol level, the aciditylevel and so forth, at any time.
So, yes, it's full disclosure,and so they know what they're
getting before they walk awayfrom the shelf to purchase it
and take it home.

Speaker 2 (05:57):
Wow, and so freshness is a big factor, I guess, in
the taste or healthiness of it.

Speaker 4 (06:04):
Yes, it is when you do a high-quality olive oil for
health benefits.
they recommend, once you'veopened that bottle, that you use
it within a two to four monthstime period, did not know that.
And I have customers that willcall me that say, oh, I've got a
bottle of olive oil that's beenin my shelf for a couple of
years, is it still good?

(06:31):
And I said well, you can tasteand smell it and make sure that
it does not have the rancidsmell.
You're more than likely goingto lose those health benefits,
but sometimes, if it's preservedcorrectly, it will be okay for
a little while longer after thatpress date.

Speaker 2 (06:43):
Well, speaking of that, how do you educate
customers on choosing the bestoil for their needs?

Speaker 4 (06:50):
Well, if they're coming in for health benefits,
we always take them to the highpolyphenol oils, because that's
where you're going to get mostof your health benefits.
The lower polyphenols.
You're going to get some, butnot as much as you would a
higher polyphenol, and weactually ask them are you using
it for medicinal purposes or areyou doing it to cook with?

(07:11):
And that kind of guides us onhow to take our customers.

Speaker 3 (07:15):
Our team is trained to work with the customer and
ask questions and to find outwhat their needs are, whether
it's for flavor, cooking or formedicinal reasons, and they're
trained to educate them on ouroils what makes them different,
what makes them so much better.
And then, of course, ourwebsite is just chock full of
tons of information.
Under our blog post and ourarticle post, we have all kinds
of articles that will lead youdown a rabbit hole about the

(07:37):
extra virgin olive oil and howto make sure you're getting the
best for the money.

Speaker 2 (07:41):
And just for the folks listening, what is your
website address?

Speaker 4 (07:46):
Oliveoldandvinecom.

Speaker 2 (07:48):
Very good.
I was hoping you would say yeah, we occasionally have tastings
where you know you can come inand dip it in bread in it.
You guys ever have tastings forcustomers.

Speaker 4 (07:58):
Actually they have tastings every day.
They can come in our store andwe have communion cups that we
will give them a taste of theoils and vinegars in with it.

Speaker 3 (08:08):
Oh, wow, oh, tasting's a big part.
If we let you taste everythingin here, all the oils and
vinegars, you can taste to yourheart's content.

Speaker 2 (08:14):
Wow, well, I know where I'm headed at lunch
Because I tell you I go througha lot of olive oil.
I've been cooking with oliveoil for a very long time and I
know that if you cook on highheat I've learned from Greg that
that can take some of thehealth benefits away.
But to me it just tastes betterto cook with olive oil period.

Speaker 4 (08:34):
I agree with you there.

Speaker 2 (08:36):
There we go.
Other than I used to beforethat, I would always cook with
bacon grease, and that'sprobably not a good idea.

Speaker 4 (08:42):
We have bacon, olive oil, skip yeah.

Speaker 2 (08:44):
Really Bacon olive oil.
Yes, we do, wow.
And butter, butter-flavored,olive oil, it's dairy-free.

Speaker 3 (08:52):
Yeah, oh, my goodness .
One of Paula.

Speaker 2 (08:55):
Deen's favorites.
It's actually in the form ofbutter.
It's not butter-flavored oliveoil in a bottle.
No, it's actually in the formof butter.
It's not butter flavored oliveoil in a bottle.

Speaker 3 (09:02):
No, it's olive oil flavored butter.
It tastes like the butter thatyou get in a movie theater but
they put over the popcorn.
It's similar to that, but it'sflavored with the sweet potatoes
, so it's totally dairy free.
It's just olive oil and sweetpotato and that's it.
But it's incredible.
It's addicting.

Speaker 4 (09:22):
I bet it is.
Oh, my excuse.
Every day is a bottle ofpopcorn with butter on it.
That can be my lunch, breakfast, dinner, it doesn't matter.

Speaker 2 (09:25):
Oh yeah, I love popcorn, my daughter and.
I absolutely love popcorn.
Well, I've got to check thatout and maybe in a future
episode we can talk aboutdifferent flavors, Because I'm
intrigued.
Oh yeah, okay.

Speaker 3 (09:37):
Awesome.

Speaker 2 (09:42):
You know almost 90 flavors between the olives and
vinegars, so there's a lot totalk about All right sounds
great.

Speaker 4 (09:44):
It's a plan.
We'll make you hungry.

Speaker 2 (09:46):
Yes, you do every time we talk actually.
So I appreciate it and we'llcatch you guys in the next
episode, when, hopefully, we'lltalk about some different
flavors.

Speaker 3 (09:55):
All right, sounds good, skip, thanks a lot Thanks.

Speaker 1 (10:01):
Thanks for tuning in to the Olive 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.