Here’s why the internet is beefing over Costco olive oil
A Reddit post about a bottle of Costco olive oil has morphed into a full-blown internet flame war. After one self-proclaimed olive oil expert dismissed "most" Costco olive oils as "trash," a debate that began on the r/oliveoil subreddit jumped to X, where users questioned his credentials and rallied behind their favorite brands. "Extra Virgin Guy" has since gone viral, defending his palate and even considering building an olive oil recommendation app to settle the matter once and for all.
Is Costco olive oil really "trash"?
The drama began eight months ago, on Sept. 25, 2024. Reddit user u/benjiTRAVEL posted a photo of Terra Delyssa olive oil at a local Costco and asked for thoughts from the denizens of the r/oliveoil sub.
As is often the case on Reddit, opinions were mixed. A couple of the top responders claimed it has low polyphenol content, making it bland. Others, however, found it to be worth a venture into the vast realms of Costco.
"This is a CHO brand. CHO is one of the largest Tunisian OO companies, if not the largest," said u/DonTrask. "So Quality and purity are first rate, you don’t end in Costco by accident, they have a pretty stringent process to even be considered."
User u/extravirginguy, also known as Jack Grunberg, strongly disagreed, writing, "the fact that 9 people upvoted this is absurd" and "most Costco oils are trash."
"I'm speaking a guy who's tasted 700 oils and visited 40 olive oil factories," he claimed.
Fellow Redditor u/seednumber3976 hit him with a devastating comeback. "User name checks out!"
The Costco olive oil discourse leaks to X
This discourse breached containment on May 17, 2025, when X user @Papapishu posted a screenshot of this exchange, remarking that "r/oliveoil is a warzone." The tweet gained over 1.8 million views in a few days, soon attracting the attention of Extra Virgin Guy himself.
After all, he couldn't let a challenge from @JimbosGumbo to his olive oil cred go unanswered.
"He’s obviously lying," said the user. "No way that guy tasted 700 olive oils and visited 40 olive oil factories."
Grunberg responded with an extensive estimated summary of his olive oil factory visits and other tastings from 2022 alone.
"Total Estimate 2022 Oils: 680," he concluded. "Total Estimate 2022 Factories: 43."
"I've tasted many, many more since."
"I was not familiar with your game sir," the subdued challenger responded.
The ambitions of Extra Virgin Guy
With his credibility solidified, users on both Reddit and X flocked to ask Grunberg for his personal olive oil recommendations. While he did shout out a couple brands such as Gaia Oliva and Olive Truck, coming up with an answer without any information presents a challenge.
In a Beehiiv post, Grunberg outlined his idea for an olive oil recommendation app. The extra virgin expert seems reluctant to do this himself because there are so many factors around what kind of oil is right for each individual.
"I think I received 15-20 people asking for an oil recommendation today. I guess that problem is never going away," he wrote. "No matter how advanced technology gets or AI features that exist, the good ole oil recommendation problem is real."
His solution is an online tool that would ask people to list their priorities, including:
- Location of origin
- Price
- Microplastics
- Organic
- Use Case
- Desired Flavor Profile
- Purchasing Location (Amazon, supermarket, etc)
Based on how people organized this list, the app would then produce a list of three oil recommendations and the reasons for their selection.
As of May 19, 2025, when he published the post, he wasn't sure whether he wanted to build this tool or not. In spite of the virality of the discourse, he's currently focused on other projects and would only build the app if someone else got involved or he found a decent way to monetize it.
For now, olive oil enjoyers are on their own.
The Daily Dot has reached out to @extravirginguy via X and Costco via contact form.
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