My mom swears by Berio olive oil. It’s pricy though…
Jason’s has 1-liter bottles for $436.
Filipo Berio is a fine olive oil. I can’t find the Extra Virgin of theirs here though.
I use a lot of Borges Extra Virgin. Its Spanish and quite nice. Around NT$325 - 350 for a liter.
I bin getting some good Italian olive oil from RTMart. Organic, extra virgin, first cold pressing, unfiltered (only unfiltered I’ve found here, and yes, it IS that much tastier, but not much cop for frying). Comes in a chianti-type straw-wrapped bottle and costs about NT$550 for 70cl. Worth it.
A friend with a degree and professional background in food told me not to use extra virgin for cooking because it burns more easily than virgin. She said to use extra virgin in salads and stuff. 
Virgin Olive Oyl:
Yes, that’s what “not much cop for frying” means. 
But it works just fine for sauteing vegetables and such where you don’t need a lot of heat. Also baked stuff like ratatouille, etc. And tastes much better. Just don’t use it for browning meat and stuff like that.
I made baked stuffed chiles the other night with it and it was good.
Exactly…but I wouldn’t use just because it’s expensive and you could get away with useing something cheaper. Use it where you need the added flavor.
Here’s a partial listing of what I found at Jason’s (Taipei 101, B2) today:
Colavita First Cold Pressed Extra Virgin, Fruttato (extra fruity), 100% Italian; from olives picked just before peak ripeness; 750ml glass bottle NT$485; I picked up a bottle of this one to try.
La Corte Extra Virgin Prima Spremitura a Freddo (first cold pressed) 500ml bottle NT$430
Colavita Extra Virgin, 1-liter can NT$499 (I didn’t see ‘cold pressed’ on the can, but both the supermarket’s shelf label and the company’s website seem to indicate this is CP also).
Ybarra Extra Virgin, 750ml $360
DeCecco Extra Virgin, 1 liter $399
Berio pure olive oil (blend of virgin and refined), 1-liter bottle NT$415; 3-liter can NT$1200
DB -
You should like the Colavita First Cold Pressed Extra Virgin you bought. That was one of my main choices back in so cali…Very good stuff.
And yes…DO NOT USE EV for frying…burns too quickly and will ruin the taste of the food.
I’m not even a fan of using ‘regular’ olive oil for anything much more than a quick sautee’.
Other oils, grape seed, sunflower,peanut and good old corn oil are much better for higher temperature frying.
Excellent, thanks! Yeah, I saute in regular olive oil, and this extra virgin will be for adding a bit after cooking pasta, on salads, bruschetta, etc.
Jason’s had some other kinds, and I’ll try to list some later, since it’s on the way from my parking spot to my office now. 
If you want to get real decadent…when sauteeing with olive oil…add some real butter to it once it reaches temp…MMmmmm…its all about the taste!
I had a look at our Carrefour last night on the hunt for some good virgin olive oil after learning that cooking with Extra Virgin isn’t ideal.
There seems to be about 20 different brands of various descriptions including “pure”, “100%”, “top quality”, “edible”, “light”, “superior blend” etc, but most look pretty dubious to be honest.
There was 1 genuine imported 100% Extra Virgin oil.
For the run of the mill supermarkets here, it seems the oil is either crap, or good EV.
Even looking at that Jason’s list above, it’s seems the choice of oils that are not Extra Virgin is limited.
Sigh, it’s so hard to find a plain old virgin these days isn’t it?
You should be able to find Berio’s pure at Wellcomes. That’s a good mid-range oil.
Or go for the 5-liter jug at Costco, which is a notch down, but at least shouldn’t contain any non-olive adjuncts.
That was only a partial list. I didn’t have time to write them all down, but there were quite a few other choices. The Berio there is a perfectly good option for you, decent quality and still very affordable at $415 per liter. Good for sautéing.
Cheers, I’m overdue a visit to Jasons, so will check that out.
YBarra was a popular brand when I was living in the Basque country. I’d recommend that for dependable quality too.
Wow, that Colavita First Cold-Pressed Extra Virgin Fruttato sure is aromatic and fruity! It’s like, POW! HELLO! I’m olive oil, haven’t you ever had any real stuff before?
It is good, although a gourmand will probably want to also have something mellower on the shelf for certain dishes so as not to overpower other flavors. 
In the little store downstairs I’ve bought the Oilitalia brand. It has Grapeseed oil and something called Pomace Olive oil. It is on sale right now, 269 NTs for each one liter bottle, plus a one galon metal container of olive oil -more or less- for 569, with a small bottle of Grapeseed oil as a gift.
This Pomace Olive Oil claims to be suitable for deep frying. 
I’ve also seen this brand at that really cheap supermarket, the one that plays those ads where people cannot find the store because it doesn’t have a big sign, or they race shampoo and flavor taste cookies. (Sorry, can’t remember the name).
I normally use grapeseed oil at home for cooking, as it is supposed to be healthier and suits my black beans and picadillo stews. Usually it is quite expensive, so this sale is quite an offer.
Pomace oil is extracted (using chemicals like hexane plus heat) from the leftover dregs after they squeeze out the good stuff. So the quality level is the 2nd lowest on the olive oil ladder; the only level below it is lamp oil. In fact, it’s not supposed to be marketed as olive oil, since it’s inferior to “pure olive oil” (which contains a blend of refined and some virgin).
Wiki says: "Olive-pomace oil is a blend of refined pomace olive oil and possibly some virgin oil. It is fit for consumption, but it may not be called olive oil. Olive-pomace oil is rarely found in a grocery store; it is often used for certain kinds of cooking in restaurants. "
The one time I bought Olitalia I later learned that it was pomace oil. It was fine for cooking (like any vegetable oil) but I never bought it again. I think it’s worthwhile to drop $500 on a liter of good stuff instead.
Just found this scary description of pomace oil:
[quote]In fact, many unsuspecting consumers in the US buy and use Pomace olive oil that is sold in many markets around the country at prices that are lower than other types of olive oil. This oil however is very bad and we would advise you to stay away from it. It is extracted from olive cake (the solid stuff that remains after production of olive oil) through the use of high temperature, high pressure and chemicals and does not contain anything that a sensible person would want to put in their body. DO NOT TOUCH THIS STUFF; IT IS DANGEROUS TO YOUR HEALTH; STAY AWAY FROM IT. The European Union recently placed a hold on all exports of Pomace oil because it suspects the oil to contain certain carcinogens.[/quote]
Just for the record>
Theirs is a mixture of pomace olive oil and extra virgin, according to their website:
“This is a perfect combination of refined pomace oil and extra virgin olive oil. The refined olive pomace oil comes from the oil extracted from the pomace paste obtained after grinding in the mill. This is improved with extra virgin oil to enhance its aroma, taste and colour. The result is an oil very resistant: the best oil for deep frying”
Given that this brand sells “gourmet foods” in the US, I would find it strange for them to sell weird mixes, but certainly it helps to have a second look, as this “pomace” certainly sounds unusual. And it doesn’t say which percentage is which. Anyway, the oil is made and bottled in Italy.
Sincerely, I only use Spanish olive oil for salads, not for cooking. I don’t like deep frying, so I only use grapeseed oil.