Oli.O Specialty Oils & Balsamics

Hutton Fant wasn’t sure what she wanted to do when she graduated from The University of Alabama with a business degree in 2012. She knew she wanted to do something relational, and she knew she loved to cook.

These days, she does both as she walks and talks olive oils and balsamic vinegars.

Before opening her Mountain Brook Village shop in November, she embarked on a research journey. She talked with the owner of an oil and vinegar store in Jacksonville, Fla., where her family had purchased products, and studied up on the history and chemistry of the products. 

Now schooled in the industry, Fant said you can taste the difference between her products and store-bought oils, which she said are often rancid when you buy them and leave a buttery texture in the back of your throat. Most importantly, she said the store-bought products don’t have much flavor.

All products meet the UP standard, the highest standard of oils internationally, through its olives, production and bottling, all before being tested for quality in Australia.

“The supplier we use gives a higher quality than [products from] Williams-Sonoma and Whole Foods,” Fant said. “We want it to be a staple in people’s homes.”

Oli.O’s products are sourced from Chile, Peru, South Africa, Spain, Australia, Italy, Portugal and Tunisia.

In addition to oils, the store features 25 to 30 white and dark balsamic vinegars imported from Modena, Italy. Darks, she said, tend to be sweeter, while whites are thinner in consistency and better lend themselves to flavor infusions, like lemongrass mint.

Inside the store, customers can also find gluten-free dark chocolate made with blood orange olive oil, a line of 24 pastas from a mom-and-pop business in Washington state, handcrafted almond butters made in Atlanta, and truffle oils — all the with the same integrity and freshness you will find in their oils and balsamics. 

Tasting is essential to shopping in Oli.O, especially if you want to differentiate between one of its 11 extra-virgin olive oils. The layout of the space is designed accordingly, with bottles lining the counters throughout the walls of the store. Fant encourages customers to “taste to their heart’s content” and provides pieces of Continental Bakery bread for dipping in sample cups. Oils and balsamics can be mixed to get a better feel for what a marinade or dressing might taste like.

Fant said flavor-infused oils and balsamics make cooking easier, eliminating adding something like lemon juice or an herb while only using natural ingredients. It’s especially advantageous if that ingredient is not in peak season. Plus, perhaps a little-known fact, whenever any other ingredient, like rosemary or garlic, is placed in olive oil, it causes the oil to go rancid quicker.  

Customers, beware: Don’t ask Fant for recipe recommendations if you are hungry.

When it comes to oils, blood orange is popular for salmon or over roasted vegetables, or even mixed in place of vegetable oil in boxed brownie mix, and the wild mushroom and sage is popular for risotto, orzo and flatbreads. Customers say they like the garlic oil over bread or pasta. The blackberry-ginger, a dark balsamic, is popular for marinades, and Fant recommends the fig, another dark balsamic, in stuffed bell peppers, over roasted sweet potatoes or over goat cheese.

Fant likes to use the cilantro infused oil to make a marinade for fajitas and puts olive oil in her smoothies to take advantages of its antioxidants and being a “good” fat. 

“It makes going home and cooking easy,” she said. “I don’t need many seasonings or marinades. I am often content with just oil.” 

Fant also bakes with butter olive oil in place of butter itself. Most recently, she used it to make waffles that, once cooked, she drizzled with Vermont maple balsamic vinegar.

Balsamics lend themselves to being versatile in the dessert realm beyond acting as syrup, too. Oli.O served the grapefruit white balsamic mixed with champagne for Valentine’s Day and recommends the lemongrass mint white balsamic in a mojito. The dark chocolate dark balsamic tastes just as good over ice cream and berries as it does over Brussels sprouts or warm Brie cheese, according to Fant.

Gift bottles of oil, which make good hostess or bridesmaid gifts, can be purchased for around $10. Regular sizes include a small bottle for $12.99, medium for $16.99 or large — which is the size of a 750-mL wine bottle — for $29.99.

Beyond its retail selection, Oli.O offers private tastings for garden clubs and other organizations, and the space can be rented out for dinner or other events.