That bottle of extra virgin olive oil you take off the grocery store shelf may not be what you think it is. Instead of being a greenish-gold, fruity, fresh oil made from olives, rich in antioxidants and delicious to drizzle over a beautiful caprese salad, more likely than not it is a blend of oils, some made from olives, and some not. In fact, a recent study by UC Davis that tested a number of the best-selling olive oils in California, including Bertolli, Star, and Colavita, found that 69% of the extra virgin olive oil imported into the U.S. did not meet the standards for extra virgin. Mueller, who lives in a medieval stone farmhouse surrounded by olive groves in Liguria, Italy, stumbled into the murky world of blackmarket olive oil in 2007, when he agreed to write an article about oil for the New Yorker. What he found surprised him.

In Extra Virginity, he discusses Mike and Veronica Bradley, who run Veronica Foods, founded by Veronica’s grandfather in 1924. The Bradley’s have scoured the world to find well-made and flavorful olive oil from places as diverse as Italy, Morocco, Tunisia, Turkey, Portugal and Syria, among others.

Veronica Foods imports more than one million gallons of premium olive oil from 70 producers in 20 countries a year, according to Mueller.

Veronica Foods ship their fresh and certified authentic award winning olive oils to selected specialty stores like Verde Valley Olive Oil Traders and Jerome Olive Oil Traders who only sell the very best of the best!