I have a confession: When that neon green nib of Graza pops into one of my cooking videos, despite my attempts to not get it in frame, it’s not always Graza coming out. More likely, it’s another brand of olive oil, which I’ve bought in bulk and then poured into the Graza bottle. I’m definitely not the only one to do this: In the privacy of DMs, other cooks have shared similar. The way I see it, it is as silly to toss a good bottle as it is to refill it with Graza, seeing as the brand hasn’t offered a bulk option for its olive oil. How else would I refill it?
That’s changed: The brand just announced “Refillable EVOO Beer Cans” of both its Sizzle and Drizzle olive oils. According to a press release, Graza’s founders, Andrew Benin and Allen Dushi, chose cans in order to maintain the “maximum integrity” of the olive oil. The cans will be available at Whole Foods locations nationwide, as well as on Graza’s website.
Graza claims many benefits over other cooking oils, but let’s be real, its truest innovation is its bottle. Not only useful, it also looks better — and is more immediately recognizable — than those boring old restaurant-supply squeeze bottles, which is why you’re likely to see it in the background of your favorite TikTok creator’s kitchen. The brand’s perception of uniqueness around its packaging is why there was such a debacle when competitor Brightland launched a similarly shaped squeeze bottle last year. It clearly started a trend though: This year, California Olive Ranch followed suit with a “chef’s bottle,” with little to no drama.
Graza’s newest launch seems to solve another problem too. Some of the brand’s detractors take issue with the use of a plastic bottle for storing olive oil, claiming that it leeches microplastics into your food or compromises the quality of the oil. “We would never do a squeeze bottle,” Katina Mountanos of olive oil company Kosterina recently told Modern Retail, citing concerns about plastic’s effects on olive oil’s health benefits.
The jury is still out on this, and not everyone cares enough to be concerned (personally, I go through olive oil fast enough that I’m not terribly worried about it breaking down the plastic bottle, especially if I’m refilling it myself). But it follows that people who would rather store their olive oil in a non-plastic cruet might now be more open to trying Graza since they can circumvent the plastic entirely by just buying a refill can.
Well-played, Graza. The next time you see my Graza bottle, it might actually have Graza oil inside.
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