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The Groves on 41 stands out with over a dozen delicious olive oil flavors
OFFERING AN OLIVE RANCH: Located at 4455 East Highway 41, The Groves on 41 offers over a dozen unmatched olive oil flavors. Along with receiving a plethora of awards, the olive oil has been rated as one of the healthiest on the market. The Groves on 41 can be found on Facebook and Instagram under its name. For more information, visit thegroveson41.com or call 805-466-1542.
Seeking a simple solution to clean up your diet and extend your life? How about some olive oil?
Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A 2022 study by the Yale School of Medicine found that people who used more than half a tablespoon of olive oil in their diet daily had a 19 percent lower risk of death from heart disease.
“We don’t consume enough olive oil in the U.S.,” Karen Tallent said. “We do about a quart of olive oil per person per year, which is not even a teaspoon a day. The Europeans consume three to five gallons per person per year. We’re trying to get people to think a little bit outside the box with—not just salads and breads—but olive oil for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.”
Along with her daughter, Jennifer, Tallent runs The Groves on 41 olive oil farm in Templeton. Together, they farm 4,000 olive trees on 7.5 super high-density acres.
“We are more of a boutique producer,” Karen said. “We focus more on quality than quantity.”
The Groves on 41 offers 10 exceptionally flavored olive oils: Garlic, Lemon, Basil, Raspberry, Rosemary, Jalepeño, Praline, Tangerine, Chipotle, and Cinnamon.
“Rosemary is my go-to, but I'm using raspberry in all my solids right now,” Jennifer said.
Made for potatoes, the Rosemary goes great with almost any Italian food. It pairs best with focaccia, tomato sauce, pizza, and pork. Substitute it for fresh rosemary in your next salad or drizzle it on lamb or sausage to discover a new secret weapon.
A perennial favorite, the Basil serves as the ideal replacement for cooks without fresh basil on hand. Best for chicken, fish, and salads, it pairs well with any Italian, Thai, or Vietnamese food. You won’t regret adding it to pasta or pesto.
Perfect for salad and citrus, the Tangerine was previously awarded bronze at the California Mid-State Fair’s Central Coast Olive Oil competition. It goes great with steak, chicken, and fish like swordfish and halibut.
The Royal Raspberry is ideal for a Greek or spinach salad. Jennifer said it adds more flavor to brownies than butter. Toss it with fresh fruits or nuts and a pinch of mint or try it on some ice cream.
Along with the Royal Raspberry, the Praline is the Tallents’ other signature olive oil. The Groves on 41’s hottest commodity works on everything from appetizers to desserts. Karen said tossing it in Brussels sprouts gets rid of their bitter aftertaste. Try it on brie cheese and in batter for sweets like pancakes, cookies, brownies, cheesecake, and ice cream.
Up there with the Praline, the Garlic is also a top seller. This is the olive oil in which to dip bread. The Tallents even suggest adding herbs and parmesan. It boosts the flavors in salads, roasted vegetables, grilled sausages, and even chicken marinade when blended with spices.
The Meyers Lemon is perfect for grilling or sautéing vegetables and fish, specifically Petrale sole. It also works well in salad dressings and for baking. Swap it in for the oil listed in recipes of vanilla cookies or pound cakes for a brighter look and lighter feel.
An alternative to hot sauce, the Chipotle is great for meat. The smoke-dried jalapeño oil energizes chicken, beef, pork, or anything else you can put in a taco. It also works as a marinade, on pizza, and even as a replacement for barbeque sauce.
The green-chilli-flavored Jalapeño is the other ideal option for customers seeking a kick. Its spice makes it ideal to drizzle on eggs, tortillas, vegetables, hummus, and soups. Labeled a breakfast, lunch, and dinner condiment, the Jalepeño adds wonderful depth to cornbread, according to the Tallents.
The perfect replacement for vegetable olive oil to add extra flavor to any bread or baked good recipe, the Cinnamon is the Tallents’ second-newest variety. Use it to energize oatmeal topped with raisins and pecans or walnuts for that much-needed morning boost.
Along with the 10 flavors, the Tallents sell two extra virgin olive oils: the 2025 Central Coast Olive Oil Competition silver award-winning Spanish Arbequina and the certified Greek Koroneiki. All 10 flavors are made from the Arbequina base.
The Arbequina balances bitter and pungent with hints of artichoke, grass, and green tea. It brings out the succulent flavors when drizzled on steak, pork chop, or chicken. It’s also the perfect finishing ingredient for salads, vegetables, and bread.
Hailing from the Kalamata olive family, the Koroneiki has a peppery finish that provides the perfect kick for steak, pork chops, or sweet potatoes.
The Tallents even hand out recipe cards with cooking ideas and serving suggestions for each olive oil. Recipes include: California Halibut for the Arbequina, sweet potatoes for the Koroneiki, six-minute custard for the lemon, scones for the tangerine, crispy kale chips for the raspberry, french toast for the Praline, Parmesan wonton crackers for the garlic, zucchini bread for the cinnamon, stuffed mushrooms for the basil, flatbread for the rosemary, Mahi Mahi Vera Cruz for the jalapeño, and slow cooked pulled beef with the chipotle. They can be found online at thegroveson41.com/blogs/blog.
“You can replace butter and use olive oil in everything,” Jennifer said. “And it tastes better.”
“Butter’s about 25 percent water,” Karen said. “If the recipe calls for a cup of butter, substitute three-quarters of a cup of olive oil.”
Before they produce each olive oil, the Tallents host family members for a taste test. Jennifer said their honest scrutiny helps her and Karen provide top-quality olive oils.
“For every flavor, there’s probably about three or four that didn’t make it,” Karen said. “We tried so hard to do a horseradish. Boy, did we fail.”
After years of trying, Jennifer finally got her way. The Groves on 41 now produces a peanut butter olive oil.
“You get two responses: [a negative] ‘Oh no,’ or [a positive], ‘Oh my goodness,’” Jennifer said. She said it pairs great with oatmeal or toast in the morning.
The Groves on 41 doesn’t just sell olive oil. The Tallents also teach classes in which they show guests what quality olive oil tastes like and how to find the right one. Participants learn the farm’s origin story, why the Tallents make olive oil, how the Central Coast olive oil industry is improving standards nationwide, what to look for when buying olive oil, and how to incorporate olive oil into their diets.Along with Applied Sensory in Napa, which evaluates for International Olive Council (IOC) standards, Baker Wine & Grape Analysis Owner Heather Mikelonis certifies and quantifies the number of polyphenols in The Groves on 41’s olive oils.
Polyphenols offer a plethora of health benefits. According to Colorado State University, they work as antioxidants and fight certain cancers, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and neurodegenerative diseases. A high polyphenol count is the best indication of a high-quality olive oil. The International Olive Oil Council considers 550 to be very high. Mikelonis’ Nov. 26, 2024, report found The Groves on 41’s olive oil to contain 642 polyphenols.
The Groves on 41’s exceptional quality has been recognized by just about everyone in the business.
The Tallents have received awards from: the Paso Robles Olive Festival, the California State Fair, the Ventura County Fair, the Napa Valley Olive Oil Competition, the Los Angeles International Extra Virgin Olive Oil Competition, and WeddingWire’s Couples’ Choice.
“We sacrifice yield for the polyphenol counts,” Karen said. “The earlier you pull the olives off the trees, the higher the polyphenol count and the better the flavors—but you don’t get as many olives.”
She said each tree only gets two gallons of water per week, adding that she likes to make the roots “look for” the water.
“If you water them down, you're going to have lazy trees and boring fruit,” Karen said. “Stressing out the trees a little bit builds incredible flavor.”
A senior parking consultant for one of the largest parking companies in the world at the time, Karen said she started planting the trees in 2011 after taking classes at the University of California, Davis and realizing she needed a change. Her husband’s health issues required them to move out of the Los Angeles air and to somewhere cleaner—enter Templeton.
Along with three bedroom suites listed on Airbnb for vacation rentals, The Groves on 41 also offers gift packs that include three different olive oils, cooking recipes, and serving suggestions. The Tallents gave me one with lemon, Praline, and Arbequina to take home.
“You can give someone a bottle of wine, or you can give olive oil that’ll last a little bit longer and is more unique,” Karen said.
Unlike wine, olive oil loses its freshness with age. She said it’s best to consume as early as possible.
“Every time you pour, you let a little oxygen in,” Karen said. “Once you open up a bottle, you really want to use it within 90 days, but you can have a good olive oil in your spice cabinet for a year and a half.”
She said protecting olive oil from light, heat, and oxygen is the best way to keep it fresh.
“The first month it’s going to be a lot higher in polyphenols than the 18th month,” Karen said.
For those interested in shorter stays, the Tallents offer tours of The Groves on 41. In less than two hours, guests’ palates learn the difference between quality olive oil and the stuff sold in stores. They can also meet Coco, the farm German Shepherd.
Now aware of certification processes like Baker’s and Applied Sensory’s, the North American Olive Oil Association (NAOOA) developed its own red circular certification label. Jennifer said the sticker is nothing more than a marketing technique.
Karen said the NAOOA is made of companies certifying their own olive oil. The group is comprised of “olive oil producers and marketers,” according to its website, which says the NAOOA buys olive oils from supermarkets and tests them “for adherence to the physico-chemical standards set by the International Olive Council (IOC).”
The website also says companies pay a fee to participate and “license the NAOOA Certified Seal for use on their packaging.”
There is no mention of which of the IOC’s exact standards are used or how olive oils are tested. There is no data showing polyphenol counts, testing findings, who tested the olive oils, and where they’re tested. There is no evidence the testing was ever even done. Customers are simply supposed to take the NAOOA’s word for it.
Unlike the NAOOA, Applied Sensory’s report includes IOC attribute intensities and grades. While the NAOOA is only recognized in North America, Applied Sensory’s evaluation is recognized internationally.
“We want to teach people what stickers to look for [and how to] know their farmers, so they can learn how to put olive oil into their diet,” Jennifer said.
Although olive oil regulation is currently nonexistent in the U.S., according to the Talltents, Karen said she’s hopeful we’ll one day have one.
“There is enormous regulation all through Europe and in Canada,” Karen said. “The stuff that doesn't pass all their testing gets loaded on a boat and shipped off to New York, and that’s the olive oil we get at the grocery stores.”
Jennifer said the olive oil sold on grocery store shelves is either old or not actually olive oil.
“Oftentimes, if it doesn’t meet standards, [the olive oil] is heated up and filtered out to get rid of all the rancidity,” Karen said. “You’re paying more than you should, and your palate can tell right away whether or not it's a good product.”
Always thinking of her customers, Karen said she’s happy to sacrifice profit for quality. She said the Koroneiki is certified, even though it’s not required to be.
“Why go through this much work to produce a bad product,” Karen asked, encouraging anybody who doubts the quality of their olive oil should taste for themselves.
Instead of sipping or shooting, Karen said to slurp the olive oil “like a little kid” when tasting. She said that burning sensation consumers feel at the back of their throats is the indication of a high polyphenol count.
The more the olive oil clings to your throat and forces you to cough, the better it is for you, Karen said. She encouraged doubters to try any olive oil from the grocery store and see if it creates the same burning sensation after slurping.
“Our competitors are amazing people,” Karen said. “We don’t compete. We all try to figure out how to collectively raise the California olive oil standard. A rising tide lifts all ships. It’s us against the phony importers.”
*This story was originally published July 3, 2025, at https://www.newtimesslo.com/food/the-groves-on-41-stands-out-with-over-a-dozen-delicious-olive-oil-flavors-16908361.