Olive oil pour spouts

Every cooking show seems to feature a chef drizzling olive oil from a bottle with a pour spout. Olive oil pour spouts make it easy to control the flow of oil from the bottle and allow one handed access to your olive oil. But you may be surprised to hear that pour spouts on olive oil bottles may not be the best choice for olive oil bottles.  Read on for tips on choosing the best pour spouts for olive oil.

Olive oil will turn rancid if exposed to heat, light and air.  Oil that is improperly stored will lose healthy antioxidants and will degrade in flavor. Pour spouts are often open at the top exposing the oil to oxygen. 

The original cap to your olive oil bottle is usually preferable to a pour spout. However, many people buy large containers of olive oil and decant the oil into smaller bottles for tabletop or the kitchen counter. Here are some  reviews of commonly sold olive oil pour spouts.

Pour spouts like the one shown here are designed for liquor bottles. They usually fit in the top of commercial olive oil bottles but we do not recommend using them.  These pour spouts will not protect the oil from air. (Note, spouts that have a separate air inlet hole apart from the pour spout suffer from the same flaw.)

If you do use a spout like this for olive oil make sure that you use the olive oil pretty quickly, and check (smell and taste) to make sure it hasn't gone rancid. Or look for a spout that comes with a dust cap which will allow you to cap the top of the spout. 

These pour spouts are specifically marketed for usage with olive oil. These spouts cannot be capped. We do not recommend them. 

Pour spouts are sometimes sold with little caps. We like these because you can cap the bottle and there is a device to help you not lose the cap.

These more advanced pour spouts are good for olive oil. They have an integrated lid that flips open when you tip the bottle.  The top automatically shuts when you turn the bottle upright.

These pour spouts also feature a cap but if you use these, make sure you take a second to flip the cap closed. They do not close automatically.

This olive oil pour spout from OXO is unique.  It has a lever that you can push up and down to seal the bottle. This pour spout has an advantage over the above spouts because it protects you from spills. (Note: This pour spout pours slower than any of the above olive oil pour spouts). It also catches the oil that might dribble onto the side of the bottle. If it fits your olive oil bottles it could be a good choice.

Some additional tips to keep in mind.

• Make sure the spout spout fits tightly. If the spout falls off during usage, you'll have a huge mess! Also, a loose seal will expose the oil to air. 
• Pour spouts with a separate intake for air will flow better. Look at the photos above, the long thin tube is the air intake.
• Use pour spouts on the original bottle of oil. Or if you like to decant bulk olive oil into a smaller container, choose an opaque bottle or one that is tinted a dark color.
• Make sure you thoroughly wash out bottles if you'll refill them. There may be sediment or old oil in the bottle which will spoil the new oil that you pour into the bottle.
• Use olive oil relatively quickly -- within a couple of months of opening. Buy container sizes that you can use within 2 to 3 months.
• Don't keep the bottle next to the stove, on a windowsill or anywhere where it will be exposed to light or heat.

For tips on how to select an authentic, high quality olive oil, read our expert tips on buying olive oil.