The Olive Tap

The best place to purchase Aceto Balsimoco di Modena Riserva vinegar! The fruit vinegars are equally impressive. It’s the only place I shop for these products.

Best dark balsamic vinegar (modena) ever — hands down. There are a million brands and flavors available at lots of high end grocery stores and we have tried many, many of them. Would never want to choose anything else after we discovered Olive Tap. Love this place!

I won’t deny that the Olive Oils are delicious, but I was turned off by their tasting system — so much so that I probably wouldn’t go back unless I’d planned in advance and brought my own bread… obviously not ideal.
It is a nice shop, and they have a really great selection, but I much prefer the Elmhurst Olive Oil Company or Twisted Olive in Naperville based on customer service and overall shop experience.
You can sample anything you’d like out of those little, mini paper cuppies that you’d use for ketchup at fast food restaurants, but they don’t have any bread or anything and when I asked about it, one woman working just walked away and left the other girl to tell me that the owner is Italian and they don’t offer anything to try the bread with because he feels it changes the flavor of the oil, which is true, but who wants to go and drink a bunch of different oils straight, no chaser?
Her response was only mildly annoyed, which tells me she probably gets asked that a lot since having some sort of bread to try the oils with is pretty customary at shops like these, but I also picked on some embarrassment, like she wished they would just spend the $ 10 a day on bread and let customers taste stuff that way so they don’t have to keep answering the same question over and over again.
There’s a spice room in back that had tons of different salts and cinnamon and such and the rest of the store that doesn’t prominently display olive oil has bags of pasta and sauces and cookbooks, most of it exactly the stuff you’d find in the packaged food section at any HomeGoods, but the stuff isn’t sold at a discounted price like it is at HomeGoods.
And now back to the oils and the rather negative experience I had while wanted to taste the oils, of which I likely would have spent a pretty penny on since I love that kind of stuff — I guess I can see where the true flavor of the oil and balsamic change when tried with bread, but I don’t just sit at home and drink olive oil and balsamic, I put it on stuff… like bread, for instance, and pasta and salads and ish like that. So I feel like the reasoning behind not having bread or anything for tasting is still pretty moot. People aren’t just drinking it straight in most cases like they’re suggesting you do for tasting here.
I much prefer the other OO shops I’ve been in where they offer breads and in the case of Twisted Olive Naperville, even had ice cream to drizzle balsamic on. The other shops have recipes and posted suggestions for kind of dishes and foods that particular oil will be great on, in case you’d like ideas in addition to just dipping bread, but not here. I felt like the Olive Tap was just okay. Fine for the area, but nothing that would make waves in a better developed area, at least not with the attitude they’ve got going now.

Olive oils, balsamic vinegars, spices, tapenades, spreads, olives, pasta sauces and much more, including many accessories. I get lost in this store and sampling is definitely encouraged. Last trip I bought a three pack of smoked salts, feta stuffed olives, red pepper and goat cheese tapenade, smokes sweet paprika and taco seasoning… and I had to stop myself! Staff is very friendly and knowledgeable. Hope Olive Tap is around for a long, long time!

This may be the biggest olive oil store of its kind I’ve ever seen. Lots of space to check out the olive oil as well as the 16 year old balsamic vinegar I love. Plenty of other gormet food as well as friendly attentive staff.

i havent been here in a while but if u cook w/​oo this is ur one stop shop for decadence
they have every type that u can think of and many infused options that are pretty damn awesome if u ask me
its set up so that u can sample just about everything in store so u dont have to buy blind… some areas are crowded due to tables and baskets of merch of oo accompaniments (crackers/​pastas/​soups/​dipping sauces/​etc)
if u find urself in long grove… dont pass up this gem: P

I’M IN LOVE!
My friend and I came here during the Strawberry festival and I think we spent a good hour in this store! I love the atmosphere, the products and the staff here! I will be bringing my hubby back ASAP!
We started off tasting a few of the olive oil samples, not a big fan of that, so we explored some more. In the back you had the WONDERFUL Cherri making an amazing salad with lettuce, feta cheese and strawberries (of course!). She had three different type of vinagarette dressings for you to choose from that have been combined. I chose the strawberry basil… WOW!!! So good! She also gave us some quick recipe tips to use vinagarette on fruit? I would have never thought of that, and i LOVE to cook!
Next we moved onto the balsamic vinegar tasting… they had every fruit from strawberry to peach to blueberry to passion fruit and even chocolate! EVERY single one of them was DELICIOUS! Despite how busy it was, we constantly had staff coming up to us asking if we needed help and giving us suggestions for using the vinegars (salads, ice cream, etc).
I do wish they had cooking classes here because that would be so awesome! Their prices are a bit high for me… I do wish they had smaller bottles! I will be returning soon. Please check this place out because it is an amazing establishment!

LOVE this place!
The things sold here are nectars of the gods. Absolutely amazing, the olive oils and vinegars are so delicious, they will enlighten any dish, and the fact that they are all bottled fresh make them so much more appealing. Taste any one that interests you, and believe me, with so many flavors you won’t believe what can be done with olive oil and balsamic vinegar! And did I mention the spices, and sauces, and all the other types of tepenades and picklings and giardinieras? They also sell gorgeous hand crafted dishes so that you can eat these things in style, and gift baskets. Plus, the staff is delightful.
I’ve gotten to the point where I’m buying food to compliment my oil and vinegar, not the other way around. That’s honestly how great this stuff is.
I have driven to Long Grove just for this store. Much love to The Olive Tap!

REAL balsamic vinegar that you can almost sip like an apéritif. If you’ve never had it before you are missing out on one of life’s true pleasures. Drizzle it over roasted beets. Duck. Lamb. Pea soup. Vanilla bean ice cream. Thick sliced bacon from a place like Dreymiller and Kray. Toss it with a fresh crisp salad. Holy sweet baby Jesus it’s good.

We stumbled upon this store on our way to the Apple Haus. This store and its products were as satisfying as the Apple Haus’s were disappointing! Huge selection of olive/​nut oils and balsamic vinegars. You can sample any and all of them too. They even mix the oils and vinegars for you to try as a vinaigrette. I was so confused by the variety and sampling did not help much either. EVERYTHING tasted great! I ended up buying the French roasted walnut oil and the bordeaux cherry balsamic vinegar. They offer two different sized bottles, 375 mL, and 750 mL which I think are around 12.5 oz and 25 oz respectively. The 375 mL bottles of olive oil were from $ 15 to $ 18 if I remember correctly and the vinegars were around $ 12 – 15 per 375 mL bottle.
Absolutely loved the store. Adorable little gem in a cute eclectic town!

I love coming here to check out their variety of oils and balsamic vinegars. The best part is that they have little shot glasses that you can fill with the oil and balsamic vinegars to sample. Everything here is delicious! You have to check this place out especially if you enjoy Italian cooking!

I found this store with some friends, and it reminded me of a very similar store I was in in Long Beach, CA. Except, this place probably has 2 to 3 times the quantity of product they had there, so it was even more exciting! You can taste any and all of the vinegars and oils. I particularly was enchanted by the dark chocolate balsamic vinegar, and encouraged a friend of mine to buy it (who is also a chocoloholic). I live out of town and am going to be flying back (to CA) so I didn’t buy this, not wanting to deal with the challenge of getting it home– but I otherwise would have.
This is a very fun store to shop in, and a different type of culinary experience. Highly recommend a visit, and I guarantee someone in your group will leave with a few bottles! :-)

An olive oil and balsamic vinegars tasting room?!
What a great idea!
Everything I sampled was delicious. The staff was extremely helpful in explaining different acidity levels for us.
All the balsamic vinegars are conveniently arranged from most tart in flavor to sweetest. It was fun to sample such an interesting variety of flavors and combinations I would never think of. We sampled peach, pineapple, blueberry, blackberry and my very favorite, pomegranate. I cannot wait to go back.

The Olive Tap in Long Grove has become a new addiction. What a fantastic place to visit!
At the Olive Tap you can taste numerous types of olive oils and balsamic vinegars straight from the big silver urns into tiny paper cups. It may sound like an odd thing to do, but under the expert guidance of Rick Petrocelly, his wife Kathi, and their friendly and knowledgable staff it becomes less of a shopping expedition and more of an educational awakening.
I now cook almost solely with olive oil and my cooking has never been better (apparently!), not to mention the health benfits of olive oils over other oils and fats.
Tasting the balasamics opens up a whole new world and making salad dressings has never been so much fun. Particular favorites are the blackcurrant balsanic, as well as our firm favorite, the 18-​year balsamic.
Favorite olive oil of the moment is the hojeblanco, but we’re almost out and can’t wait for another trip to Long Grove to see what Rick is recommending this season.
Olive oils and balsamics are ever-​changing with the months, and Rick is on top of the very latest in everything olive and balsamic!
We love the Olive Tap and their staff!!!

On a whim, a friend and I stopped in at The Olive Tap during a weekend visit to Long Grove. We were both pleasantly surprised at this novel approach to selling olive oils and balsamic vinegars!
The shop is billed as an «Olive Oil Tasting Emporium» and although the thought of «tasting» different oils would not have crossed my mind, this shop made the activity a unique experience. Surprisingly, the tasting experience was a key selling point for me.
The concept is that a variety of high quality olive oils and balsamic vinegars are «on tap» for you to sample in small taster cups. Information cards on each tap tell all about the product and give suggestions on use. The attendants recommended different sample combinations (like blood orange olive oil with tangerine balsamic vinegar– fabulous for a citrus salad!). I didn’t know that balsamic vinegars had different acidic levels which affect the flavor, but that’s what I discovered.
I’m typically not an impulse buyer, but I so enjoyed the flavors of their products that I purchased a small bottle of black currant balsamic vinegar which was filled fresh from the tap and sealed with a cork. I’ve already made my own salad dressing with it two nights in a row (it’s that tasty!).
The Olive Tap is a MUST for anyone who likes to use the best ingredients and anyone for whom taste is of vital importance. Think of The Olive Tap’s products like a fine wine… you’ll pay a little more for top quality and taste.
I was really impressed with this shop, especially considering I almost passed it by without stopping in. Products are kind of pricey, but well worth it.