Ancient Greek athletes prepared for Olympic events by greasing their bodies with olive oil, leading to controversial victories in salad wrestling and the crouton shotput. Get a taste of sports history with today's Groupon: for $10, you get $23 worth of olive oil and aged balsamic vinegars at Benessere Olive Oils and Vinegars, located two blocks from Pioneer Square.

At Benessere Olive Oils and Vinegars, fancy-grease aficionados can choose from more than 40 varieties of the store's loquacious liquids. Bring home 375 milliliters of wizened mushroom sage olive oil ($16) to share hard-won fungal wisdom with wayward young risottos or slick down a bread-crust slip-and-slide with a 750-milliliter bottle of Benessere Blend ($24) that mixes four or more olive varietals for a fresh, flavorful finish. Dinner-party guests can invite the Flavors of Fun gift basket's ($29) daring duo of Tunisian blood-orange olive oil and dark-chocolate balsamic vinegar to jump-start a tangy vinaigrette or epicurean car engine. After depleting their supplies, customers can return empty receptacles to the store for a $1 credit on their next purchases. Gastronomic gadflies can touch down at Benessere the first Thursday of every month, when the store hosts evening cooking demonstrations and readings of tell-all memoirs printed on olive-oil presses.

Reviews

Portland Food and Drink.com and Better With Garlic featured Benessere Olive Oils and Vinegars. Seven Yelpers give the shop a four-star average.

• The staff is very knowledgeable about each product and are able to steer you towards an oil that matches your needs. The little sampling cups are self-server, so you can explore the options at your own pace. – Food Dude, Portland Food and Drink.com
• If you need olive oil or vinegar, this really is as good as it gets. Super high quality, side-by-side tastings to help you get the right product, and lots of education wait for you. – Todd V., Yelp, 10/16/10

Customer Reviews