Single & Fat Brings a Fresh Approach to Olive Oil

Cristina Samper Pearl and Matt Cruz

We have all had a half-serious, half-joking business idea that we tossed around with our friends. Matt Cruz and Cristina Samper Pearl had a brilliant idea, but unlike most of us, they made it a reality. Their California-based olive oil company, Single & Fat, reimagines how customers relate to a pantry staple.

Background

Cristina Samper Pearl and Matt Cruz with Single & Fat

Neither co-founder had previous experience in the olive oil industry—Cruz’s background is in marketing, and Pearl’s is in experiential event production. 

“It was really just about the idea of taking something that everybody knows—olive oil—something you see and you interact with every day, and kind of looking at it similar to how Liquid Death looked at water,” says Cruz. “Can you look at this in a completely different way? Can we tell a different story with this thing?”

“Most Americans will have some type of touch point with olive oil multiple times a week, and it's a product that people love,” says Pearl. However, she discovered that very few people could actually recall the particular brand of olive oil in their pantry. “We realized that not only were we having fun with it, but that there was an opportunity to build something that people felt some kind of connection to. That felt really exciting.”

Single & Fat segued from a vague idea into something more tangible in September 2021, with an official launch in October 2022. The name is a reference to the company’s single-origin, high-fat product, which they source from organic olive oil producers.

Single & Fat Branding

Single & Fat tin

Single & Fat’s branding is an eye-catching departure from how olive oil is typically marketed. The oil is packaged in bubblegum pink tins, and the brand’s website and Instagram account feature lush, sensuous imagery that evoke an ad campaign for a designer perfume or similar trendy luxury product.

“The [olive oil] space has been pretty homogeneous,” says Pearl. “I think people have actually responded really well to just seeing something different, and they like taking risks and and like big swings. And obviously, our name is very substantiated—we are single-batch, and we have plenty of good fats in our olive oil. We're not making a dig at anyone.”

“[With branding] you're supposed to bring attention to a product and to a category, and you have to break through a sea of sameness,” adds Cruz. “We put a lot of thought and effort into thinking through how do we define Single & Fat not as an olive oil brand, but as a champion of indulgence? How do we convey this notion of treating yourself? We want to be the catalyst and the reward for indulgence and also to convey that indulgence is not a bad thing. The idea of treating yourself to good flavor is very much a positive.”

Choosing the Right Olive Oil

Matt Cruz and Cristina Samper Pearl

For their first batch, Cruz and Pearl held a blind tasting to determine the best olive oil from six candidates. The winner was an organic olive oil from Italy with a high polyphenol count.

Due to the logistical challenges of importing olive oil and to lessen their carbon footprint, Single & Fat’s second batch of oil will be sourced from California. The oil will still be organic and high in polyphenols, but they’ve switched to arbequina olives. 

“We loved our first batch, we loved that it had a spice-like finish to it,” says Cruz. “But being able to switch to arbequina oil and having a little bit of that peppery finish, it really complements everything that you can possibly use with it [...] We want this to be an olive oil for bad chefs! I'm bad at cooking, so I want something that I can really use in my day-to-day life with everything.”

“And we can see it being made, which is really exciting,” adds Pearl. “Moving our production to California feels truly, truly game changing—we have a partner that we're really excited to be working with.”

Looking Ahead

Single & Fat olive oil can be purchased via the company’s website and at Erewhon, an upscale Los Angeles supermarket chain. The oil will also be available on Amazon within the next few months, and Cruz and Pearl are focusing on scaling up to more retail locations in the upcoming year.

As Single & Fat has developed from idle speculation into a full-fledged brand, Cruz and Pearl have enjoyed tackling the olive oil industry as a team. “Our friendship is based on learning from one another,” says Cruz. “We get to face the unknown and challenge the unknown together. Now we're at the point of like, alright, bring it on [...], whereas before, we kind of were panicky about it. It’s so cool because now we're just like, yeah, that's just a Tuesday. What else do we have to do?”