Quick answer: Avocado oil is pressed from the flesh of the avocado fruit, not a seed. Naturally refined avocado oil (our Essential) tastes neutral and handles high heat, so it suits tadka, sautéing and frying. Extra virgin avocado oil (our Drizzle) keeps the fruit's colour and flavour and is best for dressings and finishing. A spray (our Magic) gives a thin, even coat for air fryers and tawas.
It started with one question at home
I'm a mechanical engineer. For nearly ten years my job was working on quality problems: when something fails, you don't guess, you trace it back to a root cause. Gayatri, my wife and co-founder, is an architect. She reads materials the way I read test data.
So when our nutritionist asked us a simple question about the fats we cooked with every day, we did what engineers and architects do. We read labels. We argued about ingredients in grocery aisles. We went down a rabbit hole of extraction methods, solvents, adulteration and mislabelling, and how few cooking oils could tell you clearly where they came from or how they were made.
A Tuesday-night thali in Charleston
The first meal I remember clearly was in our kitchen in Charleston. Gayatri was four months pregnant, and she cooked the whole menu in avocado oil: bhindi ki sabzi, dal, chapati, rice and a salad. Nothing fancy. Just the food we ate every week.
What struck me was what I didn't notice. The oil was neutral. The spices did their job. The bhindi tasted like bhindi and the tadka on the dal tasted like jeera and hing, not oil. Over the following weeks our everyday meals simply felt lighter to us, different from the heaviness we'd sometimes feel straight away with coconut oil or ghee.
We didn't make a decision so much as drift into one. Without really planning it, naturally refined avocado oil (not extra virgin) became our everyday cooking oil.
When we looked for the same oil in India, we couldn't find one we trusted. That gap became The Avo Company. We launched on 29 May 2026.
What exactly is avocado oil?
Most cooking oils in Indian kitchens come from seeds: sunflower, soybean, groundnut, mustard. Avocado oil comes from the fruit's pulp. Ripe Hass avocados are washed, de-stoned and peeled, ground into a paste, and the oil is separated from water and fruit solids by spinning it in a centrifuge. No chemical solvent is needed.
Avocados yield only 12–20% oil, so it takes 11 to 15 Hass avocados to fill one 450 ml tin of ours. That number surprised us too.
Naturally refined or extra virgin: what's the difference?
| Essential (naturally refined) | Drizzle (extra virgin) | |
|---|---|---|
| How it's made | Pressed, then refined with physical steps only: filtration, centrifuging, steam and vacuum deodorisation. No solvents. | Cold-pressed under 27°C, left unrefined |
| Taste | Neutral; your spices lead | Soft, buttery, gently grassy |
| Colour | Pale gold | Green-gold |
| Heat | High; smoke point around 270°C | Gentle to moderate |
| Use it for | Tadka, sauté, roasting, deep-frying | Salads, chutneys, raita, finishing dal |
Neither is "better". They do different jobs. Most Indian cooking happens at high heat, which is why Essential is what we cook with every day, and it's been our best-seller since launch.
Where it fits in an Indian kitchen
- Morning tadka: 1 to 2 teaspoons of Essential is enough for a dal that serves four. Wait for one mustard seed to pop in about two seconds; the oil is ready.
- Weeknight sabzi: Essential in a wide kadai, so the oil coats more surface and you use less.
- Air fryer or tawa: Magic. Each press releases roughly a quarter of a gram, so you can see exactly how much you're using.
- Finishing: a spoon of Drizzle over hot dal or a cucumber raita, after the cooking is done.
Is avocado oil a "free food"?
No oil is, and we'll never tell you otherwise. Oil is energy-dense whatever its source. The ICMR–NIN Dietary Guidelines for Indians ask us to moderate visible fats and match amounts to our activity. Choosing a better oil doesn't mean using more of it.
Why we test every batch, and show you
The engineer in me doesn't trust a claim without a test. So every batch of our oil is tested twice: once in Málaga, and again at an independent NABL-accredited laboratory in Chennai. Then we put the result online. The code printed on your tin opens the report for the exact oil in your kitchen on our Know Your Batch page.
That's the promise behind every tin: you shouldn't have to take our word for it.
Frequently asked questions
Is avocado oil made from the seed?
No. It's pressed from the fruit's flesh.
Does it taste like avocado?
Drizzle has a soft avocado note. Essential is neutral, which is why it works in Indian food.
Can I use it every day?
Yes. Essential is designed as an everyday cooking oil. Keep portions sensible, as with any oil.
Which one should I buy first?
If you cook mostly Indian food, start with Essential. Add Drizzle if you make salads and dips, and Magic if you use an air fryer.
Keep reading
- From Málaga to your kitchen: how our oil is made
- Cold-pressed vs naturally refined: Drizzle and Essential
- How to choose a cooking oil for an Indian kitchen
Thank you for reading our first post. We'll write one every week: what we learn, what we test, and what we cook.
— Kalpesh, co-founder, The Avo Company