Ever stood in the oil aisle, staring down a wall of bottles, wondering which one is actually worth your money? You've got olive, canola, vegetable, grapeseed, coconut, and avocado all fighting for a spot in your cart. We get it. It's a lot.
Here's the thing: understanding where your food comes from makes shopping a whole lot easier. When you know how an ingredient is made, choosing it feels less like a guessing game and more like a decision you can stand behind. So today, we're pulling back the curtain on one of our favorite ingredients, avocado oil, and walking through exactly how it goes from orchard to bottle.
From orchard to bottle: the journey
Unlike many seed oils, which often require industrial solvents to pull oil out of a hard, dry seed, avocado oil production is refreshingly simple. Avocados are a fruit with soft, oil-rich pulp, so making avocado oil is closer to pressing fresh juice than running a chemical refinery.
Here's what that journey typically looks like.
Harvesting
It starts in the orchard, where avocados are picked at peak ripeness. The oil content of an avocado increases as it matures, so timing really does matter here.
Washing and sorting
Once the fruit arrives at the facility, it gets washed to remove dust and debris from the orchard. Then it's sorted, with only the best fruit moving forward in the process.
Depulping and pitting
Next, machines gently separate the skin and pit from the creamy flesh. Only the pulp moves on, and the leftover skins and pits are often composted or repurposed.
Malaxation
Here's a fun word for you: malaxation. It just means slow, steady mixing. The avocado pulp is churned in a tank, which helps tiny oil droplets in the fruit merge into bigger ones, getting the oil ready to separate from the water and solids.
Separation
The avocado paste then goes into a centrifuge, essentially a very fast, very precise spin cycle. Because oil, water, and solids have different densities, spinning separates them naturally. The oil flows out on its own, ready for the next step.
Filtration
Finally, the oil passes through filters to remove any remaining bits of fruit. What's left is the golden oil you'd recognize on a store shelf.
Many producers also use a cold-press method, keeping temperatures low throughout the process. This matters because gentler processing helps preserve some of the oil's natural composition, including monounsaturated fats and vitamin E.
Refined vs. unrefined: what's the difference?
Avocado oil generally comes in two forms: extra virgin (unrefined) and refined. Both have their place in the kitchen, but they behave pretty differently.
- Smoke point: Unrefined avocado oil has a lower smoke point, generally around 375°F. Refined avocado oil can handle much higher heat, often up to 500°F, which is part of why oils that hold up well under high heat are often preferred for cooking methods like kettle-cooking.
- Flavor: Unrefined avocado oil is emerald green with a strong avocado flavor, great drizzled on a salad. Refined avocado oil is golden and neutral, letting other flavors take the lead.
- Appearance: Unrefined oil keeps its chlorophyll and color. Refined oil goes through additional processing (often using steam or natural clays) that removes color and strong flavor while retaining much of the oil's natural fat profile.
Because refined avocado oil holds up so well under heat, it's the type most often used for high-heat cooking. Oils that are more prone to breaking down at high temperatures can also be more susceptible to oxidation, so oil selection matters more than people often realize.
Made with avocado oil, always
At Jackson's, every single chip and Super Veggie Straws® bag is cooked exclusively in avocado oil. Not a blend, not a swap, just avocado oil in every batch. That's been true since the very beginning, when the Reamer family started making snacks for their son Jackson in a home kitchen. From there to Shark Tank to a dedicated production facility, avocado oil has never left the recipe.
We think that kind of consistency matters. When you flip over a bag of our kettle chips or Super Veggie Straws®, you know exactly what cooked them.
Registered dietitian Lauren Manaker has pointed to this simplicity herself, noting that Jackson's sweet potato chips are "made with just three ingredients and kettle-cooked, giving them a boost of beta carotene and potassium," as reported by EatingWell. And customer Kathy S. put it simply: "These are the best tasting, and are the only sweet potato chips I've found that I can actually have! Using avocado oil and all clean ingredients is a game changer for me!"
Snacking with a little more knowledge
Understanding how avocado oil is made helps you appreciate every bite a little more. It's a journey from the orchard, through careful pressing and filtering, and finally into the crunch you're reaching for. If you're curious to keep learning, our guide on avocado oil vs. tallow and our breakdown of whether avocado oil is a seed oil are great next reads.
Living well doesn't have to mean giving up flavor or fun. Knowing what's behind the ingredient list is a small but meaningful way to feel good about what's in your snack bag. So next time you're craving something crunchy, you can reach for a bag knowing exactly how it got there.
Shop Jackson's chips or grab a bag of Super Veggie Straws® and taste the difference avocado oil makes.
