Wajos Lemon on Olive Oil. 99 percent extra virgin olive oil from Spain with lemon oil, fresh and mild – the condiment oil that adds lemon zest to fish, salad, and vegetables instead of acidity.

Wajos Lemon on Olive Oil is an olive oil preparation made from 99 percent extra virgin olive oil from Spain and lemon oil, 250 ml from Dohr on the Moselle. No lemon juice in the oil, no flavored rapeseed oil, not an oil for frying, but a condiment oil for drizzling that tastes like lemon zest and has the mouthfeel of olive oil. Vegan.

Lemon on Olive Oil by Wajos solves a minor kitchen problem. You want lemon on your fish, salad, or vegetables—but you want to avoid the acidity that makes fish look grey and dressing overly sharp. Grating lemon zest is an option, but it requires an untreated lemon and a grater that needs to be washed afterward. Here, the zest is already in the oil. A spoonful, and the dish smells of lemon while everything remains mild. For us, this is our best-selling Wajos oil and the bottle we mention in almost every dressing tip.

Lemon zest on the nose, olive oil on the palate, the acidity stays out

When opened, the oil smells of freshly grated lemon zest—bright, ethereal, slightly bitter, like the zest rather than the juice. On the tongue, it is first and foremost olive oil: soft, green, with the light bitterness of an extra virgin olive oil. The lemon remains as a scent and in the finish, never stinging. The oil makes up 99 percent, the lemon oil one percent—and that is enough, because lemon oil from the peel is highly concentrated.

You should know this: It is oil, not acid. Anyone making a dressing with it still needs vinegar or lemon juice. The oil replaces the lemon zest, not the lemon. And like any olive oil, it is fat—a tablespoon remains a tablespoon of oil, no matter how fresh it smells.

For those looking for a bold, peppery olive oil with a lot of character of its own, this oil is not suitable—the lemon would struggle against it, which is why the base is deliberately mild. For that, the EVOO Extra Virgin Olive Oil from Wajos is the right bottle. If you want garlic instead of lemon, go for the Garlic on Olive Oil.

On fish, in dressings, on vegetables, and in cake batter

The primary use is fish: salmon or cod from the oven, with a tablespoon of oil drizzled over it once on the plate. The lemon wedge can be skipped, and so can the acidity that turns the flesh grey. It works just as well on pan-seared shrimp, steamed mussels, or a tuna steak. And on a smoked salmon sandwich with cream cheese, it’s the drop that turns breakfast into something special.

In dressings, it is the oil we use most frequently: three tablespoons of this, two tablespoons of vinegar or crema, salt. Perfect for lamb’s lettuce, arugula, fennel-orange salad, cucumber with yogurt, or a tomato salad that otherwise only gets salt. With goat cheese, avocado, or white beans, it turns a side salad into a main course. Also stirred into mayonnaise or a yogurt dip, it provides the citrus note that otherwise comes from a grater.

On vegetables, it is added after cooking: over green asparagus, broccoli, grilled zucchini, or roasted potatoes. A risotto gets a tablespoon at the end, as does a pasta dish with parmesan and pepper. And yes, in a sponge cake or olive oil cake, it can replace part of the fat—the lemon stays in the batter, and no one has to grate zest.

What it does not handle well: searing at high heat. The essential oils of the lemon evaporate under high heat, leaving only olive oil behind. Therefore, always add it at the end, away from the hot pan. And for dressings for hearty dishes—potato salad with bacon, coleslaw—the lemon is often too delicate.

Our tip: Three tablespoons of Lemon on Olive Oil, two tablespoons of Fig-Date Crema, salt—the dressing we use on every salad with goat cheese, pear, and walnuts.

Spanish oil, refined in Dohr on the Moselle

The olive grows in Spain rather than on the Moselle, which is why the olive oil comes from there; the lemon is added in Dohr near Cochem, where Wajos produces its condiment oils. The company originated from a winery: Walter Josef Oster, whose name became the brand, comes from a winemaking family in Ediger-Eller that has been making wine for 15 generations, and he founded a liqueur distillery in the 1980s. From the 2000s onwards, his son Peter Oster and Ulf Schwichtenberg turned it into Wajos—opening the first store in Trier in 2008, with over 80 employees in Dohr today and shops all over Germany.

The condiment oils are among the roughly 900 items the family business carries, and like most of them, they are produced in-house in Dohr and tested in their own laboratory. Wajos lists the lemon oil among its kitchen bestsellers, and it is also the bottle in our home that runs out before all others. Anyone who knows wine knows how much one percent can mean—here, it is that one percent of lemon oil that makes the difference from pure olive oil.

The oil for fish lovers, salad makers, and those who never have a lemon in the house

Lemon on Olive Oil is the bottle for everyday life. It suits families who have salad on the table three times a week, everyone who likes fish but always forgets the lemon, and chefs who love drizzling oil over a finished plate. As a gift, it is exactly what we bring to people who cook well and already have everything: unobtrusive, but after the first fish dish, it becomes a permanent part of their kitchen. You can find our other condiment oils on our Wajos page.

Stored in a dry, cool place away from light, the bottle lasts a long time; the refrigerator is the wrong place, as olive oil becomes cloudy and solid there. 250 milliliters will last for several weeks if you use a tablespoon per salad. The oil is not suitable for those looking for an oil for frying and deep-frying—it is too precious for that, and the lemon note is too fleeting.

Olive oil from Spain, lemon oil from the peel, blended on the Moselle—the condiment oil we use on fish and salad whenever the lemon is missing.