Origin, character, how it is cured, what to cook with it — and what the sellers would rather you didn’t know. Built slowly, by someone who spent twenty years in the trade and has nothing left to sell.
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The dominant olive of Montenegro’s coast around Bar — home to the Stara Maslina, one of…
The famous oil olive of the Greek island of Lesvos — the same cultivar grown across…
The backbone of Provence’s AOC oils — a green-picked olive giving a fresh, artichoke-and-almond oil. Dual-purpose,…
The large purple South-American olive, wine-cured to resemble a Kalamata — good in its own right,…
The protected cracked green olive of Málaga — split and fresh-cured with thyme, fennel and garlic,…
South America’s most distinctive olive — a large green Argentine variety from La Rioja, often cracked…
The small Spanish olive that quietly fills a huge share of the world’s mild extra virgin…
The compact, early-bearing Catalan olive planted in super-high-density hedgerows worldwide — Arbequina’s partner, giving a fruity,…
The large, tender green olive of Ascoli Piceno — the heart of olive all’ascolana, stuffed with…
A prized dual-purpose olive of Laconia in the Peloponnese — giving an elegant, fruity oil and…
The prized oil olive of the Ayvalık and Edremit gulf in north-west Türkiye — the same…
One of Sicily’s most ancient varieties — a pale, delicate, sweet oil with light almond and…
The small, pale Levantine-Spanish olive of Alicante — giving an aromatic, fruity, gently bitter oil, and…
The dominant olive of Sardinia — a robust, aromatic, well-keeping oil with artichoke, cardoon and almond…
A traditional Provençal oil olive — giving a green, fresh oil with artichoke and almond notes,…
The native oil olive of Istria — hardy and intense, giving a green, bitter, peppery, high-polyphenol…
The leading olive of Calabria — a large fruit good as a green table olive and…
The signature olive of Lake Garda — grown at the northern edge of the olive world,…
The mild, bright-green “gateway” olive — what it really is, why it’s so green, and what…
The small, tough oil olive of Puglia’s Salento — a fruity, characterful oil, and one of…
Named for the cherry-red blush of its ripening fruit — a bold, green, fruity western Sicilian…
Cerignola olives: the giant, mild, buttery green table olive of Puglia. What they are, how they…
The elongated Valencian oil olive — productive and distinctive, giving a fruity, aromatic oil with a…
The dominant olive of Algeria’s Kabylie mountains — hardy and dual-purpose, giving a fruity, golden oil…
The small, hardy olive that dominates Tunisian groves — a drought-tough tree giving a mild, sweet,…
The oil olive of northern Tunisia — greener, more bitter and peppery than the southern Chemlali,…
The hardy, aromatic olive of Trás-os-Montes — a bolder, higher-polyphenol oil that gives Portuguese blends backbone…
The small black Spanish olive from Murcia — a genuine Niçoise cousin, and the honest stand-in…
Coratina — Puglia's fierce, peppery, high-polyphenol oil olive.
Cornicabra — central Spain's robust, well-keeping oil olive.
The large green table olive of the Turkish Aegean, around Akhisar — mild and crisp, often…
The signature olive of Abruzzo around Loreto Aprutino — giving a fresh, fruity, well-balanced oil with…
Empeltre — the mild black olive of Aragon's Ebro valley.
A huge share of “extra virgin” olive oil isn’t. Here’s the 30-second kitchen test — from…
The ancient Spanish olive of the Maestrat — the variety behind the world’s great millennial olive…
Frantoio — Tuscany's benchmark oil olive.
Gaeta — central Italy's soft black olive (usually Itrana).
The historic Portuguese olive — small, sweet and dual-purpose, the traditional heart of Ribatejo and Alentejo…
Gemlik — Turkey's beloved soft black breakfast olive.
Gordal — Spain’s giant “fat one” from Seville: the meaty green olive born to be stuffed.
The plump black table olive of the Vallée des Baux in Provence — soft, fruity and…
The large, crisp green olive of northern Greece — firm enough to stuff with almond, pepper…
Hojiblanca — Andalusia's versatile dual-purpose Spanish olive.
The leading oil olive of Slovenian Istria — intense, bitter and peppery, very high in polyphenols,…
The dual-purpose olive of Lazio — cured ripe it becomes the famous Gaeta olive, picked late…
What a true Kalamata is, how it’s cured, the dyed-black fakes to avoid, and the best…
The most important olive of Albania, around Vlorë — hardy and dual-purpose, giving a fruity, robust…
The hardy oil olive of Lesvos also called Valanolia — productive and adaptable, giving a fruity,…
Greece’s most widely grown table olive — dual green-or-black, mild and round, known by its regions:…
Koroneiki — the small Greek olive behind many of the world’s award-winning extra virgin oils.
Leccino — Italy's gentle, dependable oil olive and Frantoio's blending partner.
The tough, dependable Andalusian olive also called Zorzaleño — a drought-hardy tree giving a fluid, fresh,…
Lucques — France’s elegant crescent-shaped green olive: crisp, sweet and buttery.
A traditional Trás-os-Montes olive — dual-purpose, giving a rounded, fruity oil and a good table olive,…
The versatile olive of Extremadura and the Sierra de Gata — a fine green table olive…
Manzanilla — the small, firm, all-purpose Spanish olive that fills most of the world’s green-olive jars.
A central Italian pollinator and light oil olive — planted among Frantoio and Leccino, giving a…
The dual-purpose olive of Megara and Attica, around Athens — a hardy tree giving both a…
The leading oil olive of south-west Türkiye — grown around Muğla and Aydın, giving a robust,…
Mission — California's historic olive, brought by Spanish missionaries.
The robust, peppery oil olive of Umbria, Tuscany and the Marche — high in polyphenols, the…
A traditional olive of Extremadura and the Tierra de Barros — dual-purpose for a fruity oil…
Nice's own small dark olive — the real Niçoise, the Cailletier cultivar, and a protected name…
The bright-green Sicilian cultivar sold cured as the famous Castelvetrano — and pressed into a fine…
Sicily’s dual-purpose olive of the slopes of Mount Etna — a good green or black table…
The prized olive of Brisighella in Emilia-Romagna — one of Italy’s northernmost, giving a fresh, fruity,…
The olive of Nyons — France’s first AOP olive: a sweet, nutty, wrinkled black olive of…
The dominant olive of the Croatian Adriatic — hardy, dual-purpose, giving a fruity, gently bitter oil…
The mild, sweet oil olive of the Bari countryside — the gentle partner to the fierce…
The graceful weeping olive of central Italy — a key pollinator for Frantoio and Leccino, and…
The elegant dual-purpose olive of northern Puglia’s Daunia — of French ancestry, giving a delicate, sweet,…
The variety that covers nearly all of Morocco’s groves — dual-purpose for the green Moroccan table…
The slender, nutty, crunchy green olive of the French Midi — table and oil, plus substitutes.
Picual — the world’s most-pressed oil olive: bold, peppery, antioxidant-rich and slow to go rancid.
The aromatic Andalusian olive of Córdoba — named for its beak-like tip, giving a sweet, fragrant,…
The versatile olive of Lazio, Marche and Abruzzo — giving a sweet, fruity, well-rounded oil and…
A rare large dark olive of the Cazorla hills in Jaén — a regional speciality, dual-purpose…
Provence’s classic table olive — the “olives cassées” of the Vallée des Baux, cracked and cured…
The very large green table olive of California — of Spanish Sevillian descent, the giant crisp…
Taggiasca — Liguria's small sweet olive; kin to the Niçoise.
The Provençal cultivar cured into the famous wrinkled black Nyons olive — France’s first AOP olive…
The wrinkled black olive of Thassos — left to ripen and sweeten on the branch until…
The large, apple-shaped green olive of Egypt — crisp and mild, a staple of the Egyptian…
The award-winning olive of the Monti Iblei in south-east Sicily — a green, tomato-and-herb-scented oil that…
The hardy hill olive of Crete and the Peloponnese — grown higher and cooler than the…
The late-ripening, robust olive of Trás-os-Montes — staying green into winter and giving a green, peppery,…
The hardy late-harvest olive of Extremadura and Málaga — staying green well into winter, giving a…
The Valencian oil olive often blended with Blanqueta — giving a fruity, aromatic, gently bitter oil…