Arbequina olives
The small Catalan olive behind a huge share of the world’s everyday extra virgin oil.
Tiny, round, and brown-green, the Arbequina is not much to look at on the table — its fame is liquid. Originally from Catalonia in north-eastern Spain, it presses into a soft, fruity, almost buttery oil with gentle bitterness, and it has been planted across the world’s super-high-density oil orchards because it crops young and heavily. If you own a bottle of mild supermarket EVOO, there is a fair chance it is mostly Arbequina.
- Origin
- Catalonia · Spain
- Type
- Oil olive (mainly)
- Colour
- Brown-green
- Size
- Small
- Flavour (oil)
- Soft, fruity, mild
- Pressed for
- Everyday extra virgin oil
- Best for
- Pressing, all-purpose oil
The workhorse of modern oil
Arbequina changed the economics of olive oil. Because it grows well in dense, mechanically harvested orchards and bears fruit quickly, it spread from Spain to Chile, Argentina, California, Australia and beyond. Its oil is approachable — low bitterness, ripe-fruit aroma, a short and gentle finish — which is exactly why it makes a friendly, all-purpose oil and a poor one for people who want a big peppery punch.
Arbequina’s mildness is a double-edged thing. Because the oil is naturally soft and low in the bitter, peppery polyphenols, a tired or poorly stored Arbequina oil can taste like nothing — and a refined fake can hide most easily behind that gentle profile. Mild is fine; flat and greasy is not. Even a soft oil should still smell of fresh fruit and leave a faint tickle at the back of the throat.