Arbosana Olives
The compact Catalan olive of super-intensive groves: a fruity oil, a little more peppery than Arbequina.
The Arbosana is a small Catalan olive that has gone global for a very modern reason: it is compact, early-bearing and ideally suited to super-high-density hedgerow groves harvested by machine. Often planted alongside the Arbequina, it gives a fruity oil that is a touch greener and more peppery, with good aromatics — one of the olives quietly reshaping how the world grows oil.
- Origin
- Catalonia · Spain
- Type
- Oil olive
- Colour
- Green to purple
- Flavour (oil)
- Fruity, mild pepper
- Growing
- Super-high-density hedgerow
- Traits
- Compact, early, machine-harvest
- Best for
- Modern everyday extra virgin
The olive built for the modern grove
Traditional olive trees are big, slow and hand-harvested. Super-high-density (SHD) planting puts small olives in dense hedgerows that a machine can straddle and harvest in one pass — and the Arbosana, compact and quick to bear, is one of the varieties that makes it work. Its oil is fresh and fruity with a little more pepper and structure than Arbequina, which is why the two are so often grown together.
SHD oils like Arbosana and Arbequina are behind a great deal of the world’s consistent, affordable extra virgin — California, Australia, Portugal and Chile all grow them. That is not a bad thing: machine harvest at peak ripeness can mean fresher oil. It is simply a different model from the old hillside grove.