Blanqueta Olives
The small pale olive of Alicante: an aromatic, fruity, slightly bitter oil from Spain’s Levant.
The Blanqueta — “the little white one,” for the pale colour of its small fruit as it ripens — is a characteristic olive of Alicante and the Valencian Community, on Spain’s eastern Levant coast. It is mainly an oil olive, giving an aromatic, fruity oil with a fresh, green, gently bitter and pleasantly piquant character — a backbone of the region’s protected oils.
- Origin
- Alicante / Valencia · Spain
- Type
- Oil olive
- Colour
- Pale green to purple
- Size
- Small
- Flavour (oil)
- Aromatic, fruity, lightly bitter
- Region
- Spanish Levant coast
- Best for
- Aromatic everyday oil
The Levant coast’s olive
Spain’s eastern coast has its own olive traditions, and the Blanqueta is one of them. The small fruit ripens to a pale, washed-out colour that gives it its name, and presses into an aromatic, fresh oil — fruity and green, with a moderate bitterness and a lively peppery finish. It anchors the protected oils of Alicante and is often blended with the local Villalonga.
Because the fruit is small and the tree alternates heavy and light years, Blanqueta oil is a more regional, artisanal thing than the oceans of Andalusian Picual — which is part of its charm. A named Alicante oil is a good way to taste a less-famous corner of Spain.