Chemlal de Kabylie Olives
The dominant olive of Algeria’s Kabylie mountains: hardy, dual-purpose, with a fruity, golden oil.
The Chemlal de Kabylie is the great olive of Algeria, dominating the groves of the Kabylie mountains east of Algiers. Hardy and well suited to mountain terraces, it is dual-purpose: pressed it gives a fruity, golden, gently bitter oil ; cured it makes a traditional table olive. Algeria is a major North African olive country, and the Chemlal is its backbone.
- Origin
- Kabylie · Algeria
- Type
- Table & oil
- Colour
- Green to black
- Flavour (oil)
- Fruity, golden, gently bitter
- Terrain
- Mountain terraces
- Role
- Algeria’s dominant olive
- Best for
- Oil and table olives
The olive of the Kabylie mountains
The terraced mountain groves of Kabylie are some of North Africa’s most beautiful olive country, and the Chemlal carpets them — a hardy, productive variety deeply woven into Berber life and cooking. Its oil is fruity and golden with a gentle bitterness, and the fruit is also cured for the table. Olive growing here is ancient and central to the region’s identity.
Algerian oil is mostly consumed at home rather than exported, so it is little known abroad — but it is a real and ancient tradition. A Kabylie Chemlal oil, where you can find it, is a fruity, golden taste of a North African olive culture the export shelves overlook.