Hojiblanca olives
Andalusia’s great all-rounder — a dual-purpose Spanish olive for both table and oil.
The Hojiblanca — “white leaf,” for the pale underside of its foliage — is one of Spain’s most important olives, grown widely across Andalusia. It is genuinely dual-purpose: picked green or black it makes a good table olive, and pressed it gives a pleasant, balanced oil with a slightly bitter, faintly almond finish. A versatile, everyday Spanish workhorse.
- Origin
- Andalusia (Málaga/Córdoba) · Spain
- Type
- Table & oil
- Colour
- Green or black
- Flavour (oil)
- Balanced, slight almond
- Role
- Versatile, widely grown
- Best for
- Table olives and oil
The versatile Spaniard
Hojiblanca’s value is its flexibility. As a table olive it is firm and pleasant, often sold black-ripe in Spain; as an oil olive it gives a medium-intensity extra virgin with grassy and almond notes and a gentle bitterness. It is not the most intense oil nor the meatiest table olive, but it does both jobs well, which is why so much of Andalusia is planted with it.
Much Spanish Hojiblanca is sold as “black ripe” — and as always, check whether that black is natural ripening or the oxidised-and-stabilised process used for cheap canned black olives. A naturally ripened Hojiblanca has more character than the uniform matte ones in a tin.