Manzanilla Cacereña Olives
L’olive polyvalente d’Estrémadure — bonne olive de table verte, et huile fraîche et fruitée.
The Manzanilla Cacereña is the workhorse olive of Extremadura, in western Spain, and of the Sierra de Gata. Despite the shared name it is distinct from the Sevillian Manzanilla. It is genuinely dual-purpose: picked green and young it makes a firm, pleasant table olive ; left to ripen it presses into a fresh, fruity, lightly bitter oil. A dependable regional all-rounder.
- Origin
- Extremadura / Sierra de Gata · Spain
- Type
- Table & oil
- Colour
- Green to black
- Flavour (oil)
- Fresh, fruity, light bitter
- Role
- Versatile, widely grown locally
- Note
- Distinct from Sevillian Manzanilla
- Best for
- Table olives and oil
Extremadura’s all-rounder
Extremadura is one of Spain’s quieter olive regions, and the Manzanilla Cacereña is its mainstay. Early-picked it gives a crisp green table olive ; later-picked it yields a fresh oil with apple and green-leaf notes and a gentle bitterness. It is the kind of dependable, do-everything olive that anchors a local economy without ever becoming a famous name.
Don’t confuse it with the Sevillian Manzanilla, the world’s great green table olive — they share a name (manzanilla, “little apple,” describes the shape) but are different cultivars. The Cacereña leans more towards oil and its own DOP, Gata-Hurdes.