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Maurino Olives — illustration

Maurino Olives

Une olive pollinisatrice et à huile légère du centre de l’Italie — délicate, parfumée, légèrement mentholée.

The Maurino is a central Italian olive valued, like the Pendolino, both as a pollinator and for a delicate oil of its own. Grown across Tuscany and the Marche among Frantoio and Leccino, it gives a light, fragrant, fresh oil with a characteristic faint hint of mint and almond. A graceful, useful tree that helps the famous Tuscan blends along.

Origin
Tuscany / Marche · Italy
Type
Oil olive + pollinator
Colour
Green to black
Flavour (oil)
Light, fragrant, minty-almond
Role
Pollinator for Frantoio/Leccino
Ripens
Early
Best for
Delicate oil, grove pollination

The fragrant little pollinator

Like the weeping Pendolino, the Maurino does much of its quiet work in the grove, pollinating the great Tuscan varieties around it — but it also gives a charming oil of its own: light, aromatic and fresh, with an unusual whisper of mint alongside the almond. It ripens early and is productive, which makes it a useful all-rounder in central-Italian plantings.

Worth knowing

You will rarely see a single-variety Maurino oil — its job is mostly to help the Frantoio and Leccino fruit, and to lift a blend with its fragrance. But it is part of why a classic Tuscan extra virgin tastes the way it does.

Substitutes

PendolinoThe other central-Italian pollinator and light oil.
LeccinoThe gentle Tuscan oil olive it serves.
FrantoioThe aromatic Tuscan benchmark it pollinates.
In the kitchen: a light, fragrant oil for delicate dishes — though most often tasted blended into a Tuscan extra virgin.