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Megaritiki Olives — illustration

Megaritiki Olives

L’olive à double usage de Mégare et de l’Attique — huile fraîche et fruitée, et olive de table agréable.

The Megaritiki is the characteristic olive of Megara and the wider Attica region around Athens. Hardy and adaptable, tolerant of the dry Attic climate and coastal conditions, it is genuinely dual-purpose: pressed it gives a fresh, fruity oil ; cured it makes a pleasant table olive. The everyday olive of the Athenian hinterland.

Origin
Megara / Attica · Greece
Type
Table & oil
Colour
Green to black
Flavour (oil)
Fresh, fruity, medium
Traits
Hardy, drought- and salt-tolerant
Region
Around Athens
Best for
Everyday oil and table olives

The Athenian everyday olive

Attica is dry, bright and historically thick with olive groves — the olive is woven into the myth of Athens itself — and the Megaritiki is the region’s workhorse. It shrugs off drought and salt air, bears well, and turns its hand to both jobs: a fresh medium-fruity oil, and a sound table olive cured green or black. Not a celebrity, but deeply local and dependable.

Worth knowing

The Megaritiki is mostly a regional name you will meet in Greece rather than on an export label — which is exactly the kind of honest, local olive worth seeking out when you travel. In Attica, it is simply the olive.

Substitutes

KoroneikiGreece’s famous oil olive.
KonservoliaGreece’s everyday table olive.
Megaritiki’s neighboursOther hardy Greek dual-purpose olives.
In the kitchen: a fresh everyday oil and a simple table olive — the unfussy, local taste of the Athenian countryside.