Megaritiki Olives
The dual-purpose olive of Megara and Attica: a fresh, fruity oil and a pleasant table olive.
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.
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.