Picholine olives
The crisp, herbaceous green olive of the south of France — the apéro olive.
Long, slender, and a clear pale green, the Picholine is the olive of the French apéritif — firm, crunchy, subtly nutty, with a clean savoury snap. The French variety originates in the Gard in Languedoc; the name, however, also belongs to a distinct Moroccan olive — see below. This is my home olive, and the one I reach for with a glass of cold rosé.
- Origin
- Gard, Languedoc · France
- Type
- Table & oil
- Colour
- Pale green
- Shape
- Long, slender
- Flavour
- Crisp, nutty, savoury
- Cured in
- Brine (often with herbs)
- Best for
- Apéritif, oil, cooking
A dual-purpose Frenchwoman
Picholine is grown both for the table and for oil — pressed, it gives a green, peppery oil with real character. On the table it is usually cured in brine, sometimes scented with herbes de Provence, coriander, or a little fennel. The texture is the point: it should crunch. A soft Picholine has been sitting too long.
“Picholine” names a French variety — it is not a promise of French origin. The same name belongs to the Picholine Marocaine, a distinct cultivar that covers roughly 96% of Morocco’s olive groves — so a great deal of the world’s “Picholine” is Moroccan, and some sold as “French” may never have seen France. In the United States, “Picholine” is often a Californian canning cultivar instead. None of this is fraud in itself — the name follows the variety, not the place — but it means the label tells you the style, not the country. Buy on stated provenance, firm and in brine.