Tonda Iblea Olives
The award-winning olive of the Hyblaean Mountains: a green oil with notes of tomato and herbs, and a fine round table olive.
The Tonda Iblea — the “round olive of the Iblei” — comes from the Monti Iblei in the south-east corner of Sicily, around Ragusa and Syracuse. It is one of Italy’s most decorated oil olives, giving a vivid green extra virgin with distinctive notes of green tomato, sweet pepper and herbs. The large round fruit also makes a good table olive, so it earns its keep both ways.
- Origin
- Monti Iblei, Sicily · Italy
- Type
- Oil & table
- Colour
- Green to black
- Size
- Large, round
- Flavour (oil)
- Green tomato, herbs, pepper
- Reputation
- Award-winning oils
- Best for
- Premium finishing oil, table
Sicily’s competition olive
Tonda Iblea oil is one of those that turns sceptics into believers: bright green, aromatic, with a fresh tomato-leaf and herb character and a balanced bitter-pepper finish. Producers from the Iblei hills win national and international oil competitions with it year after year. As a table olive it is large, round and pleasant, but it is the oil that built its name.
Sicily presses some of Italy’s most exciting oils, and Tonda Iblea is near the top — but a true single-variety bottle is a premium, small-production thing. Look for the variety named, a Sicilian estate, and a fresh harvest date. It is worth paying for; it is not a supermarket commodity oil.