Tsounati Olives
The mountain olive of Crete and the Peloponnese: a green, aromatic, robust oil.
The Tsounati is a hardy Greek oil olive grown in the hills of Crete and the Peloponnese — often higher and cooler than the lowland Koroneiki it grows alongside. It gives a green, aromatic, more robust oil with good structure, and copes well with mountain conditions. Where Koroneiki is the famous Cretan name, the Tsounati is its tougher highland companion.
- Origin
- Crete / Peloponnese · Greece
- Also called
- Mouratolia (some areas)
- Type
- Oil olive
- Colour
- Green to black
- Flavour (oil)
- Green, aromatic, robust
- Grows
- Higher, cooler hill country
- Best for
- Robust Greek oil, blending
Crete’s highland olive
Crete is one of the world’s great oil islands, and while the Koroneiki gets the fame, much of the higher, cooler hill country is Tsounati. It tolerates altitude and cold better, and gives a greener, more structured, aromatic oil — often blended with Koroneiki to add backbone, or bottled on its own as a robust mountain extra virgin.
Greece exports a great deal of superb oil cheaply in bulk, so a named single-origin Cretan oil — Koroneiki, Tsounati, or a blend of both — is often outstanding value. Look for the variety and a Cretan estate.