Greece eats more olive oil per person than any nation on earth.
Greek olive culture is ancient and unbroken. Its two famous names tell the story: the Kalamata, the almond-shaped purple table olive protected to its home region in the Peloponnese; and the tiny Koroneiki, the oil olive behind a great many of the world’s award-winning extra virgins, grown above all on Crete and across the Peloponnese.
Much of Greece’s superb Koroneiki is still sold cheaply in bulk and bottled abroad under other flags — which means single-origin Greek oil is often world-class value. And beware the look-alikes: a “Kalamata” far from Greece may be a Peruvian Alfonso in disguise, as we explain in the great olive name swap. The Greek olives we’ve covered so far are below.
The famous oil olive of the Greek island of Lesvos — the same cultivar grown across…
A prized dual-purpose olive of Laconia in the Peloponnese — giving an elegant, fruity oil and…
The large, crisp green olive of northern Greece — firm enough to stuff with almond, pepper…
What a true Kalamata is, how it’s cured, the dyed-black fakes to avoid, and the best…
The hardy oil olive of Lesvos also called Valanolia — productive and adaptable, giving a fruity,…
Greece’s most widely grown table olive — dual green-or-black, mild and round, known by its regions:…
Koroneiki — the small Greek olive behind many of the world’s award-winning extra virgin oils.
The dual-purpose olive of Megara and Attica, around Athens — a hardy tree giving both a…
The wrinkled black olive of Thassos — left to ripen and sweeten on the branch until…
The hardy hill olive of Crete and the Peloponnese — grown higher and cooler than the…