Türkiye is consistently among the top handful of olive and olive-oil nations.
Olive culture in Türkiye runs as deep as anywhere in the Mediterranean, centred on the Aegean coast. Its table-olive star is the Gemlik, the small, soft, oil-rich black olive that anchors the Turkish breakfast table, served whole with cheese, bread and tea.
Turkey is a major producer of both table olives and oil, yet its olives are far less known abroad than the Italian, Spanish and Greek names — a reminder that the olive belongs to many more places than the famous few. The Turkish olives we’ve covered so far are below.
The prized oil olive of the Ayvalık and Edremit gulf in north-west Türkiye — the same…
The large green table olive of the Turkish Aegean, around Akhisar — mild and crisp, often…
Gemlik — Turkey's beloved soft black breakfast olive.
The leading oil olive of south-west Türkiye — grown around Muğla and Aydın, giving a robust,…