This is a Spanish style of preserving and selling olives, rather than an actual “botanical” variety of olive. It’s a jar of green olives and capers mixed together. Sometimes the olives may be stuffed with pimiento as well. The olives aren’t necessarily always pitted, though of course they will be if they have been stuffed….
Spanish Olives
Alcaparrado Olives
This is a Spanish style of preserving and selling olives, rather than an actual “botanical” variety of olive. It’s a jar of green olives and capers mixed together. Sometimes the olives may be stuffed with pimiento as well. The olives aren’t necessarily always pitted, though of course they will be if they have been stuffed….
Arauco Olives
Arauco Olives are dark green olives grown in Spain and in Argentina. They are very large olives harvested green, cured in brine, and usually flavoured with herbs such as rosemary. The trees were brought to Latin America by the Spanish at the time of the conquest. They are now the main olives grown in Argentina….
Arbequina Olives
Arbequina Olives are very small and oval. The trees are small but frost hardy. The trees can be planted very densely, but are hard to harvest with mechanical means because the small olives cling tightly to the branches. They can pollinate themselves. The olives mature in mid-November. The olives are used both for oil and…
Arbosana Olives
Arbosana Olive trees start producing olives after two years, and reach full fruiting in five years. The olives are small, but with a good oil yield of 19 to 20%. The oil has a pungent, fruity taste. It is often blended into oils from other olives to improve their taste and aroma. The trees can…
Cornicabra Olives
Cornicabra Olives are medium-sized olives grown in Andalucia, Spain both for oil and for making black table olives out of. The olives have an average oil yield of 23%. The oil produced from them is dense and fruity. Language Notes “Cornicabra” means “goat’s horn” in Spanish.
Empeltre Olives
These are medium-sized olives that will yield anywhere from 19 to 27% oil. The oil is considered good quality and to be of good flavour, with no bitterness. The colour of the oil will range from pale yellow to gold. Empeltre Olives are also used for table olives. When being harvested for table use, they…
Gordal Olives
Gordals are firm, plump olives that are often classed starting at Jumbo size owing to their large size.For use as table olives, they are picked green and brined. They can be prepared after that in many different ways. Though you can buy unpitted ones, they are usually sold pitted, if not also stuffed, because they…
Hojiblanca Olives
Hojiblanca Olive Oil © Denzil Green Hojiblanca Olives are medium to large plump olives that ripen to a light purple with firm flesh. They would be almost completely round but for a pointed end. Inside, there is a large, rough pit. About 15% of the olive trees grown in Spain are Hojiblanca. The tree is…
Lechin Olives
Lechin Olives are medium to large olives that ripen to black that are grown for the pale yellow oil that they yield. The oil yield is about 18 to 25%, depending on the variety. Developed in Spain, they are grown in Cadiz, Córdoba, Huelva, Malaga and Seville. There are two varieties, Lechin di Sevilla and…
Manzanilla Olives
Manzanilla Olives are medium-sized olives with a small pit, from which the flesh separates easily. It is the olive that British and North American consumers think of as the standard olive. This is an actual olive tree variety. The tree needs another olive tree to cross-pollinate it. Its olives are ready to harvest green in…
Picual Olives
Picual are medium to large, dark green olives, ripening to an even black. They are grown for their oil. They yield 21 to 25% oil, though can go up to 28%. The bright gold oil is considered medium quality. It has a fruity smell, and a pungent taste with a touch of bitterness, but the…
Picudo Olives
Picudo Olives are grown to make oil, green olives and black olives from. The olives are medium to large-sized with a pointed tip. They will ripen to full black. The oil is aromatic, almost a bit sweet, with no bitterness. The oil yield is about 20%. The oil has a medium-length shelf life. The olives…
Pimolas
Pimolas is a generic Spanish term used to refer to a stuffed olive, particularly one stuffed with either pimiento or sweet red pepper.
Spanish Olives
Forty-five per cent of the olives in the world are grown in Spain, as of 2004. Domestically, Spain uses 50% more olive oil than Italy does. Italy imports a great deal of Spanish olive oil in bulk, packages it, labels it as Italian, and re-exports it to the rest of the world as Italian. The…
Stuffed Olives
Stuffed Olives © Denzil Green Olives used to be stuffed by hand, but now it is almost always done by machine. Machines first pit the olives, then stuff the cavity they made with a filling. The stuffing can be almonds, anchovy, celery, onion or strips of pimiento paste. New stuffings being thought of all the…
Verdial Olives
Verdial Olives is a grouping of olive varieties such as: Verdial de Badajoz Verdial de Huévar Verdial de Vélez-Málaga Verdial de Catalayud Verdial de Alcaudete Verdial de Jaén They are thick-skinned, medium to large-sized olives grown for their oil. Different varieties give different quantities of oil. Some such as Verdial de Badajoz are also used…