Over 1000 different varieties are known
Alone in Europe more than 1000 different types of olives known, of which, however, only a few have a supraregional economic importance. By far the largest olive producer is Spain, there are around 260 here alone Varieties of olives resident. These include, for example, the thick-fleshed manzanilla olive or the aromatic and late-ripening Hojiblanca. Olives will, however not only in the European Mediterranean region - d. H. grown in Spain, Italy, Greece, Croatia, Israel and, to a lesser extent, France, but also in California, Argentina, South Africa and Turkey.
also read
- Why producers often color olives black - and how you can expose this sham
- Olive harvest - traditional and modern
- Preserving olives correctly - this is how it works
Long harvest time
The flowering time of the olive tree falls in the spring months between April and June, is finally harvested between October and February. The extremely long harvest time can be partly due to the high yield of an olive tree in its prime
- ergo between 40 and 150 years - but also with the fruits harvested at different degrees of ripeness. The green olives available on the market are not a separate variety, just unripe fruits. They have a tart taste and a firmer flesh than that ripe, mostly black or purple olives.Black olives are more aromatic
Depending on the variety, olives get darker the more ripe they get. Not only does the pulp turn black, but also the core. Deep black olives have a soft flesh and are significantly more aromatic than green olives, but also more expensive due to the longer ripening time. To save themselves the long ripening on the tree, many olive producers use a simple trick: you color green (i.e. unripe) olives black with iron gluconate and thus simulate a quality that it cooks not there.
How to distinguish colored olives from real black olives
- on the packaging: iron gluconate must be included in the list of ingredients
- On the taste: Colored olives taste like green olives, i.e. more bitter.
- by the color of the core: ripe black olives have a dark core, colored olives a light one.
Tips & Tricks
Green olives contain less oil than black olives and are therefore significantly lower in calories. Green olives contain around 140 kilocalories per 100 grams, black olives approx. 350. They are both rich in unsaturated fatty acids, vitamins and trace elements.
