Olives provide a various combination of tastes. They have become widely known for presenting a great balance between the rich taste and healthy nutrition. They are fitting in many recipes either as an ingredient or as a sider, e.g. pizza, olive bread, or in a martini.
The first consumption of edible olives is the green ones. The largest production of green olives is mainly from Spain, followed by Egypt.
Second in preferences come oxidized black olives, which are green olives and through the oxidation process they become black.
Third in consumption are the Chalkidiki green olives, with their characteristic large caliber. These olives are ideal for being stuffed by hand with natural ingredients. For example, stuffed with pieces of Natural red pepper, Garlic, Jalapeno pepper, Almond, Orange, Lemon, etc. unlike with the Spanish origin, which are small in size, filled with an industrial process with flavor paste rather than by hand.
Fourth in line come Kalamata olives, which are considered as the most premium olives, due to their special taste and their 100% natural processing. More specific, the bitter is being removed by the traditional method, in salt water for 3-4 months and then, they are preserved in salt water until packing.
Other varieties:
–Natural black Amfissa, is an old variety of olive, which fermentation is being processed by the traditional way. They are preserved in salt water until packing.
–Throumpa olives of Thassos, are special olives that are ripened naturally and become eatable as soon as they are being cut from the tree.
-Various types of olives are found in Morocco, Tunisia and Lebanon. For example, the black Moroccan olives (wrinkled), the green cracked olives of Lebanon, a percentage of which is also produced in Greece from Nafplio olives.
Last but not least, in all olive-producing countries, there are the edible ones which are consumed locally, or in small quantities, such as olives for Heroes and small green olives from Crete.
Olives have been constituting a valuable nourishment from the past years as they were the main food in ancient Greece.
This adds up to the fact that the fruit from the olive tree is a wonderful source of monounsaturated fatty acids which provides a healthy body due to the fiber, minerals and vitamin E.