Olive

Olives in brine from the Mediterranean and the Middle East — green and black, whole, pitted and stuffed. We have olives for the tapas table, for the salad, for the pizza and for cooking, from small jars to bulk packs for those who use a lot.

Find the right type

Green olives are picked before they ripen. They are firm, fresh and slightly bitter, and are the classic tapas olive. Here you will find Sicilian Castelvetrano, Greek Halkidiki, Spanish Gordal and manzanilla.

Black olives are milder and softer, and take heat well. They are the ones you want on the pizza and in the pasta.

Kalamata is a Greek variety of its own, dark violet with a firmer bite and a marked tartness. For a Greek salad there is no alternative.

Stuffed olives are green olives with the stone out and pepper, garlic, almond or anchovy in. Ready-made tapas in a jar.

We also carry olive paste and olive pâté from Taris, Fattorie Umbre and Anfosso — for bruschetta, in a pasta sauce or stirred into a dressing.

How to make them better

Take olives out of the fridge half an hour before serving. Cold oil dulls the flavour, and an olive straight from the fridge tastes half as much. If they are very salty, rinse them in cold water and let them drain. To lift a plain jar of everyday olives: warm them gently in olive oil with garlic, orange peel, thyme and a couple of chilli flakes, and serve them lukewarm.

Storage

Unopened jars and tins sit safely in the cupboard. Once opened, olives should be kept cold and always covered by the brine — any that stick up above the liquid turn leathery and lose colour. If you have opened a tin, tip it into a jar with a lid. If there is too little brine left, top it up with a little water and a splash of olive oil.

Questions and answers

What do olives contain? Olives are high in fat, and the fat is mainly monounsaturated, the same as in olive oil. What is worth looking at is the salt: the brine is salty, and a portion of olives can account for a fair share of a day's salt. A rinse in cold water takes most of it off.

How many calories are there in olives? Around 110–150 kcal per 100 grams depending on the variety and the brine. Green ones are usually a little lower than black and Kalamata. An ordinary portion of ten olives is 35–50 kcal.

What is the difference between green and black olives? Ripeness, not variety. The same tree can give both. Green are picked early, black are picked ripe — or ripened industrially, which gives the completely even matt black of the cheapest tins.

Why are some olives so much more expensive? Large, hand-picked varieties such as Castelvetrano and Gordal have a low yield and a lot of manual work behind them. Machine-harvested manzanilla in large jars is an everyday item and is priced accordingly.

How quickly does an order arrive? We ship quickly across Norway.

See also olive oil and antipasti.