Olives

What is the difference between green and black olives?

In the case of green and black olives, they are actually the same plants, but the olives are picked at different moments of ripening, which is causing a difference in their colour.

It grows in early summer, the green olives are harvested in autumn from September and the black ones around January. It is worth clarifying here quickly that there really isn’t such a thing as black olives in nature. It can be purple, pink, greyish, dark brown (these are ripe ones that are harvested later) - but those soot black ones available in some stores are mostly likely painted with sulfate, which is the reason they have such a distinctive metallic aftertaste (the ones available at our shop are not like that :))

Although they grow on the same tree, due to different treatment procedures, the olives will have completely different contents. There is more salt in the green ones and more oil in the darker ones. The oil content of the olive is at its peak at the time of purification; the best olive oils are therefore made from purple olives, without any other added substances, only by pressing. The resulting olive oil is called extra virgin. Their energy content is also different: 15 grams of green olive contains 20 calories, while the same amount of black contains 25 calories.