The World’s Best Olives – An Investigation

It’s amazing how travel can change your perspective. On the bigger things in life, sure, but also on smaller things, too. Small, delicious things… like olives.

I used to hate olives. I wanted to like them, though. So badly. I went to London bars in my twenties and envied the other drinkers, popping them into their mouths and clearly savouring them, looking so trendy and sophisticated as they did so.

Luckily times changed, and during a stay on an agriturismo on Sicily six years ago, surrounded on all sides by olives trees, I fell in love. Since then, I’ve really upped my game by also developing a fondness for gin and tonic. Mix me a Gin Mare with an olive and I’m yours.

So my olive passion means that it’s the subject of the first of my posts from Morocco. The olives I tasted there were the best I’ve ever eaten. Especially the wrinkled black ones. Zouina! But why are they so delicious? I’ve scoured the interweb to find out…

The Moroccan way

Olive cultivation has long been at the heart of Moroccan cuisine and culture.

Wander the souks of Marrakech and you’ll find all shapes, sizes, colours and flavours of this tangy fruit. While I’ve thought of Spain, Greece, and Italy when it comes to olives, it turns out that Morocco is the second largest producer of table olives in the world and the sixth largest producer of olive oil.

It seems like the black olives I particularly loved had been cured in oil or dry-cured – most are instead cured in brine.

Soaking in oil for several months means that the bitterness is drawn right out of the flesh, the flavour intensifies, and the olive is left shrivelled and wrinkled, looking like a small prune. Dry-curing them with a little salt before coating them in a little oil results in a similar taste and appearance. Often, Moroccans will then flavour the olives with herbs and spices such as cumin, chilli, and sometimes citrus.

And the especially good news?

Olives are a source of the antioxidant vitamin E (something I slather over my face in cream form to try and fight the ravages of time!) They also contain vitamin A, calcium and iron, as well as oleic acid, a heart-healthy monounsaturated fat. So what’s not to love?