Black and green olives the only ones you know?

It may surprise you to learn that the only difference between green olives and black olives is ripeness !

Unripe olives are green, whereas fully ripe olives are black. Because the raw green olives have a naturally bitter taste, they need to be cured. This can be done through various methods including oil-curing, water-curing, brining, dry-curing, or placing in a lye solution. Depending on which method is used, curing olives can take from a few days to a few months. Lye curing (most commercial olives) has the shortest fermentation time while brining (our preferred method) takes the longest.

The longer the olive is permitted to ferment in its own brine, the less bitter and more intricate its flavour will become. As olives are Mediterranean in origin, most varieties come from Spain, Italy, Greece, and France.