When these are prepared for consumption, they take the name of table olives or simply olives or olives. However, it cannot be ingested directly from the tree, since in order to consume them, they have to go through a curing process.

The compound that makes it bitter is oleuropein. An antioxidant compound that gives it a very strong bitterness. For this reason, the olives have to go through a curing process, which removes the bitterness.

The process can be carried out naturally or using chemical products. As a result, healthy olives or olives with a large quantity of chemical products are obtained.

Summary:

Other interesting studies: Ideas for stuffing olives

1. Cured olives

First of all, before buying olives and looking for their medicinal properties, we must know what kind of curing process exists, since not all of them are as natural as they seem.

The curing method consists of removing the bitterness, and this can be removed in two ways:

• Washing with water: The bitterness of the olive is removed by washing it with water. This process is slow but no chemistry is used.
• The brine: Process in which the olive is put in brine until it loses its bitterness.
• With soda: The olive is put with soda, and this one eats the bitterness. Industrial process that uses this chemical compound, the acoustic soda.

Therefore, many olives are not as healthy as they want us to see, because only the chemical process leaves many unnatural products.

2. Preparation

In addition to the curing process, there is the dressing that takes the pickles. This can be more natural or less, depending on what you are looking for.

Among the types of dressings, we will classify them into these three categories.

• Natural: In this group we would put them to the pickles without seasoning, that is to say, olives without any liquid. Also here we include dressings that Sen only water and salt and with some spice. Therefore, this is where the Aloreña, Bajo Aragón and natural manzanillas would come in.
• Dressed: This group would include those with a more sophisticated dressing. The dressing can range from a natural end to a more industrial end. Because we only want to sell natural products. All the olives you find in our shop are the most natural.

Examples of high olives are paprika, garlic, turmeric, chilli peppers. Also, among the preservatives used are citric acid, ie lemon juice. Another example would be lactic acid, which is another completely natural product.

In industrial pickles we can find very complex and unnatural chemical products. As a consequence, these industrial olives have little interest for health.

• Stuffed: In this group we would have the pits removed to add some other food. An example of this would be those filled with dates, mango, chilli pepper, etc.
• Ecological: This could be integrated into the natural. In addition to being natural, olives come from organic farming.

3. How to differentiate natural olives

In short, we can know if they are natural or industrial by following this unique advice. If they are all perfect and the same and also take a long time to spoil. You have before you pickles full of chemicals.

Therefore, we always recommend that they are as natural as possible to get the benefits of this product so beneficial to health.

4. Properties 

For centuries, olives have been an essential food in the Mediterranean diet. A food that in Spain and other countries is mainly taken as an aperitif or as an accompaniment to other dishes. In many countries of the Middle East it is also eaten frequently in breakfasts.

Olives, mainly those cured in a more natural way, have a great nutritional value. Its calorific value varies according to the variety of olive and its dressing or filling if it took it.

Among the most interesting components that this fantastic product brings us, we can mention:

1. Its vegetable fiber, very beneficial for the proper functioning of our digestive system
2. Great richness in proteins and a considerable quantity of essential amino acids, fundamental for the development and good functioning of our organism in general.
3. Monounsaturated fatty acids, the same ones contained in extra virgin olive oil and which reduce the risk of suffering cardiovascular diseases, cancer and other degenerative diseases.
4. Antioxidants: Antioxidants reduce the aging of our organism and protect it against many degenerative diseases.
5. Vitamins and oligoelements, fundamental for the correct functioning of our organism.
6. They are appetite stimulants with low calorific value.

Therefore, table olives are a delicious food with a high nutritional value that provides its salty and sweet touch at the same time.

5. Types 

In the first place we must differentiate between two types of olive, according to their use. The table olives, which are cured to take them whole. Second, there are the olives to make olive oil. All olives can be used for one function or another. However, some are more suitable for one thing or another.

Among the olives most suitable for pickling are manzanillas. The most suitable olives for making oil are the picual and cornicabra varieties.

6. Which are the best black or green olives?

The olive begins to reach its maximum size from September and October, from there it begins to ripen. During their growth, the olives have a green colour and when they ripen, a process known as veraison, they take on purple, dark purple colours to reach black. These dark and black colours are usually picked up by the month of December in January.

Olives as a natural product, if they are picked black, keep their black colour during the canning process. As for the green olives, they naturally take on a brown colour due to their natural ageing or curing.

There are other olives on the market, more industrial, which are turgid black olives. These consist of normal manzanilla olives that have been introduced a very strong oxidant to take that black color.

• Natural blacks:

Among the olives that have a black colour due to their curing and variety, we find the olives of Bajo Aragón, Serra de Espadán, verdiales in brine and Kalamata.

• Other natural:

Another of the olives that have their natural colour are the Aloreña olives. At the beginning of the season they have a greener colour which they are losing.

7. Where can you buy quality homemade and artisans table-olive?

As a consequence of all the above, in El Cortijuelo de San Benito, we look for the most natural products possible. Therefore, all our olives are natural and imperfect. Also, they give greater problems of conservation, because we want that you take something natural. We do not want products full of chemical compounds that are not known.

Likewise, we have been informed of the ingredients that are usually added and which of them are completely natural. For this reason, we know our producers and their places of production well.

Finally, after meticulous selection work. We want you to be surprised with these pickles at every meal and aperitif to your family and guests.  Pickles from the most traditional to such innovative flavors filled with blueberries and dates.

Sources:

The english newspaper The Guardian