While we are discussing canned and brined food stuffs.....

Olives, love ‘em. Wouldn’t eat them for most of my life. One day I decided to try them again and now I always keep a jar on hand.

Currently snacking on Tasso’s garlic and jalapeño double stuffed Halkidiki mammoth olives. Blue chz stuffed is up there too.

I was weaned on gin soaked ones..

Never was big on olives in gin.

Drop of bitters and a twist has always been my go to martini recipe.

Greek olives, the big ones or kalamatas.
Spanish jumbo green, w pit or pitted are good too.
I chuck a big one in cheek and grind on it when drinking a boring pilsner

Trader Joe's has some mondo sized olives stuffed with garlic. They make good dirty martinis.

Jalapeño stuffed please

Love olives. Have the same Tasso double stuffed right now.
Never without a few jars in the fridge and pantry.

Yep or bleu cheese!!!!

BEST

Love 'em!

Of late I have been buying grilled green olives at the bulk condiment station. Basically a classic martini olive with a touch of smokiness.

Sun died olives in rosemary and other herbs...

You can now get Pearls brand olives in snack packs "Olives To Go". Eight to 10 olives in a plastic cup, absolutely perfect for packing in a lunch or with a cocktail. Black, green, stuffed, kalamata...all kinds. Here's just one LINK We get them in the local supermarket.

I only like whole black olives.

Dont like any of the green ones or any black ones that are cooked or sliced.

Just right out of the can......love those.

I hated olives when I was a kid, since I am older I love them with my vittles and on a salad. Olives stuffed with jalapeños and garlic, that’s the good stuff.

Manzanillas for the win. Halved in a salad.

Loves me some olives, I does.

Black olives are hateful rotten tree turds.

The rest are delightful

Any and all bring them.

Does anyone know? What does an olive taste like fresh from the tree? Are they edible in the raw form?

Black olive are green ones processed in caustic soda. Ate lots of olives, all different types and flavors while living in Saudi and traveling the Middle East from 2010-2019. The green Tabasco ones sliced are one of my favorite pizza toppings.

I bring those along when we are traveling.

Bitter, tough, not edible.

Thank you Ed.

I love all forms of olives but it seems the fancy restaurants have a secret wholesaler set aside for martinis.

I think you could write a book about the GD things.

Only olives I've had are the pimento stuffed ones from the grocery store.

Always have a jar in the fridge. Love 'em.

Black olives can also be green ones that are allowed to ripen on the tree. And they are way better when picked ripe and cured "naturally" as opposed to the lye method. At least, I think the ones I have done that way are better than those canned ones from the store. It takes awhile, but like homemade applesauce and kraut., I'd rather eat home cured olives than commercial ones. But I no longer live near a ready supply.

That said, there's a big jar of Kalamata ones in the fridge and others in the pantry. And a big jug of oil from Costco handy at all times too.

There are lots of martini books.

Sam's Club sells some garlic/Jalepeno stuffed ones that last me a week or 2 cause I'm grabbing a few every time I open the fridge.

Love the plain old green olives cut up on pizza too.

I like black but Castelvetrano are my favorite, I need to buy whole instead of pitted to slow me down.

Don’t like them Spanish queens.

I’ve heard they are inedible, or nearly so, off the branch. Never seen or tried them that way.

I bartended at a martini bar years ago. Stuffed a few hundred pounds worth, at least.
Didn’t care for them then. Now I can sit down and wax half a jar.

The local grocers have olive bars with all kinds of olives available. While they are not all equal, I haven’t found a bad one yet.

Mooner, I can guarantee if you take one off the branch, especially green, and try to eat it, you will spit it our almost immediately. The ripe ones are slightly better, you may last a second or two.

I lived for years within a few blocks of "Olive Street" in our neighborhood and used to party in the olive grove there.

Olives are great and the ones in the jar from the store are okay, but the best come in bulk sold in Italian, French or Greek markets. Have a friend back in Illinois that makes his own each year from fresh ones. Said they did it when he was a kid in Italy and they are the best.

Had my hand on a flat of black olives at Costco yesterday.


Then I got distracted by that lady cooking them little mini sausages in the middle of the aisle. Dammit!!!

Even better is when the gal has the bbq pork loin in the bag, all ready to eat, just pop it in the microwave oven. Right over there on aisle 6 in the frozen section.

Geno,

When I started work at the Shell Martinez refinery I was assigned an inspector to work for me. He was a Greek raised in Sudan. The refinery property had loads of olive trees so annually we would pick and he would take them home, soak them in lye, etc. and return a couple jars to me. This in my early days of enjoying a dry martini.

Ed,

Had friends in SoCal that would do that, Later in life I lived in the Las Vegas area and there were feral olive trees around. I gathered some a couple of years. Did some salt curing, plain old water and brine. Never tried the lye thing though. And I was always glad to get ripe ones before they hit the ground.

I realized then I had missed out on all those free goodies while I was out drinking wine in the olive grove in HS.

Love all olives, always got some in the fridge.

Favourite: Really fresh Kalamatas or jumbo green, stuffed with blue cheese.

YMMV

Nope - BLACK only...

Same here - don't mind black, but green olives trigger an instant gag reflex and heaving for me. I discovered that while trying my first martini and I hadn't even tried to eat the damn olive...

I can eat a pint of garlic or jalapeño stuffed queens anytime, a favorite for kicking back after work and having a cold beer. I like the purple ones too and black ones though they’re last on my list.

Mystery of the universe for me is why in the hell some people put black olives in chili?

You guys are really missing it if you aren’t putting sliced green olives on your tossed salads. The wife and I agree on most of our pizza toppings, but her side needs to have black ones and mine always needs the green way more flavorful ones. It has always amazed me how those great tasting green ones could morph into those awful black tasting ones.