Nutrition Black or green olives - what's the difference?

Black or green olives

What would a Greek salad be without olives? The tart fruits of the olive tree are an indispensable part of Mediterranean cuisine and have been used for millennia. The color has nothing to do with the variety. All olives are initially green on the tree and turn reddish-brown to dark purple-black with increasing maturity.

Olive oil has very strict rules in the EU. For example, "extra virgin olive oil" may contain less than one percent acid. (Image: freila / fotolia.com)

The unripe picked green olives have a firm pulp and taste milder, while the black olives have a particularly tart touch. The dark fruits are rich in valuable unsaturated fatty acids, but also higher in calories. For example, black olives contain 351 kilocalories, and green olives only 131 kilocalories per 100 grams. Other positive ingredients are vitamin E, folic acid, calcium, magnesium, iron and phytochemicals.

Whether ripe or immature, black or green - directly from the tree olives taste very bitter. Most of them are put in brine for months to make the raw fruits edible. They are then seasoned in vinegar, oil or a herbal broth, filled with almonds or refined with various ingredients such as garlic and chili. Olives are versatile in the kitchen. For example, they taste pure as a snack with a glass of wine, on a pizza or in pesto. In southern France, the spicy cream "Tapenade" is made from black olives, capers, anchovies, garlic, olive oil and basil. This is a delicious companion to bread, pasta and grilled.

The olive (Olea europea) belongs to the family of olive trees and is widespread throughout the Mediterranean. It takes 7 to 20 years for an olive tree to bear fruit. In the supermarket, consumers will find a wide selection of green and black olives from the jar or can.

Aromatischer often tastes loose goods from the delicatessen counter or from the Turkish vegetable business. Some manufacturers bypass the long ripening process and dye unripe, green olives with the approved color stabilizers iron gluconate (E 579) and iron lactate (E 585). The black dyeing is legally allowed, but must be visible in the ingredients list. Consumers can also recognize real black olives by their dark core. Heike Kreutz, bzfe