Graber Olives: Walk your feet off - the search is worth it
Written: Feb 08 '01 (Updated Feb 10 '01)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: The essence of oliveness
Cons: Hard to find
The Bottom Line: My absolutely favorite olives in the world.
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| Penguinlady's Full Review: Brand Name Food Products |
These are the best olives in the known world. Period.
OK, now that we've got that out of the way, let's talk.
I like foods with assertive flavors. Long, slow simmers that meld flavors into an indefinable mush in which nothing is identifiable don't appeal to me. I make my stews and soups fairly fast, so the ingredients can marry but don't disappear.
Some foods, though, can be too dominating in their natural form. Olives are a case in point. Fresh off the tree, they are so bitter as to be inedible. They require curing and smoothing out. I find, though, that with few exceptions, the curing process introduces other flavors - mostly salt - that often overwhelm the essential oliveness of the fruit. All I taste when I eat them is salt and other added flavors.
So my preference is for ripe black olives that are only slightly salty but still taste of olive. Most green olives are way too salty for me, as are the Mediterranean style cured ones, like Kalamatas and Greek. I use them in some dishes, though, but only when they will be cooked - as in putanesca sauce for pasta, in which they are combined with tomatoes, capers, and a touch of anchovy - or combined with other strongly flavored ingredients so they don't overwhelm - as in salade Niçoise, where they're combined with tuna, egg, potatoes, garlicky green beans, and anchovies again. On their own, they are just too much.
I like the occasional green olive, too, especially in a martini! But I almost always use them as ingredients, as when I chop them up with garlic and a touch of olive oil for a crostini topping.
I don't remember when or where I first tasted Graber's olives (http://www.graberolives.com/.) It was long ago, and I fell in love, although it was years before I discovered them in the store. They are produced by the C.C. Graber Co., of Ontario, California. What makes them different, I think, is that they are fully ripened on the tree and are harvested when they turn cherry red. I don't know what is involved in the curing process, but whatever it is, it produces plump, pale greenish-beigy fruit of unsurpassed smoothness and delicacy. There is no saltiness to a Graber olive. They taste like nothing more than pure olive - mild, smooth, intensely flavorful. They have a texture that I can best liken to a ripe avocado - you sense that you could spread them on bread. (The only reason that you can't is that they aren't pitted, although you could probably put them through a cherry-pitter if you really wanted to try spreading them. I'm too lazy, and the stash never lasts long enough for me to pit them - I snarf them down too fast.) And they only come plain - no garlic, no pimiento, no nuttin'. Just olives. Yum! My husband says my eyes roll back in my head when I dive in.
According to the label, they are a size 12, with three to a serving - yeah, right! (My idea of a serving is a full can.) Three olives contain 20 calories, 15 of which are from fat; less than one gram each of saturated and polyunsat fat, and one gram of monounsat fat; zero cholesterol, 75 mg. sodium, and less than one gram each of dietary fiber and protein. The ingredients are simply olives, water, and salt.
The bad news about Grabers is that they are very hard to find. I used to buy them at Vons/Pavilions, one of the two remaining major chains in the Los Angeles area, but haven't seen them there for a while. I'm trying to persuade Trader Joe to start carrying them, but until I succeed, I find them at my little local grocery store. They aren't cheap - I pay about $3.29 for a can. But they are so much better than any other olives I've ever tasted that it's worth it. I usually clean out the stash when I shop in my village; I didn't used to be so anal about them, but it took me a long time to locate them after Vons stopped carrying them, and I want to be sure the store manager knows he has a constant customer.
What more can I say? I really love these little guys, and I can recommend them without reservation. I guarantee that you've never tasted anything like them.
Recommended:
Yes
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Penguinlady
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