Olives

[slope]

Currently buy vacuum packed black Kalamata £3.50 jobbies in brine from the local independent "Ill Food Shop" (so named cos most that work there look very pasty and are often out the back clanging* on fags).

No matter how much one rinses them - they still taste of bugger all other than the mega tang of brine, even after cooked, for example in an otherwise rich Putanesca sauce.

Any recommendations?

Live nowhere near a city, nor a decent deli - so mail order required.

One longs for tapenade and pizza like my ex girlfriend used to make in her Montpellier (France) flat

* clanging was a term used by my wonderful superstar Malapropistic (among other things) dad, who smoked/'clanged' 20 a day all his life from when he left school at 14 and went down the mines initially as a pit pony 'welfare assistant operative'. He died aged 93 after falling off a ladder, painting his gable ends' barge boards.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Funnily enough the last lot of kalamata olives in brine I bought also tasted of nothing but brine, and they were bought in Montpelier. Single l. The place is Italian not French.

[T42]

We got through a fair few Kalamata olives last night and they just tasted of olives. We buy them in jars, though, and they're in wine vinegar with sea salt. We don't rinse them.  We have had black olives that were impossible to desalinate, but that was in the dim & distant.

Maybe it's the vacuum packing.

[L CC]

I get mail order from Belazu.
MOQ isn't great and they're not cheap. But their buyers' tastes must match mine as I've never had anything that wasn't fecking delicious.

[slope]

I get mail order from Belazu.
MOQ isn't great and they're not cheap. But their buyers' tastes must match mine as I've never had anything that wasn't fecking delicious.

  There are quite a few Belazu condiments here at Snowdon Towers What vaieties do you order? How long does a 5L tub take to consume - is storage an issue?

A quick Google comes up with these organic Kalamata, hand picked, non pasteurised, direct from the farm down Sparta way, in 1.2Kg tubs

Maybe it's the vacuum packing.

Perhaps? It does seem odd that they're so thin on flavour and high on bitterness?

[L CC]

2.5kg/3kg takes me a month to get through. They live in the fridge but I decant them into smaller containers. I buy one, eat them for a month, have a month or so off and then try another.
I don't like them too chilli but they're all good.

[ian]

Another vote for the Beluza stuff – big fan of their pastes and concoctions. We inadvertently bought the 3kg bag of olives. Ate them all and ordered another.

[slope]

I get mail order from Belazu.
MOQ isn't great and they're not cheap. But their buyers' tastes must match mine as I've never had anything that wasn't fecking delicious.

Another vote for the Beluza stuff – big fan of their pastes and concoctions. We inadvertently bought the 3kg bag of olives. Ate them all and ordered another.

  Thanks folks. HUGE tub just arrived - totally num nums