How to Host Your Own Olive Tasting

Olive comparative tastings so much.

If my tinned fish and Oreo tasting (no no, not at the same time!) didn’t make it obvious enough, I love comparative tastings! 

It’s one of my favorite ways to get together with friends and family. Pass around plates, share strong opinions, discover surprising favorites. It’s casual, connective, classy, and bit quirky.

So, I’ve decided to make it official. Introducing, Find Your Fave Club.

I’ll be popping into your inbox every month or so to share a new comparative tasting. They’ll come with my own honest recaps, a shopping list, and a simple how-to so you can organize your own tasting. Perfect for a team lunch activity, family dinner, girls’ night, or just a fun way to shake up your weeknight routine.

This month: Olives! 🫒

My Olive Tasting

My husband, Randy, and I curated 15 different types of olives, from classic favorites to inventive new flavors. Then broke the olives into three categories for the tasting:

• Stuffed Olives
• Green Olives
• Purple/Black Olives

Note: For me, 15 different olives was a great number. The world of olives can get overwhelming very quickly. There are endless varies, brands, and flavors! So for me, 15 felt like a good number in order to capture the vastness, yet still have the tasting be manageable. But you could absolutely do more or less, depending on your preference. 

After we organized our olives, we poured ourselves a glass of Sherry and began tasting!

Unlike some of my other tastings, there was no clear olive winner—which actually made it more fun. We each had our own strong opinions (looking at you, blue cheese-stuffed olive 👀).

But here are some standouts:

Castelvetrano was the crowd-pleaser in the green camp, but I personally loved the crisp, salty Picholine.

In the black/purple category, there was this shriveled, ultra-briny olive: Olives Noires de Nyons. Strange texture but weirdly compelling. Definitely worth a taste!

And stuffed olives? The Stuffed Buffalo Blue Cheese was a standout for all the wrong reasons! 😬 

How to Host Your Own Olive Tasting

01: Gather Your Olives

Choose a variety of Olives to compare—pick a mix of classic favorites and inventive flavors. My Amazon shopping list has all the olives we tried.

 

Shop Amazon

02: Sort by Category

Green vs. Black? Stuffed vs. Pitted? Regional showdown? Pick 3-4 categories max to keep it focused.

03: Observe, Taste, and Smell

Start with tasting all the flavors in one category before moving on to the next. Add in bread, cheese, wine or sherry for palate cleaners and even more deliciousness.

04: Take Notes

Jot down your impressions of each olive. Notice the differences in color, smell, and flavor. Download our tasting notes template to get started.

 

Download PDF

05: Choose Winners

When you’re done, crown a winner in each category. Don’t expect a consensus with this one! But do expect great conversation.

Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions for a future Find Your Fave! Or remember you can always book a tasting with us, like our water tasting or a custom tasting event just for your group. 

Avital Ungar
Founder & Owner