Day 192 - Greek Kalamata Olives (Jumbo Pitted)

As clearly explained earlier in this blog, WE LOVE OLIVES.  Love them in an unnatural, unhealthy way perhaps.  Love them so much so that we have several special dishes to display olives at parties, even though we rarely have parties…  Olives.  Ahhhhh olives…  We eat them on their own – naked little olives devoured piece by piece.  We eat them over pasta – ahhhh pasta with olives.  We eat them in salads.

The point is – WE LIKE OLIVES, ok?

And, if you have read the previous Trader Joe’s olive reviews here (days 32 and 76), we have not found an olive we are happy with at TJ’s yet.  But did we give up??  No we did not.  We got BACK ON THE HORSE and invested in yet another jar of TJ’s olives – this time Greek Jumbo Pitted Kalamatas.

This is the jar - attempt number 3 to find a palatable Trader Joe's olive....

We had them in a salad.  Four olives for me, four for David.  It was a delicate little salad – mixed greens, tiny baby carrots, the kalamatas, balsamic vinegar, EVOO, and freshly ground salt.  Seems like a fair way to judge this olive, no?

Here are the olives presented in a salad.

And the verdict is in.

This is the best Trader Joe’s olive we have had.  Not the best OLIVE we have had, mind you, but the best one from TJ’s.  Although we both said something like, “It is a KALAMATA, how badly can it be screwed up???”, we had to give it a thumbs up.

First impressions – too mushy.  But then again, it is PITTED.  We normally eat olives with PITS.  I feel like if TJ’s just left these pits in, this would be a better olive.  I know, I know, it is probably some liability thing and a lawyer in California told them it is too dangerous to have pits – someone might break a tooth or choke.  I say ADD A DISCLAIMER TO THE PACKAGE, leaves those pits in, and serve up better olives!

But despite the mush factor, the taste is pretty good.  It is meaty, it is salty, it is kalamata.

So overall – will this be our olive of choice???  No. But is it worth keeping a jar in the fridge in case we run out of olives from the olive bar (of another grocery store)??  YES.

Price- I believe these were $2.99

Rating - 4