Greek olive oil and Greek olives both get tied to the name 'Kalamata' — but the olive that makes the great oil usually isn't a Kalamata at all. Here's how the two compare.
Kalamata: the table olive (and the place)
Kalamata is both a city in the southern Peloponnese and a large, dark, almond-shaped olive famous for the table — the kind in Greek salads and brine. It's a wonderful eating olive, but it isn't the variety most prized for pressing oil.
Koroneiki: the oil olive
Koroneiki is a small olive grown across southern Greece and prized specifically for oil. Despite its size, it yields a robust, aromatic extra virgin olive oil with a signature peppery finish — and it's one of the world's highest-polyphenol olive varieties, which is part of why early-harvest Koroneiki oils are so sought after. It's the classic Greek oil cultivar.
So why do you see 'Kalamata olive oil'?
Often 'Kalamata' on an oil label refers to the region the oil comes from — the Kalamata area of the Peloponnese — not the olive variety. The oil itself is usually pressed from Koroneiki olives grown there.
What Elaios is
Elaios is single-estate Koroneiki olive oil from the Kalamata region of the Peloponnese — the oil olive, from the place. Koroneiki for the character; Kalamata for the origin.
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