Product knowledge
Why Can't You Eat Olives Straight Off the Tree?
Fresh, unprocessed olives are almost inedibly bitter because of a naturally occurring compound called oleuropein, a phenolic bitter agent present at high levels in raw fruit straight off the tree. Curing is what removes or breaks down that bitterness — soaking or fermenting the olives in brine, fresh water, or a lye (caustic soda) solution over days to months, depending on the method, until the fruit is genuinely palatable. Every olive on a shelf, jarred, tinned or vacuum-packed, has gone through one of these curing processes; none are edible raw.
The curing method used also shapes the final texture, flavour and, in the case of brine curing, whether the olives are technically a fermented food — a detail worth untangling alongside the bitterness question itself.
Why raw olives are bitter in the first place
Oleuropein is concentrated in raw olive flesh and is intensely bitter and astringent to taste — a natural defence compound in the fruit, not a sign anything is wrong with it. Ripeness changes the oleuropein level somewhat (riper, darker olives generally carry less than unripe green ones) but never enough on its own to make raw fruit pleasant to eat; curing is the step that actually breaks the bitterness down to an edible level, regardless of how ripe the fruit was when picked.
The three main curing methods
- Brine curing — olives are submerged in a salt-water brine and left to cure slowly over weeks or months; this is also a lacto-fermentation process, since naturally occurring bacteria convert some of the fruit's sugars, which is the honest answer to whether cured olives are 'fermented' (many are).
- Water curing — olives are soaked in repeated changes of fresh water over days to weeks to leach out bitterness, a gentler, slower method used for some Greek-style and other traditional preparations.
- Lye curing — olives are treated with a caustic soda (sodium hydroxide) solution, which neutralises oleuropein quickly; this is the fast, industrial method commonly used for canned, ripe-style black olives, followed by a brine or salt step for flavour and preservation.
Why cured olives taste salty
The salt many people notice in a cured olive isn't a raw characteristic of the fruit — it's a direct result of the curing and preservation process itself. Brine curing submerges the olives in salted water for the full duration of curing, and even water-cured or lye-cured olives are typically finished in a brine or salt solution afterward for flavour and shelf stability. The saltiness is a byproduct of how the olive became edible, not a trait of the raw fruit.
What we carry
We stock cured, ready-to-eat olives only, as every olive supplier does — Green Olives Salkini, a brine-cured, Syrian-origin variety from Lio Food, alongside the wider olives range from Zer Group in Türkiye. See our levantine olives guide for how curing method connects to the flavour and texture differences between varieties.
Related questions
Are all cured olives fermented?
Brine-cured olives generally are, through natural lacto-fermentation during the cure. Lye-cured and some water-cured olives rely more on the chemical or leaching process itself and involve less fermentation, so it varies by method.
Does riper fruit remove the need for curing?
No — ripeness lowers the bitterness somewhat but doesn't eliminate it. Even fully ripe, dark olives picked straight from the tree still need curing before they're genuinely edible.
Is lye-curing safe?
Yes, when done correctly by a producer following food-safety practice — the lye is thoroughly rinsed out during subsequent washing and brining steps, leaving a safe, edible finished product.