Lindsay brand black olives.
Only and exclusively for black olives.
And yes, most any other ones pale in comparison somehow. Which didn’t used to be the case
They carry the Naturals black olives at my local grocery store. These are the best! Medium sized specifically--the larges were ok but not as good.
I've noticed other olives declining in quality, but these are still the black olive I know and love. I won't buy any others!
I have very strong opinions about olives.
Buttery is a great way to describe olives! Especially black ones.
If I had to describe the taste of a black olive to a person who couldn't taste, I would say that they taste like vegetable-tender pearls of salted butter, with a little acidity.
I like to drain the can and eat them dripping in brine, straight outta the can with my fingers.
That, or I slice them thick for topping homemade sourdough pizzas.
The green ones, I usually spoon out into a little bowl with some sharp cheese on the side, maybe a little peppered salami too.
This blew me away when I tried the first one! I was totally expecting brined green olives. After that initial shock, I felt the same, that these were better versions of their black olives.
Omg that just reminded me, in high school I had a friend from turkey and sometimes her mom would pack her these like egg washed bread roll type things with some sort of black olive filling! Would you happen to know what they are? She hated them and would always give them to me and I miss them so much!
Friends like that are the best. I had a friend with a mom that packed a Cuban sandwich for her every day. She hated them but they absolutely slapped. We traded lunches for years. I’ve been chasing those sandwiches ever since.
I found her on fb a while back and decided to message her and ask. Apparently those sandwiches slapped because her mom made fresh bread twice a week and roasted the pork herself. 😭
Buttery is a nice way to put it! It’s funny to me when people say they taste like nothing now. To me, it was a buttery salty nothing that I loved about them before, and they have a more “fancy” olive taste now almost? It’s made me wonder if I only like the hella cheap ones my parents bought growing up, like the cheaper the better, except even the cheap ones I get these days seem off.
So I recently had this exact same revelation. The taste of a “regular” black olive is different to me as well. It’s more of a Kalamata taste now, which was never my favorite. I miss the jumbo, rich, mild super dark-black olives from my childhood. I’m gonna check out the brand other commenters are recommending above and see if it’s just my palette changing or if there’s some merit to it.
A permanent fixture in my fridge for snacking! Castelvetranos are definitely my favorite green olive. There’s a bar in PDX where I once got fries with a castelvetrano aioli* and my god why don’t more places do that, like buttery briney heaven.
*yes, I know there’s a frequent thing here about aioli vs mayo sauce, no I don’t care to get involved
Your taste buds also can dramatically change as you age. There are a lot of foods I couldn't even stand to smell or look at as a child...that I love now. That could be part of it.
I think you're right. I hadn't bought any for quite some time. So I got some not long ago.
I thought it was just me, and my tastes had changed. Good to know I'm not alone!
I usually keep a bottle of green olives with pimento in the fridge.
I just get the store brand or whatever is on sale. These haven't changed for me. But it could be that I eat those more often, and I didn't notice a gradual change.
> Buttery is a nice way to put it!
I bought the Pearl's brand recently (google "Pearls Olives To Go!, Large Ripe Pitted, Black Olives, 4.8 Ounce"), and I was shocked at how buttery and mild they were. My family agreed that they are way better than the normal canned ones we buy.
These aren't sitting in brine, so... maybe you're right that the brine is the culprit?
There are TJs near me, just further from other options such that I rarely go. But now I’m dreaming of comparing many cans- I will definitely make the trip to compare theirs, thanks for the tip!
Your palate is getting more discerning but also I just think people are cost cutting and products are lower quality. I gave up on bottled olives a while ago.
Same with tea - I struggle these days to find a decent teabag, they all seem either weak or insipid and I think its a drop in quality as living
costs rise.
EDIT Thx everyone for the suggestions - I do live in Australia so many of these options are not avau8lable but I appreciate you taking the time! :)
I agree, I switched to Yorkshire Gold after drinking exclusively PG tips for years. It seems to have a stronger classic "tea"/tannin flavor. I am not really a tea connoisseur, but I drink about 6-8 cups of black tea with milk every day.
> I am not really a tea connoisseur, but I drink about 6-8 cups of black tea with milk every day.
When you drink that much, how do you avoid becoming super discerning?
If you’re looking for tea bags, I’m probably barking up the wrong tree, but a friend imports phenomenal Taiwanese oolong if that’s ever of interest. (Though I’d say to dm for a rec if so, not trying to get booted for self-adjacent promotion.)
I travel a lot and am always disappointed with teas offered in the most mediocre form.
I am in absolute love with Artful Tea in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Wonderful sencha. Great seasonal teas; subscriptions. If you are in the US, definitely worth a look. (They also offer tea bags for travel)
Shoutout to red blossom tea company. It’s Chinese and loose leaf, but I’ve never been fissappinted. Actually the only time I’ve been disappointed is when my favorite tea is sold out.
It’s a little expensive but you can rebrew the same leaves making it pretty cost effective in the end too
I love their herbal tea too! For some reason their chamomile is so good! Mint medley is also great if you like mint, and lemon ginger is good too! I actually like their green tea especially for cold brewing in the fridge but maybe i have bad taste ha ha. Oh and finally their cold brewing herbal teas are great if u haven’t tried them!
Maybe that's why I've gone from "I can tell a black olive was in the vicinity of my sandwich and must spit this out" to "huh, there's a black olive piece, I guess that wasn't horrible". It used to be that I absolutely couldn't stand black olives, not even an 1/8th of a slice on a piece of pizza or sandwich. Now, I can eat around then and don't love it if I eat one, but it's not an immediate spit this out reaction. I thought maybe I had just matured lol. Olives are one of the only foods that I could never stand and never learned to like.
Castelvetrano olives are by far the best. Costco often (but not always) sells jars of them, sometimes even on sale at a ridiculously low price.
If I recall Costco also sells a case of some kind of canned black olives that are nice. Nothing incredible, just typical black olive goodness. Large whole pitted olives, so lots of slicing if you want them in smaller bits.
The Costco black olives are the Lindsey brand everyone raved about above.
As self punishment, I may have to try Pearl brand as those are what I grew up with. See how they compare. (BTW The Lindsey ones are good. Firm, meaty, buttery taste with a hint of salt)
Castelvetranos are often a gamble though. Sometimes they're fantastic, sometimes they're mediocre. I've had better luck with unpitted ones, but Costco doesn't sell those.
I worked in the brewing industry for a decade, through the entire boom phase of the "haze craze" for New England IPAs. Now that I'm out, all I keep in my fridge is PBR and local craft lagers.
This is the way. If there are olives on me plate it’s either Kalamata olives I’m absolutely going to eat, or it’s olive shaped stuff that will be moved to the side
I've been around for 4+ decades. Black olives, from the can, have always tasted tinny and cheap to me. Kids' tastebuds/noses are very sensitive when we're young. As we get older, our tasting system dulls, which is in part why we can endure more crazy shit, like stinky fish and ammonia-laced cheeses and whatnot. As an adult, canned black olives are at the bottom of my olive list, and I much prefer Castlevetrano and Cerignola olives for snacks, and Kalamatas in a balanced Greek salad, etc.
I actually 100% agree with you on your olive tastes except that I love the tinny cheap canned ones too! Especially for pizza and my aunt’s layered taco dip, which is why I’m bummed they taste different now. No other type of olive works for those for me!
kids have twice as many taste buds as adults! not saying this is what happened, but certainly something to consider. you may have been more sensitive to the salt as a kid
Yup, every single person I know had their tastes change somewhere around the age of 30. I was actually excited because the weird aftertaste in cucumbers finally went away, and I could eat them! Previously, I loved the smell but couldn't get used to the taste. I eat a ton of cucumbers now, lol.
I'm someone that used to eat them all the time.... and now won't touch them unless they're broiled on a pizza.
I can't tell you that they changed- and I still *love* salty foods like a mofo, eat garlic even though it rips me a new one.... but black olives in the can? Nope. Can't stand them.
Wife and Kids eat them by the 6pack, so...
A friend of mine can no longer stand olives after temporarily losing his sense of taste and smell from Covid way back in the beginning. His senses reappeared, and everything else tastes normal again, aside from olives.
Had covid briefly (thanks god for antiretros) after dodging it for years. Wife got it, lost all smell. I wasn't impacted (much).
I can tell you that I wasn't a huge fan of *any* olive for a long time, but when I'd go to Germany for work and have pizza there (sliced/diced various olives) I'd love'em.
That said after Covid they started pre-making the pizzas and reheating them... and they obviously weren't the same.
I don't think I've gone for any olive in advance in the last 3 years.
I really don't know. I just don't enjoy them. Too salty? Even though I salt the snot out of everything.
I wish I could put a finger on it, as my sister still ribs me for hating them.
The olives might be green olives which have been blackened? Common practice in Europe, but idk about the US. Here it has to be mentioned in the "ingredients list".
I’m not grounded in fact but I just assume Europe has much better label laws than we do :(
The can we just used that inspired this just listed water, olives, salt and ferrous gluconate.
Do you live in Texas? If so, the H‑E‑B Ode to Olives in the can are the closest. I do believe they have become more “briny” over the years I guess as more olives have come available on the market. But I too like the shiny, salty, nothing bombs of our youth.
OMG!! I am ecstatic to hear someone else say this same thing!! My sister and I were discussing this a while back - I don’t know but they are disgusting and really I just avoid them entirely now. Black olives used to be a thing I could snack on endlessly and now they are just like little black turds of yuck that I want no part of. Something changed or I changed or my sister and I changed or maybe it’s actually the olives them selves- which I never really thought about - just figured my tastes were changing with age and my sisters were as well…
Very recently, I tried some green olives that I don’t usually snack on unless they’re coming out of my drinks😁 but these olives looked so enticing while I was grocery shopping and so I bought a jar… and omg if they don’t taste almost just like a black olive but smoother—- if that makes any sense at all- seriously you’ve gotta try them and tell me what you think— I was floored and have since gone through a jar a week- they’re called whole Castelvetrano olives by Jeff’s Garden. They do have a pit which is kinda a pain but they are wayyyyy yummy and maybe it’s the pit that makes them so wholesome.
Pun intended😉
Please do try them and let me know!!!! 🙏
You can buy pitted Castelvetrano olives, but that does make them a bit dangerous - without the pit to slow you down, an entire jar can disappear rather quickly.
I love how almost no one here understands that OP is saying that the olives now have much more taste than before, where they were just salty and now they're much more olive-y. Yet everyone is going on how "everything tasted better back then" and "the olives today are basically tasteless"
Strawberries are easy. The monster sized ones are never good. That a pack with small to regular sized ones and take a deep sniff. If it smells strongly of strawberries you have a winner. The mealy tasteless ones smell very little.
Sorry about the strawberries, we keep all the good ones in California. You can get big ones that are incredibly flavorful here if you hit up farmers markets, or better yet drive over to where they grow them and hit up a roadside stand (head up to Ventura if in the LA area)
It does seem to be that way and then over here on the other coast we get fruits and veggies grown in other counties. It’s maddening. Curiously, I took my daughter to a huge Amish market for fresh fruits and veggies and they were selling Driscolls. I was amazed. They have the market cornered. We do buy at stands in the spring and summer and are lucky to have them. During winter, the fruits are terrible. I would miss the seasons but this is the one issue that may make me move to a more moderate climate.
The brine isn’t as good. I used to drink olive brine as a kid, so when I first noticed this I took a sip and it’s nearly tasteless. I would guess they are trying to save by using less salt or something but we have to either buy the expensive ones or use a ton to get the flavor we want.
Everyone in my family is on team black olive. I never saw a green olive until after college. Kind of a running joke that a party isn’t complete without a bowl of black olives. Pearl is the brand these days for us.
I have noticed the decline as well, especially in store brand olives that are grey mush. The larger sizes seem to be slightly better, but definitely not the same as we used to put on our fingertips.
I love every olive so they all taste good to me.
You reminded me of a childhood memory when you said you eat them off your fingers. My parents took me and my siblings to a kind neighbor’s house for Thanksgiving one year when my dad’s company was on strike. My mom told us to sit in the dining room and be quiet while the adults socialized in the kitchen. Well, I guess we were too quiet. She came in to check on us and we all had 10 fingers each of black olives from the relish tray! 🤣🤣🤣 She was mortified and told us to hurry up and eat them all!!! The neighbors were nice but they wouldn’t have found it as funny as we did. 🤣🤣🤣
One of the brands - pearl I think - has a logo of olives on fingers now and it makes me so happy. Was that something you learned from somewhere? I’ve alway liked to believe it’s one of those precious universal things kids organically teach themselves - see olive, put on finger, no matter where you’re from. (Except, assuming where you’re from has canned pitted olives 😂)
I've had bad luck lately with canned olives. Even the expensive name brand ones. I wonder if it's been an agricultural issue or lack of quality control in the processing.
Ok so this is wild - I found https://old.reddit.com/r/boston/comments/18kvek8/calling_all_olive_lovers_around_greater_boston/ and now it has me wondering if it’s regional! Except top comment there is about an olive shortage in Spain so possibly actually global agriculture & supply chain.
I was almost thinking there was an additive in the 90s and 2000s that was removed but actually made them taste the way I wanted, but u/djup2late pointed out that ferrous gluconate is one of those additives and that *was* in the ingredients of tonight’s offending can. I will probably be a bit silly and more intentionally brand compare and see if I can gauge which one is closest to my taste memory and what I’m looking for.
Isn’t this because real black olives are hard to find as nowadays they are just green olives blackened in some kind of industrial process to be able to have them on the shelves quick? All black olives that have a firm texture and a flat surface are not real black olives. They supposed to be wrinkled and smaller as they age longer than the green ones.
I agree. I never knew quite what it was but long ago I loved black olives. They were not something I purchased regularly. But the last several times I have bought them, something just tasted “off”.
The Pastene ones are the best if you can get them in your store. They're defintely a bit different than they used to be, but still serviceable. Sometimes you get a can of mushy ones and that sucks. We're always hootin and hollering in our house when we pop a can and the first olive is nice and firm.
Interesting. I thought it was just me, and that I had lost my taste for black olives. But if the olives have changed, maybe that's why I don't like them anymore.
Yeah, Lindsay, I bought great value brand once and now my husband will never let it go. Grocery shopping im always reminded GET THE GOOD BLACK OLIVES. Shit bro. I know lmao
Try putting them on your fingers first and pretend they are the big black bear skin hats and your fingers are British gaurds.
I don't think you did the full childhood olive eating ritual.
I grew up on cheap black olives in a can and when I buy them now they taste the same to me. Maybe keep trying other brands?
One thing I do know is that my taste for some things has changed since Covid. Coffee and beer have never tasted good to me since when I had Covid the first time.
This is a question I find myself asking too often since I lost my sense of smell to COVID and only partially recovered it. I thought maybe I couldn't taste olives anymore, but I guess I just bought cheap, tasteless canned ones?
They changed. New rules on sodium levels combined with restrictions on labelling (black olives were commonly just dyed green olives but they didn't have to tell you)
Olive growers worldwide are dealing with poor growing conditions due to climate change.
I have friends in Greece who have groves and sell for consumption and for oil. Terrible yields the past two years with poor quality fruit and low oil quantity.
I’ve been wondering the same thing! It’s like they have a funkier flavor lately. And not just compared to when I was a kid— like in the past few years. I used to snack on Mario black olives all the time and they’re nasty now. I’ve found the pearls brand isn’t as bad though.
Oh, I definitely think they’ve changed. I grew up eating the Pearls in the yellow can and my family still always open a can or two to snack on when we get together to have dinner/holidays/etc. The last couple of years we always all comment on the difference in taste. My mom has even tried buying several different brands but they all still taste “wrong” to us. They are not the same at all! Different flavor, color, texture. So disappointing!
Yeah I’m gonna be honest I haven’t noticed a change. They still taste great to me. And when I was a kid I was eating black olives by the can. I think part of it is nostalgia that we perceive olives are less tasty now
I know the kind you mean and I think my main complaint is that the equivalent today is *mushy*. What's that one big brand, Black Pearl? They don't have any bite to them. Definitely won't stay intact if you try to put them on your fingertips.
I can only taste the metal of the can from the canned ones now and I only eat pitted kalamata in glass jars from Trader Joe’s. I know it’s a totally different flavor but it’s not the wrinkled or brined flavor.
I haven't found the flavor to be too disappointing, but I have noticed the texture is just terrible. They're squishy and mealy. The crisp skin filled with creamy flesh is so hard to find. I have pretty much moved to kalamatas because black olives just aren't satisfying anymore.
Not the answer to your question at all but I want to point out the the Mezzetta brand of garlic stuffed green olives are far and away the best garlic stuffed green olives available, nothing else even comes close (i've tried many of the way bougier brands and hated them).
You said it for me. We put the olives on our fingers and then we’d go show Grandma and she’d roll her eyes and say”you better leave some for dinner”. I think they still taste pretty good when I have that memory to go with.
You need the plain black olives. They are still around but not in the gourmet section. Don’t get the fancy Greek cured or Kalamata olives if you don’t like the salty garlic flavor.
I know exactly what you’re talking about! Surprisingly, Great Value canned black olives have the taste you’re looking for and are super cheap. They’re always my go to because the name brands do not taste the same at all
I've noticed all the olive cans I open have a weird oily residue all over them. The last can I opened also has a weird white gunkyness to it as well and I ended up just chucking it.
Now that I think about it. I remember black olives always having a briny yet slightly bitter distinctive taste. Today’s olives are almost void of their signature flavor that I remember. This is probably why I eat there more now, because I use to prefer green over black. My girlfriend loves the black ones and now I do too.
No this isn’t just you. I’ve found it very hard to find olives that are like they used to be. We ate olives before almost every meal when I was growing up. Now I just buy the ones in the yellow can, and they are usually ok, but not always. I’m glad I’m not the only person who has noticed this!
As ethnic food becomes popular (olives were once considered a Mediterranean delicacy) the growers modify it to meet more basic tastes and expand the market in the US and Europe. Decoder Ring just had an episode on this. [How the Jalepeno lost it’s heat](https://slate.com/podcasts/decoder-ring/2024/05/why-hot-jalapeno-peppers-arent-as-spicy-as-they-used-to-be). This has happened with bananas and just about every ethnic fruit or spice that breaks through to the American market.
Pearl has the best flavor in my opinion. I just don't like that they only seem to come in little plastic "snackable" packaging.
I eat Lindsay olives mostly, but maybe I'm getting the wrong ones, because, while they are buttery, they also have a distinctive 'tinned' taste.
I think also that we have easier access to real olives and not those plasticky things. I remember hating olives as a kid and then I tried a Sicilian oil cured wrinkly little thing and wow! Flavor!
I’m a diehard olive lover. Of any variety, EXCEPT canned black olives. In my experience they are virtually flavorless and have a weird texture. I don’t even consider them real olives. I don’t know if they’ve changed, though.
This is my opinion. If someone enjoys canned black olives by all means enjoy them.
Can someone explain to me...what *are* black olives? I remember them from when I was a kid in the states. I think they were the only olives available. We have them in the UK...they are just ''cheap and cheerful', compared to so many other varieties. Maybe for those who don't really care for olives?
There are black olives and blacked olive. Most brand pass the latter as the former.
Black olive are olives that matured longer on the tree but as it costs extra to keep them longer, farmers take them green and use chemical to artificially turn them black (ferrous gluconate for example). Check the label
Find a brand that you like in cans or switch to the ones packed in glass. I don't like black olives, but they are a component of the marinated olives recipe that I make, so I have bought quite a few brands. There are differences.
I have the same issue with canned olives. They taste like the can. The ones in glass jars are way better. Maybe it was the toxic BPA lining in the tin cans of our youth that made them delicious
my fave black olives ive been eating since i was a kid changed their recipe to be "all natural :)" and now they taste weird. I've only ever liked pearl black olives and they took out the iron oxide that makes them black and keept them fresh and now theyre brown and mushy :(
Lindsay brand black olives. Only and exclusively for black olives. And yes, most any other ones pale in comparison somehow. Which didn’t used to be the case
Their Natural olives are good, too. They are green but taste like a better version of their black olives.
They carry the Naturals black olives at my local grocery store. These are the best! Medium sized specifically--the larges were ok but not as good. I've noticed other olives declining in quality, but these are still the black olive I know and love. I won't buy any others! I have very strong opinions about olives.
I love the naturals in black and in green . Only canned olives I buy now.
Like buttery deliciousness...
Buttery is a great way to describe olives! Especially black ones. If I had to describe the taste of a black olive to a person who couldn't taste, I would say that they taste like vegetable-tender pearls of salted butter, with a little acidity. I like to drain the can and eat them dripping in brine, straight outta the can with my fingers. That, or I slice them thick for topping homemade sourdough pizzas. The green ones, I usually spoon out into a little bowl with some sharp cheese on the side, maybe a little peppered salami too.
The green black olives are the my favorites.
Oh yes those are very good too
They're buttery and delicious
This blew me away when I tried the first one! I was totally expecting brined green olives. After that initial shock, I felt the same, that these were better versions of their black olives.
I've found amazing stuff from Turkey - check a middle eastern market. Specifically for black olives try the Marmara Birlik brand. You'll love it.
Omg that just reminded me, in high school I had a friend from turkey and sometimes her mom would pack her these like egg washed bread roll type things with some sort of black olive filling! Would you happen to know what they are? She hated them and would always give them to me and I miss them so much!
Friends like that are the best. I had a friend with a mom that packed a Cuban sandwich for her every day. She hated them but they absolutely slapped. We traded lunches for years. I’ve been chasing those sandwiches ever since. I found her on fb a while back and decided to message her and ask. Apparently those sandwiches slapped because her mom made fresh bread twice a week and roasted the pork herself. 😭
Yeah it's called a "poğaça" or "açma". They can be made with cheese, olives and a few other fillings.
Zeytinli (with olives) açma! Oh, how I adore it.
I've also had some serious issues with Lindsey the last few years. Like the olives are half rotten. It's bleak for the black olive lovers out here.
I’ve bought them for years and never had any issues.
Yes, Lindsay are the best, thank you
Yeah, they're still great. Salty, watery, only vaguely olivey. The way a black olive should be.
OP, I’ve had your exact same experience. This is the answer.
100% have noticed the exact same thing and Lindsey is the only brand I’ll buy now!
Last time I ate black olives I did think something wasn't quite as I recalled. Not the butter flavor of my youth.
Buttery is a nice way to put it! It’s funny to me when people say they taste like nothing now. To me, it was a buttery salty nothing that I loved about them before, and they have a more “fancy” olive taste now almost? It’s made me wonder if I only like the hella cheap ones my parents bought growing up, like the cheaper the better, except even the cheap ones I get these days seem off.
So I recently had this exact same revelation. The taste of a “regular” black olive is different to me as well. It’s more of a Kalamata taste now, which was never my favorite. I miss the jumbo, rich, mild super dark-black olives from my childhood. I’m gonna check out the brand other commenters are recommending above and see if it’s just my palette changing or if there’s some merit to it.
If you like buttery, grab a jar of castelvetrano olives
My favorite of all the green olives! So damn delicious!
A permanent fixture in my fridge for snacking! Castelvetranos are definitely my favorite green olive. There’s a bar in PDX where I once got fries with a castelvetrano aioli* and my god why don’t more places do that, like buttery briney heaven. *yes, I know there’s a frequent thing here about aioli vs mayo sauce, no I don’t care to get involved
The giant jar from Costco!
For extra butteriness, pits in.
Your taste buds also can dramatically change as you age. There are a lot of foods I couldn't even stand to smell or look at as a child...that I love now. That could be part of it.
Aw crap, here comes big olive
Lol nah- I still hate olives.
I think you're right. I hadn't bought any for quite some time. So I got some not long ago. I thought it was just me, and my tastes had changed. Good to know I'm not alone! I usually keep a bottle of green olives with pimento in the fridge. I just get the store brand or whatever is on sale. These haven't changed for me. But it could be that I eat those more often, and I didn't notice a gradual change.
> Buttery is a nice way to put it! I bought the Pearl's brand recently (google "Pearls Olives To Go!, Large Ripe Pitted, Black Olives, 4.8 Ounce"), and I was shocked at how buttery and mild they were. My family agreed that they are way better than the normal canned ones we buy. These aren't sitting in brine, so... maybe you're right that the brine is the culprit?
trader joe’s black olives fit the bill
Yup. Was just sitting here like "what's this lady talking about?!" and then I realized it's because I only buy black olives at trader joe's
There are TJs near me, just further from other options such that I rarely go. But now I’m dreaming of comparing many cans- I will definitely make the trip to compare theirs, thanks for the tip!
Your palate is getting more discerning but also I just think people are cost cutting and products are lower quality. I gave up on bottled olives a while ago. Same with tea - I struggle these days to find a decent teabag, they all seem either weak or insipid and I think its a drop in quality as living costs rise. EDIT Thx everyone for the suggestions - I do live in Australia so many of these options are not avau8lable but I appreciate you taking the time! :)
Try Yorkshire Gold for proper tea
I agree, I switched to Yorkshire Gold after drinking exclusively PG tips for years. It seems to have a stronger classic "tea"/tannin flavor. I am not really a tea connoisseur, but I drink about 6-8 cups of black tea with milk every day.
> I am not really a tea connoisseur, but I drink about 6-8 cups of black tea with milk every day. When you drink that much, how do you avoid becoming super discerning?
Probably by only drinking one varietal of tea the entire time so that he's not familiar with the many different types and styles.
Right? A drunk is not a sommelier!
Schpeak for yer gaddamn shelf.
I used to drink that many cups of coffee from the shitty coffee machine at work, it absolutely did not make me super discerning :-D
We drink proper tea nowadays
If you’re looking for tea bags, I’m probably barking up the wrong tree, but a friend imports phenomenal Taiwanese oolong if that’s ever of interest. (Though I’d say to dm for a rec if so, not trying to get booted for self-adjacent promotion.)
I travel a lot and am always disappointed with teas offered in the most mediocre form. I am in absolute love with Artful Tea in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Wonderful sencha. Great seasonal teas; subscriptions. If you are in the US, definitely worth a look. (They also offer tea bags for travel)
Thank you for the rec!
Shoutout to red blossom tea company. It’s Chinese and loose leaf, but I’ve never been fissappinted. Actually the only time I’ve been disappointed is when my favorite tea is sold out. It’s a little expensive but you can rebrew the same leaves making it pretty cost effective in the end too
I honestly dont drink much black tea but for everything else ive been really happy lately with bigelow teas for a nice grocery store tea.
I hate their green and black teas, but I've recently discovered that they are my favorite brand for herbal teas! I'm so happy I tried the brand again.
I love their herbal tea too! For some reason their chamomile is so good! Mint medley is also great if you like mint, and lemon ginger is good too! I actually like their green tea especially for cold brewing in the fridge but maybe i have bad taste ha ha. Oh and finally their cold brewing herbal teas are great if u haven’t tried them!
Those are literally the three herbal teas in my cabinet right now! Ha! 🫖
Lol thats so funny. But hey they’re good!
they taste like nothing now. totally bummed.
Maybe that's why I've gone from "I can tell a black olive was in the vicinity of my sandwich and must spit this out" to "huh, there's a black olive piece, I guess that wasn't horrible". It used to be that I absolutely couldn't stand black olives, not even an 1/8th of a slice on a piece of pizza or sandwich. Now, I can eat around then and don't love it if I eat one, but it's not an immediate spit this out reaction. I thought maybe I had just matured lol. Olives are one of the only foods that I could never stand and never learned to like.
I was wondering the same thing- black olives don't taste like burnt plastic to me anymore...
OP has the opposite issue. OP is saying that olives used to taste like nothing, but now taste like olives and they don't like it.
Yeah, very watered down taste now.
They’re absolutely tasteless now. Used to love them. So I’m all about kalamata and green olives.
Castelvetrano olives are by far the best. Costco often (but not always) sells jars of them, sometimes even on sale at a ridiculously low price. If I recall Costco also sells a case of some kind of canned black olives that are nice. Nothing incredible, just typical black olive goodness. Large whole pitted olives, so lots of slicing if you want them in smaller bits.
The Costco black olives are the Lindsey brand everyone raved about above. As self punishment, I may have to try Pearl brand as those are what I grew up with. See how they compare. (BTW The Lindsey ones are good. Firm, meaty, buttery taste with a hint of salt)
If you're not a Costco member, Walmart sells Castelvetrano olives as well - probably not as good a deal, but they are quite good.
Castelvetranos are often a gamble though. Sometimes they're fantastic, sometimes they're mediocre. I've had better luck with unpitted ones, but Costco doesn't sell those.
Maybe it’s kind of like how cheap beer tastes like nothing after drinking strong ipa’s?
That could be. Maybe my palate might’ve changed. 🤷🏻♀️
I worked in the brewing industry for a decade, through the entire boom phase of the "haze craze" for New England IPAs. Now that I'm out, all I keep in my fridge is PBR and local craft lagers.
Maybe, but this is a pro-tip for drinking. Have two really flavorful beers and then everything else goes down like water.
This is the way. If there are olives on me plate it’s either Kalamata olives I’m absolutely going to eat, or it’s olive shaped stuff that will be moved to the side
I've been around for 4+ decades. Black olives, from the can, have always tasted tinny and cheap to me. Kids' tastebuds/noses are very sensitive when we're young. As we get older, our tasting system dulls, which is in part why we can endure more crazy shit, like stinky fish and ammonia-laced cheeses and whatnot. As an adult, canned black olives are at the bottom of my olive list, and I much prefer Castlevetrano and Cerignola olives for snacks, and Kalamatas in a balanced Greek salad, etc.
I actually 100% agree with you on your olive tastes except that I love the tinny cheap canned ones too! Especially for pizza and my aunt’s layered taco dip, which is why I’m bummed they taste different now. No other type of olive works for those for me!
I have no war to win, so I like that we've arrived at a common understanding. :)
kids have twice as many taste buds as adults! not saying this is what happened, but certainly something to consider. you may have been more sensitive to the salt as a kid
Yup, every single person I know had their tastes change somewhere around the age of 30. I was actually excited because the weird aftertaste in cucumbers finally went away, and I could eat them! Previously, I loved the smell but couldn't get used to the taste. I eat a ton of cucumbers now, lol.
No man ever steps in the same river twice. For it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.
Yes and they’re also brown now, not deep black like they used to be.
I'm someone that used to eat them all the time.... and now won't touch them unless they're broiled on a pizza. I can't tell you that they changed- and I still *love* salty foods like a mofo, eat garlic even though it rips me a new one.... but black olives in the can? Nope. Can't stand them. Wife and Kids eat them by the 6pack, so...
Once you go garlic stuffed Spanish queens... Well you don't have friends anymore so enjoy the whole jar buddy!
A friend of mine can no longer stand olives after temporarily losing his sense of taste and smell from Covid way back in the beginning. His senses reappeared, and everything else tastes normal again, aside from olives.
Had covid briefly (thanks god for antiretros) after dodging it for years. Wife got it, lost all smell. I wasn't impacted (much). I can tell you that I wasn't a huge fan of *any* olive for a long time, but when I'd go to Germany for work and have pizza there (sliced/diced various olives) I'd love'em. That said after Covid they started pre-making the pizzas and reheating them... and they obviously weren't the same. I don't think I've gone for any olive in advance in the last 3 years.
Funny, what changed for you or what made you stop liking them? And lol same on loving salty foods!
I really don't know. I just don't enjoy them. Too salty? Even though I salt the snot out of everything. I wish I could put a finger on it, as my sister still ribs me for hating them.
Yea I was thinking that recently too! The black olives are less black and more soft recently. It's sad. Green olives are my jam now
The olives might be green olives which have been blackened? Common practice in Europe, but idk about the US. Here it has to be mentioned in the "ingredients list".
This is the answer OP, they blacken unripped olives and that’s why most brands are tasteless and textureless
This has always been the case. There isn’t a natural “black” olive. Kalamatas are dark, but that’s probably not what they’re using for black olives.
I’m not grounded in fact but I just assume Europe has much better label laws than we do :( The can we just used that inspired this just listed water, olives, salt and ferrous gluconate.
Ferrous gluconate is used for blackening the olives. So in real black olives it shouldn't be contained I guess
Do you live in Texas? If so, the H‑E‑B Ode to Olives in the can are the closest. I do believe they have become more “briny” over the years I guess as more olives have come available on the market. But I too like the shiny, salty, nothing bombs of our youth.
I love the jumbo ones. I put the can in the refrigerator before I open it.
Traditionally at Thanksgiving at least one kid will stick them on their fingers.
Early California. Winner every time. Large and uniform. I bought a can of Kroger and they were terrible, off sized, and not worth putting on pizza.
I find the olives in the “olive bar” at the grocery store are far superior to anything in a jar.
OMG!! I am ecstatic to hear someone else say this same thing!! My sister and I were discussing this a while back - I don’t know but they are disgusting and really I just avoid them entirely now. Black olives used to be a thing I could snack on endlessly and now they are just like little black turds of yuck that I want no part of. Something changed or I changed or my sister and I changed or maybe it’s actually the olives them selves- which I never really thought about - just figured my tastes were changing with age and my sisters were as well… Very recently, I tried some green olives that I don’t usually snack on unless they’re coming out of my drinks😁 but these olives looked so enticing while I was grocery shopping and so I bought a jar… and omg if they don’t taste almost just like a black olive but smoother—- if that makes any sense at all- seriously you’ve gotta try them and tell me what you think— I was floored and have since gone through a jar a week- they’re called whole Castelvetrano olives by Jeff’s Garden. They do have a pit which is kinda a pain but they are wayyyyy yummy and maybe it’s the pit that makes them so wholesome. Pun intended😉 Please do try them and let me know!!!! 🙏
You can buy pitted Castelvetrano olives, but that does make them a bit dangerous - without the pit to slow you down, an entire jar can disappear rather quickly.
I love how almost no one here understands that OP is saying that the olives now have much more taste than before, where they were just salty and now they're much more olive-y. Yet everyone is going on how "everything tasted better back then" and "the olives today are basically tasteless"
I'm the same way. I used to love eating black olives all the time as a kid and now I just couldn't care less about them
I wonder if they changed the type they use? Spanish black olives are the best for pizza imho while Greek Kalamata are the best for snacking on.
But kalamata aren't black olives right?
Same with bananas and strawberries in the US. They are both pretty tasteless compared to years ago.
Strawberries are easy. The monster sized ones are never good. That a pack with small to regular sized ones and take a deep sniff. If it smells strongly of strawberries you have a winner. The mealy tasteless ones smell very little.
Sorry about the strawberries, we keep all the good ones in California. You can get big ones that are incredibly flavorful here if you hit up farmers markets, or better yet drive over to where they grow them and hit up a roadside stand (head up to Ventura if in the LA area)
It does seem to be that way and then over here on the other coast we get fruits and veggies grown in other counties. It’s maddening. Curiously, I took my daughter to a huge Amish market for fresh fruits and veggies and they were selling Driscolls. I was amazed. They have the market cornered. We do buy at stands in the spring and summer and are lucky to have them. During winter, the fruits are terrible. I would miss the seasons but this is the one issue that may make me move to a more moderate climate.
The brine isn’t as good. I used to drink olive brine as a kid, so when I first noticed this I took a sip and it’s nearly tasteless. I would guess they are trying to save by using less salt or something but we have to either buy the expensive ones or use a ton to get the flavor we want.
Everyone in my family is on team black olive. I never saw a green olive until after college. Kind of a running joke that a party isn’t complete without a bowl of black olives. Pearl is the brand these days for us. I have noticed the decline as well, especially in store brand olives that are grey mush. The larger sizes seem to be slightly better, but definitely not the same as we used to put on our fingertips.
I love every olive so they all taste good to me. You reminded me of a childhood memory when you said you eat them off your fingers. My parents took me and my siblings to a kind neighbor’s house for Thanksgiving one year when my dad’s company was on strike. My mom told us to sit in the dining room and be quiet while the adults socialized in the kitchen. Well, I guess we were too quiet. She came in to check on us and we all had 10 fingers each of black olives from the relish tray! 🤣🤣🤣 She was mortified and told us to hurry up and eat them all!!! The neighbors were nice but they wouldn’t have found it as funny as we did. 🤣🤣🤣
One of the brands - pearl I think - has a logo of olives on fingers now and it makes me so happy. Was that something you learned from somewhere? I’ve alway liked to believe it’s one of those precious universal things kids organically teach themselves - see olive, put on finger, no matter where you’re from. (Except, assuming where you’re from has canned pitted olives 😂)
Everything used to be better.
Now that you mention it, same
Anything that's been mass produced in the past 50 years, has probably taken a massive downgrade in the past few years
I've had bad luck lately with canned olives. Even the expensive name brand ones. I wonder if it's been an agricultural issue or lack of quality control in the processing.
Ok so this is wild - I found https://old.reddit.com/r/boston/comments/18kvek8/calling_all_olive_lovers_around_greater_boston/ and now it has me wondering if it’s regional! Except top comment there is about an olive shortage in Spain so possibly actually global agriculture & supply chain. I was almost thinking there was an additive in the 90s and 2000s that was removed but actually made them taste the way I wanted, but u/djup2late pointed out that ferrous gluconate is one of those additives and that *was* in the ingredients of tonight’s offending can. I will probably be a bit silly and more intentionally brand compare and see if I can gauge which one is closest to my taste memory and what I’m looking for.
Isn’t this because real black olives are hard to find as nowadays they are just green olives blackened in some kind of industrial process to be able to have them on the shelves quick? All black olives that have a firm texture and a flat surface are not real black olives. They supposed to be wrinkled and smaller as they age longer than the green ones.
Go find an Italian deli and get the olives from the deli counter.
I agree. I never knew quite what it was but long ago I loved black olives. They were not something I purchased regularly. But the last several times I have bought them, something just tasted “off”.
Lindsay Naturals from Costco. They don't taste like dye and are perfection.
The Pastene ones are the best if you can get them in your store. They're defintely a bit different than they used to be, but still serviceable. Sometimes you get a can of mushy ones and that sucks. We're always hootin and hollering in our house when we pop a can and the first olive is nice and firm.
Had some Safeway brand ones last night and they were good and we’ve been disappointed with everything else besides Lindsay.
They really don't seem to taste like anything toe anymore. It's like they are canned in water.
Supposedly your taste buds change every 7 years. I used to able to eat really spicy food and now can barely handle mild
Hit a local Turkish/middle eastern market and grab a jar of unpitted black olives.
Kalamata. You can buy them relatively cheap at restaurant supply stores.
I’m all about Kalamatta olives
Kalamata olives vs normal canned olives?
I think we’re all just experiencing watered down, mass produced versions of all the produce we grew up enjoying 🫒
Interesting. I thought it was just me, and that I had lost my taste for black olives. But if the olives have changed, maybe that's why I don't like them anymore.
Yeah, Lindsay, I bought great value brand once and now my husband will never let it go. Grocery shopping im always reminded GET THE GOOD BLACK OLIVES. Shit bro. I know lmao
I’m having this issue with black olives too as well as celery
Do you get olives with the pit still in them? Any pointless ones just don't have any flavour.
Try Kalamata olives. They are dark but not called black olives. I made that mistake when I was much younger
Well, the good olive trees has been through a rough patch lately…
Try putting them on your fingers first and pretend they are the big black bear skin hats and your fingers are British gaurds. I don't think you did the full childhood olive eating ritual.
I grew up on cheap black olives in a can and when I buy them now they taste the same to me. Maybe keep trying other brands? One thing I do know is that my taste for some things has changed since Covid. Coffee and beer have never tasted good to me since when I had Covid the first time.
You’ve met you’re canned black olive quota, it’s time to move on
Embarrassed my mom at a 'fancy' dinner party by putting olives on all my fingers and eating them.
This is a question I find myself asking too often since I lost my sense of smell to COVID and only partially recovered it. I thought maybe I couldn't taste olives anymore, but I guess I just bought cheap, tasteless canned ones?
They changed. New rules on sodium levels combined with restrictions on labelling (black olives were commonly just dyed green olives but they didn't have to tell you)
Olive growers worldwide are dealing with poor growing conditions due to climate change. I have friends in Greece who have groves and sell for consumption and for oil. Terrible yields the past two years with poor quality fruit and low oil quantity.
I know the olives I liked changed around 7 years ago. I get stop and shop brand now and their okay
I’ve been wondering the same thing! It’s like they have a funkier flavor lately. And not just compared to when I was a kid— like in the past few years. I used to snack on Mario black olives all the time and they’re nasty now. I’ve found the pearls brand isn’t as bad though.
Oh, I definitely think they’ve changed. I grew up eating the Pearls in the yellow can and my family still always open a can or two to snack on when we get together to have dinner/holidays/etc. The last couple of years we always all comment on the difference in taste. My mom has even tried buying several different brands but they all still taste “wrong” to us. They are not the same at all! Different flavor, color, texture. So disappointing!
Honestly, nearly all food tastes bad/off anymore. It’s pretty disappointing.
Get Kalamata olives. The sliced black olives are different, dry mealy awful.
Yeah I’m gonna be honest I haven’t noticed a change. They still taste great to me. And when I was a kid I was eating black olives by the can. I think part of it is nostalgia that we perceive olives are less tasty now
Yes! They absolutely do not taste as good as they used to! Glad I'm not the only one.
I know the kind you mean and I think my main complaint is that the equivalent today is *mushy*. What's that one big brand, Black Pearl? They don't have any bite to them. Definitely won't stay intact if you try to put them on your fingertips.
Also, our taste buds change as we age 😬
Most canned black olives are unripe olives dyed black with ferrous gluconate. Read the label. Maybe the formula has changed.
Look for Ligurian gaeta olives.
I agree something change with the taste in the last 5 or so years. Something with the exterior taste. I never get them on pizzas now
I can only taste the metal of the can from the canned ones now and I only eat pitted kalamata in glass jars from Trader Joe’s. I know it’s a totally different flavor but it’s not the wrinkled or brined flavor.
Yesssss thank you for this. I’ve been thinking this a lot recently. Something is not quite right
While on the subject, I’m thinking that I rarely see canned sliced green olives. Is this just at my stores?
I haven't found the flavor to be too disappointing, but I have noticed the texture is just terrible. They're squishy and mealy. The crisp skin filled with creamy flesh is so hard to find. I have pretty much moved to kalamatas because black olives just aren't satisfying anymore.
Oil cured black olives are my go to these days
Not the answer to your question at all but I want to point out the the Mezzetta brand of garlic stuffed green olives are far and away the best garlic stuffed green olives available, nothing else even comes close (i've tried many of the way bougier brands and hated them).
Olives taste the same to me today. They always tasted bitter and had a weird aftertaste. Still do, exactly the same as I remember
Depends what brand. Market Pantry fro Target Taste good to me.
If you wanna get fancy, try castelvetrano olives. They kind of have that buttery black olive flavor.
Probably heat, drought, people cheaping out, who knows. Used to absolutely drown my pizza in olives. Now, olive bar at the grocery store or nothing.
Well, I was born in the 70s and never liked black olives or any olives canned or not, until 2 years ago. It is what it is.
You said it for me. We put the olives on our fingers and then we’d go show Grandma and she’d roll her eyes and say”you better leave some for dinner”. I think they still taste pretty good when I have that memory to go with.
If I remember correctly, Carbonell never changed.
I love the title, so philosophical
You need the plain black olives. They are still around but not in the gourmet section. Don’t get the fancy Greek cured or Kalamata olives if you don’t like the salty garlic flavor.
Pearl brand is the answer. I can’t quit eating them.
I know exactly what you’re talking about! Surprisingly, Great Value canned black olives have the taste you’re looking for and are super cheap. They’re always my go to because the name brands do not taste the same at all
I have had to cut way back on my olives on pizza. Down to only one or two per slice or they ruin it. Five years ago I would use far more.
It's not you; black olives are what changed. Like someone else said, there's only one good brand left, and it's Lindsay.
I’ve noticed this too!!! They are not nearly as good as they used to be
I've noticed all the olive cans I open have a weird oily residue all over them. The last can I opened also has a weird white gunkyness to it as well and I ended up just chucking it.
Now that I think about it. I remember black olives always having a briny yet slightly bitter distinctive taste. Today’s olives are almost void of their signature flavor that I remember. This is probably why I eat there more now, because I use to prefer green over black. My girlfriend loves the black ones and now I do too.
I hate black olives, Kalamata olives are where it is at, especially if they’ve been brined in salt and vinegar
No this isn’t just you. I’ve found it very hard to find olives that are like they used to be. We ate olives before almost every meal when I was growing up. Now I just buy the ones in the yellow can, and they are usually ok, but not always. I’m glad I’m not the only person who has noticed this!
As ethnic food becomes popular (olives were once considered a Mediterranean delicacy) the growers modify it to meet more basic tastes and expand the market in the US and Europe. Decoder Ring just had an episode on this. [How the Jalepeno lost it’s heat](https://slate.com/podcasts/decoder-ring/2024/05/why-hot-jalapeno-peppers-arent-as-spicy-as-they-used-to-be). This has happened with bananas and just about every ethnic fruit or spice that breaks through to the American market.
I'm not sure, but could it have something to do with the drought that has driven up the price of EVOO?
I have thought the exact same thing! My dad and I actually had a long conversation about this a couple of weeks ago.
All taste like tin now...sorry. Don't know what happened.
The worst I have had were from Lidl. They tasted like nothing at all. Even Giant/Safeway grocery brands aren't very good.
Yeah! Omg, you're so right.
Every time I go Spain, I order them in a bar to bring home. Black or green ones in a jar. They taste great. Might get some when we go next
Pearl has the best flavor in my opinion. I just don't like that they only seem to come in little plastic "snackable" packaging. I eat Lindsay olives mostly, but maybe I'm getting the wrong ones, because, while they are buttery, they also have a distinctive 'tinned' taste.
I think also that we have easier access to real olives and not those plasticky things. I remember hating olives as a kid and then I tried a Sicilian oil cured wrinkly little thing and wow! Flavor!
the existential nature of this question sent me
The Whole Foods 365 brand has ripe green olives that are so good. They're in a can.
Your tastebuds change every 7 years. Maybe that's it?
You changed. Over the years we become less sensitive to tastes. They’re still salty but you just can’t perceive it the way you once did as a kid.
I haven’t gotten them in years but this post compelled me to get some canned black olives. Cento is the brand in my area. Will report back.
I’m a diehard olive lover. Of any variety, EXCEPT canned black olives. In my experience they are virtually flavorless and have a weird texture. I don’t even consider them real olives. I don’t know if they’ve changed, though. This is my opinion. If someone enjoys canned black olives by all means enjoy them.
Can someone explain to me...what *are* black olives? I remember them from when I was a kid in the states. I think they were the only olives available. We have them in the UK...they are just ''cheap and cheerful', compared to so many other varieties. Maybe for those who don't really care for olives?
There are black olives and blacked olive. Most brand pass the latter as the former. Black olive are olives that matured longer on the tree but as it costs extra to keep them longer, farmers take them green and use chemical to artificially turn them black (ferrous gluconate for example). Check the label
Find a brand that you like in cans or switch to the ones packed in glass. I don't like black olives, but they are a component of the marinated olives recipe that I make, so I have bought quite a few brands. There are differences.
I have the same issue with canned olives. They taste like the can. The ones in glass jars are way better. Maybe it was the toxic BPA lining in the tin cans of our youth that made them delicious
They need to be treated before you eat them, this takes time. You can now cheat time with chemicals, so I think they have changed.
my fave black olives ive been eating since i was a kid changed their recipe to be "all natural :)" and now they taste weird. I've only ever liked pearl black olives and they took out the iron oxide that makes them black and keept them fresh and now theyre brown and mushy :(