- Season
- Available all year; the olives are cured and imported, so there is no Czech season.
- Price
- Medium
- Nutrition per 100 g
- 116 kcal
- 0.8 g protein
- 10.9 g fat
- 6 g carbs
Fresh Black Olives
Fruit
Fresh Black Olives
In Czech shops, 'olivy černé čerstvé' are cured black olives that are ready to eat and sold chilled: in small drained tubs, in vacuum packs with no brine, or loose by weight at the deli counter (lahůdky), rather than in tins or jars of brine. The word 'čerstvé' (fresh) describes how they are sold, as a short-life chilled product.
In practice
How to store
- On the counter
Do not keep at room temperature. They are sold as a chilled product. Only take out the amount you will serve, about 10 minutes beforehand.
- In the fridge
Keep at 0–7 °C, as the packs state, and observe the use-by date. Opened tubs and olives bought loose are best eaten within a day or two. Some vacuum packs without brine state they keep up to 7–10 days after opening if chilled. Always use a clean spoon, and keep loose olives covered in a closed container. Discard any with mould, slime or a fermented smell.
- In the freezer
Not recommended. Freezing softens the flesh and makes it watery. If necessary, freeze pitted olives for cooking only (sauces, bakes) and use within about 3 months.
How to choose
Look in the chilled deli section or at the deli counter, not on the shelf with canned goods. Packed products state the origin and variety (e.g. 'Kalamata', 'Thrumbes/Throumba'), whether they are pitted ('bez pecky') or have the stone ('s peckou'), and how they were packed: lightly dressed, in olive oil, or vacuum-packed without brine. Read the ingredients. Naturally ripened black olives usually list only olives, salt, oil, vinegar or herbs. The stabilisers E579 (ferrous gluconate) or E585 (ferrous lactate) indicate oxidised olives, which were darkened during processing. Some dressed products contain sulphur dioxide (sulphites), which is a declared allergen. At the counter, choose olives that look glossy and plump (or evenly wrinkled for dry-cured types), with no slimy surface, white film or sour, off smell. Buy small amounts: the use-by period is short.
What to swap in
Best swap
Kalamata olives from a jar or tin in brine, drained and dressed with a little olive oil and oregano.
In a pinch
Canned oxidised black olives, which are milder and softer, or capers in small amounts where you mainly want the salty, briny note.
Preparation
They are ready to eat with no rinsing or soaking. Drain any excess dressing. If they taste too salty for a recipe, rinse briefly in cold water and pat dry. To pit, press each olive with the flat of a knife and pull out the stone. Even products labelled pitted can occasionally contain a stone or fragment, so warn guests and take care when serving olives to children. Slice or chop just before use. Dry-cured olives can be torn rather than cut.
Don't toss it
Save the oil from oil-packed olives for salad dressings or for frying onions and garlic. Chop olives that have started to soften into a quick olive spread with garlic and olive oil, or bake them into bread or focaccia dough.
In the kitchen
Cooking
Mostly eaten cold: as a snack with wine, on cheese or charcuterie boards, in Greek-style salads with feta, tomato and cucumber, and on open sandwiches (chlebíčky) and party platters. Chopped or sliced, they go into pasta sauces, pizza, focaccia, and baked fish or chicken. Add them near the end of cooking, because prolonged heat makes them bitter and the salt concentrates. Blended with garlic, olive oil and herbs, they make a tapenade-style spread.
Goes well with
- Feta And Balkan-Style White Cheese
- Tomatoes
- Cucumber
- Red Onion
- Oregano
- Garlic
- Olive Oil
- Lemon
- Sun-Dried Tomatoes
- Bread And Baguette
- Pasta
- Lamb
- Red And Rosé Wine
What it is
In Czech shops, 'olivy černé čerstvé' are cured black olives that are ready to eat and sold chilled: in small drained tubs, in vacuum packs with no brine, or loose by weight at the deli counter (lahůdky), rather than in tins or jars of brine. The word 'čerstvé' (fresh) describes how they are sold, as a short-life chilled product. It does not mean raw fruit: raw olives are too bitter to eat, and everything sold under this name has already been cured. Most of what Czech shops sell this way comes from Greece. The two usual types are Kalamata (Kalamon) olives, almond-shaped and purple-black, often dressed with oil, wine vinegar and oregano, and wrinkled dry-cured Throumba olives packed in olive oil and salt. They come either with the stone or pitted.
How it tastes
Fleshier and more aromatic than the uniformly black, mild olives sold in tins. Kalamata types taste fruity and winey, with a light bitterness and a firm, juicy bite. Dry-cured Throumba types are wrinkled and soft, with a concentrated, salty, slightly bitter, almost raisin-like taste. Because they are sold drained and lightly dressed, the olive itself dominates rather than the brine. The flavour is fuller if they stand for about 10 minutes at room temperature before serving.
Common questions
Does 'čerstvé' mean the olives are raw?
How are they different from canned black olives?
How long do they keep after opening?
Do they contain allergens?
Can pitted olives still contain stones?
Can I freeze them?
Deep dive
3 min read
Varieties
Kalamata (Kalamon).
A Greek variety that is almond-shaped and deep purple-black. It is the most common type in Czech chilled olive tubs. Usually brine-cured and finished with wine vinegar and oil, often with oregano. Sold pitted or with the stone.
Throumba (sold in Czechia as 'Thrumbes').
Wrinkled black olives, associated especially with the island of Thassos. Retailers describe them as ripened on the tree. They are dry-cured with salt and packed in olive oil, sometimes vacuum-packed. Softer, saltier and more intense than Kalamata.
Mixes and marinated olives.
Chilled tubs that combine black and green olives with herbs, garlic, chilli or sun-dried tomatoes. Deli counters also sell stuffed olives (with almond, feta or pepper).
Different product: canned 'black' olives.
Shelf-stable black olives in tins or jars are often green or partly ripe olives darkened by oxidation, with E579 or E585 to fix the colour. They are uniformly jet-black, mild and soft, and are not what this catalogue item refers to.
History
Olives are not grown in Czechia; all are imported, and the cured olives in Czech shops come mainly from Greece, with others from Italy, Portugal and Spain. Chilled, drained olives in tubs and vacuum packs, plus loose olives at cheese and deli counters, now sit alongside the longer-established jarred and canned products. Many are packed in Czechia by importers and retailers.
Science
Raw olives contain bitter phenolic compounds, mainly oleuropein, which make them inedible straight from the tree. Curing breaks these down or leaches them out. Methods include brining, which may follow a lye treatment, and dry-salting, which draws out water and gives the wrinkled texture of Throumba-type olives. Olives that ripen naturally darken from green through violet and brown to black as anthocyanin pigments develop, so naturally black olives vary in shade. Industrially oxidised olives are turned black by air exposure in alkaline solution, and iron salts (E579, E585) stabilise the colour. Under EU rules these additives are allowed only in olives darkened by oxidation, within set limits. Products that are chilled, lightly dressed or contain little brine depend on refrigeration, and sometimes on preservatives such as sorbic acid, to stay safe. That is why they have short use-by dates.
Sourcing and ethics
Olives sold in Czech shops are imported, mostly from Greece, with some from Italy, Portugal and Spain. Check the label for country of origin and for protected designations; some Greek olive varieties and regions carry EU PDO or PGI status. Organic (BIO) versions are available from specialist shops. Buying loose or in recyclable containers cuts packaging, and buying only what you can eat within the short use-by period avoids waste.