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i love the olives that have the red jellys inserted into them haha

My favorite type of olive oil is the kind that comes from my very own tree!.....Too bad I don't have that tree.....*yet* :-)

Oh, I love olives! My favorite of all are the large green olives with proscuitto wrapped cheese inside. A couple of them and some crackers and I have a meal. Oh, and I have both Italian and Spanish olive oil at home.

What a neat gift to give someone for the holidays.

i don't eat a lot of olives, but i love olive oil. I use it a lot.

Like piehole I don't eat olives but I love olive oil! I could make a meal out of spicy olive oil and bread alone, so good.

Nicoise olives are the perfect size for snacking and the herb-y smell reminds me of sitting on the beach in the south of France with a nicoise salad.

hhh. I'm not too well versed with all the olives at the olive bar that i've tried. but i have really enjoyed kalamata olives!

luganos, or any type swimming in some martini

The big green ones. But any of them stuffed with garlic or jalapenos are great.

Nicoise were the first to make me realize that I actually like olives, just not crappy canned ones.

kalamata...but i love those big green ones too....

Kalamata

kalamata, def.

I had my first olive my freshman year of college when my Dad took me to a fantastic pizza place in D.C. They gave us a little tray of olives, and he told me to try one. I loved all of them--the Kalmata, Amphissa, the green olives and Manzanillas. However, stuffed green ones are the favorite of my dad and I, and whatever chance I get I pick up either garlic or jalapeno olives to share.

any kind, but my favorite is kalamata

For eating out of hand I like cerignola or alfonso olives, as both tend to be large and meaty, while not overwhelmingly salty. I also love to cook with Moroccan oil cured olives, though, because they have an intense umami flavor, and I can leave out or reduce salt in a cooked dish to compensate for the olives.

This has got to be the BEST giveaway ever and a great idea for a foodie gift. Love it!

Oh, and Kalamata :)

Also not a fan of olives themselves, but quality olive oil is divine!

kalamata!

Crap, I don't have very deep olive knowledge, either! I love the giant green ones that are often stuffed with garlic (they sell the jars at Trader Joe's). I've never met an olive I didn't like, though.

Definitely kalamata! I would eat them everyday if I could!

My favorite kinds of olives are the Greek kalamata, the French picholin and the niçoise, the Spanish manzanilla and the Italian lugano.
This is an amazing contest and you are right that this would be a wonderful gift.
If I win I would love to follow my olive tree’s progress over the next year on my food blog.
;-)

My favorite olive is whichever one I happen to be ingesting at the time!

kalamatas for me too.

Oh, I love all olives. If I had to pick a favorite I think I would go with green olives stuffed with garlic.

I have to say that the canned black olives of my childhood will always have a special place in my heart.

I love all olives, but if I have to pick one, it would be a large green olive with the pit still in. They are just perfect.

Lucques olives

Kalamata, no question. I especially like them in pasta sauces.

Oo! Five years ago, I would have said kalamata hands down, but the Provencal and greek green olives are winning me over of late...

i love the wrinkled black gaeta olives - super yummy with some goat chese!

I snack on black Cerignolas like they're fruit (which they are, of course). I cook with Morrocans in oil, I think they're more aromatic when cooked and they impart a wonderful flavor to the dish (pork tongue stew with onion and olives, for example).

definitely kalamata for me! :)

kalamata olives are so salty i have to nibble away at them in pasta dishes. but so so tasty.

Depends entirely on what I'm doing with them, but the two kinds I buy most often are black oil-cured and the huge garlicky ones at the middle eastern grocery around the corner

I don't have a favorite variety of olive or anything, but I have been really enjoying the olives I picked up at TJ Maxx recently. There were some stuffed with garlic, some stuffed with onion and soaked in gin, some stuffed with jalapeño and left to brine in a solution with other peppers.

I usually like kalamata with my salads, but I loooove lugano.

black.

I love green Cerignola olives, but cannot stand black Cerignolas. I like Kalamatas and nicoises too.

some nice kalamatas ground up into a tapinade.

I really love the green cracked olives I had when I spent time with my family in Israel.

Mine would be olive oil soap :)

I don't know the names of the olive varieties I eat because they never seem to be included on the label, but my favourite olives right now are organic green olives that are stuffed with garlic.

I love any variety of olive made into tapenade... especially on a muffuletta. yum.

Niçoise olives are my favorite!

I don't think I ever met an olive that I didn't love. But Kalamatas were the first olives I ever had that weren't the canned black or pimento-stuffed green ones. So the Kalamata will always have that special place in my heart.

Not so crazy about olives. About the only way I like them is in the olive spread they use to make New Orleans Muffalettas. I do love a good olive oil though.

kalamata

I have loved just about every olive I've ever tasted, but green olives stuffed with feta are definitely my favorite.

all olives (except maybe ones that are too hard to pit)

i also want to learn more about different olive oils.

Love me some olives...my favorite would have to be kalamata :) Hope I win!

Gotta go with the Kalamatas!

Manzanillas are good but I love Picuals.

Any olive variety is a good one, but Kalamata is a great one!

This is a brilliant idea! It's going on my Christmas list (if necessary!)
Olives are like wines to me. I sample many wonderful varieties, make a mental note of which I prefer and why, and then promptly forget. Oh, darn, I have to repeat the process!
I do know that, as with cheese and ham, I tend to prefer Spanish.

Kalamata olives, definately. On a good Greek salad.

Kalamata.

There is no olive I do not love; but I love those dried, shriveled ones from Morocco the best.

pimento stuffed "martini" olives. i used to suck the pimentos out then eat the olive--straight from the jar, when parents were drinking martinis

I love those little arbequinas.

I had to look it up because, like many other above, I'm not familiar with the names, but Lucque olive are quite tasty.

Nicoise olives to eat out of hand.
A hand stuffed blue cheese green olive for my martini.

Definitely Kalamata, or ones stuffed with parmesan cheese...mmmm

picholine with a little lemon zest and red pepper....mmmmm, too good

Picholine...or a big green one stuffed with a smoked almond. yum.

feta-stuffed green olives. or black oil cured ones. I love the oil most of all- I practically drink it if it's good enough.

young, fat, green cerignolas. and sadly those gross pimento stuffed ones in the grocery store

Never met an olive I didn't love. My current favorite is picholine. It will be something else next week...

I love olives! My favorite depends on my mood - sometimes cerignola, sometimes arbequina, sometimes picholines, sometimes nicoise, sometimes picual, sometimes manzanilla - give them all to me.

the little spanish arbequina olives, hands down.

I still remember the first time I had a kalamata olive. I was 13 years old, and my family had decided to picnic with some friends along a river. One person had brought along a bunch of kalamatas and was raving about them. I was eager to try one, but when I did, I thought they were awful. But after eating them at random intervals over the years, I've grown to love them; they're now my favorite :)

Not really a huge fan of olives but olive oil is a wonderful thing.

My olive of the moment is garlic-stuffed green. Yum!

I actually don't love olives: I like tapenades and things, but am not a huge fan of eating olives by themselves.

...but I sure do love olive oil :)

kalamatas are popular in my house too

Moroccan oil-cured are my favorite, the wrinkled ugly things.

I'm not a fan of olives, but I do love olive oil!

I love ALL olives. The more the merrier. Kalamata, Black, Green, Nicoise bring it on! What a beautiful idea & a great opportunity! I would love to showcase this on my site!

Blue-cheese stuffed olives, in a dirty vodka martini!

Congrats to our winner gargupie, and thank you to everyone who entered. We have notified the lucky new olive oil owner and updated our Contest Winners page.