Olives&More

Who's behind it

Olives&More started small and grew from a baker's cargo bike to a permanent delicatessen in Amsterdam East. The focus stayed narrow all along: olives and Mediterranean products whose origin you know. The starting point is written large on the shop front and the website: direct from the farmer. They buy directly from growers in Spain, Greece and elsewhere, and the olives are picked by hand.

That keeps the chain short. You can trace every batch back to a region and sometimes to a specific grower.

Origin per batch

For olive oil, Olives&More works single origin: one variety, one region, one harvest. Think organic Arbequina from the Veá family in Catalonia, or Kalamata olive oil from the Peloponnese.

Picking bruises the fruit less than mechanical shaking, and an olive with few bruises stays firmer and cleaner in taste in the brine or marinade. For you as a chef that means an olive that keeps its bite on the plate and a marinade that tastes clean.

In your kitchen

Put the origin on the menu, for example "hand-picked olives, roasted garlic and parsley". Name the region with the oil: Arbequina from Catalonia or Kalamata from the Peloponnese.

Build a line with it: the oil you cook with is the oil you finish with, the tapenade goes under the fish and on the snack board, the olives go with the antipasti. That way it all comes from one supplier, with traceable origin.