Sunfood Olives, Black Botija, Pitted, 8 Ounces, Organic, RawUSDA Organic

They are dry,yet soft and full of flavorThey are so good you can eat them straight out of bag for a snack!Great quality product!

I’m 74 and can still lift weights for 2.5hrs without resting. I’ve stayed on top of state-of-the-art information in the fields of fitness and nutrition my entire adult life. I’m raw, vegan, and organic, and blend all my foods.I’ve found the best way to eat these olives is to let one melt in my mouth while eating my nut purees, then spit out the tiny bit of flavorless skin that’s left over. The flavor is very strong, but when eaten in this manner takes between 15 and 30mins and comes across much milder than when chewed. Perfect for my taste.That way, I’m eating only one a day, which means they’ll last a long time.UPDATE: I've now completely excluded all salt from my diet (but take mineral supplements), which is mainly where the "Strong Taste" in these olives comes from, and am much healthier for it. FYI: No sugar either. I've learned to eat for nutrition, not taste. Eating for taste is a "Slippery Slope" because you wind up eating more than you need.

So good. Don’t know why it took me so long to try them. Simply absolutely delicious.

Good but VERY Salty. Great "meaty" olive taste, no vinegar. Use these in place of salt in dishes.

I'm almost afraid to say how much I LOVE LOVE LOVE these olives! I first found them at a small, healthfood store on the Big Island. I kept buying them till .... they SOLD OUT. In desperation, I surfed up to Amazon.com to see if they may be here? WOW! What a surprise to find them. This will be my future source for these delicious olives.I've never had such a meaty, tasty, satisfying olive. If olives could be described as meat, these are filet mignon, no kidding! And I'm a VEGAN. They are soft, juicy, dense with flavor and antioxidant. I actually look for dishes I can add them to on a daily basis. After I open the package, I put them in a tupperware container and drizzle them with just a TBSP of olive oil to keep them moist. If you do that, and store them in the fridge, you have to take them out 15 min prior to eating them so the oil warms up.You can have these NASTY TASTY olives all by themselves, which I do when snacking on nuts, olives, crackers, vegan cheese and wine. Or you can put them in salads, add them to quinoa mixes, add to a platter of sliced tomatoes and avocados, etc., What a treat. THRILLED to have found them here.

**VERY STRONG FLAVOR, TAKES GETTING USED TO **This type of olive, for those who don't know, is very strong, not your typical black olive in the can. So don't mistake botija's strong meaty flavor for having gone bad. Mine arrived well sealed and moist. Very tasty but STRONG. One might even say that it has a bitter taste, but you might be mistaking it for its natural robust flavor. BOTIJAS ARE STRONG, so maybe you don't prefer olives this strong. In that case, you might want to try a more mild tasting olive. But I grew up with a full-gumba-Italian grandmother, so we ate a lot of cured olives! I like strong -tasting olives. So, oil - cured botija olives are just fine for me.A bit about storage : As long as you store them in a cool, dry place, these olives won't go bad, you could probably store for about two weeks opened. Olives that are oil - cured are fairly shelf stable, as long as you properly store these, which is key. But I wouldn't store opened olives more than a week or two, just to be safe. But I wouldn't ever leave these in heat or direct sunlight.

The taste is so good. I love how fresh they are without the taste of vinegar as a preservative. Highly recommended.

I had to toss my last cpl bags of these incredibly delish olives because at least half of the olives were either super hard or mushy. Strange combo. I thought it was possibly the way Amazon stored them so I ordered directly from Sunfood website and had the same problem. I called Sunfood and found out they had many complaints about that crop (got a refund too) and they expect to have a new crop out soon. These olives are so expensive so it is a risk but at least when I try again I know I can get a refund if this happens again. These are my fav olives ever so I really hope the new crop is better.