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Hojiblanca olive: Spain's oil and table variety

Spain's third-largest variety and genuinely dual-purpose: it goes to black table olives and to oil alike.

Most olive varieties go either to oil or to the table. Hojiblanca genuinely does both — and is common enough to be Spain's third-largest variety.

Named for its leaf

Hojiblanca means "white-leaved". The underside of the leaf is markedly pale, and in the wind the grove looks silver.

What does dual-purpose mean?

For one variety to serve both uses it has to combine traits that pull against each other:

For the table: large, even fruit, firm flesh, tough skin, a high flesh ratio.
For oil: sufficient oil content and a good fatty acid composition.

Hojiblanca meets both. Processed as black table olives it feeds Spain's aceituna negra market; pressed, it gives a soft, sweet oil with almond notes.

The price of that is being best at neither. Its oil content does not match Picual's, and its fruit is not as large as Gordal's. What the grower gains is flexibility — whichever price is better, the crop can go there.

The Turkish equivalent

Turkish varieties carry the same flexibility:

Saurani — 29% oil with 87% flesh, Hatay
Nizip Yağlık — 27% oil, also used for the table locally
Memecik — the country's most widespread variety, both oil and table

Dual purpose is in fact the classic form of Mediterranean olive growing; single-purpose specialisation is a modern, industrial choice.

Harvest timing decides

With Hojiblanca, which product the crop becomes is decided by when it is picked: at green maturity it goes to the table, at black maturity to oil. The same tree, the same season, two different products.

That is the same question as the effect of harvest timing on oil: is early harvest expensive or valuable?

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