Milas Ekşili Olive: a table olive lightened with lemon

In Milas, olives go to different products at different stages of ripeness. Milas Ekşili Olive is one of them, and what distinguishes it is an addition: lemon.

The record

What the lemon does

According to the certificate the product has a pronounced aroma formed by lemon and olive oil, and a striking colour. Compared with ripe oily olives and fully ripe pressed olives, it is lighter, through the effect of lemon acidity.

The absence of one negative is also recorded: “the astringency felt in other table types is not perceived.”

Astringency is the drying sensation left by phenolic compounds. Acid masks it; lemon here performs a technical function.

Two colours

The certificate separates them:

The raw material leans pink while the finished product leans yellow.

Measured values

Capping salt at 3% stands out — table olives usually run 5-7%. Low salt, together with the acidity of lemon, completes the description of “lightness”.

Four registrations in Milas

Milas alone carries four olive registrations: Milas Olive Oil (201), Milas Oil-Cured Olive (446), Milas Ekşili Olive (1691) and Milas Çekişke Olive (1109). Four different products from one cultivar — Memecik.

The cultivar behind it, measured

The registration is granted to a place, but the cultivar the definition rests on has measurable values:

Oil content reaches 28% at the top of its range — on its own enough to justify pressing. The cultivar is partially self-fertile; pollinators are used to secure yield. A flesh-to-stone ratio of 5.86 is the basic measure of how much of a table olive is actually eaten.

Its place in Muğla's olive production

93% of the province's fruit goes to oil — so this table-olive registration defines a niche outside the main flow.

Masking the phenols instead of removing them

Two of the document's requirements look contradictory at first:

• Total phenol of at least 135.38 mg/100 g — phenol is protected by a floor.
• "The astringency felt in other table types is not perceived" — the best-known sensory consequence of phenol is not wanted.

Phenolic compounds are the source of bitterness and astringency in olives. The study by Yemişçioğlu and colleagues (2016) on Memecik measures that link: there is a statistically significant relationship between total polyphenol and the bitterness index K225 (P<0.01), expressible as a logarithmic equation. Bitterness is not an impression but the counterpart of a measurable phenol content.

So how do you keep the phenol and lose the astringency?

The classical route in table olive processing is to remove the phenol — a lye treatment breaks down oleuropein and long brining washes it out. The cost is that the antioxidant value goes with it.

Milas Ekşili takes another route: it leaves the phenol in place and masks its sensory effect with acid. Three figures in the document set this up together:

The third row confirms the reading. Salt in table olives is usually 5-7%, and salt is itself a masking agent. Here it is deliberately kept low, because the masking is done by lemon acidity. Keeping salt high as well would break the "lightness" the document describes.

The result is a table olive that is both high in phenol and free of astringency. Nutritionally, that means a method which — unlike classical lye processing — preserves the phenolic value. We covered the compounds themselves in oleocanthal and polyphenols.

⚠ One note: because the values in the document are floors, products may exceed them; the registration sets no ceiling.

Further sources

• Yemişçioğlu, F., Özdikicierler, O., Çapar, S. & Gümüşkesen, A.S. (2016). The effect of ripeness degree on total polyphenol content and bitterness index of virgin olive oil in Memecik and Erkence olive cultivars. Gıda, 41(6), 381-386.