Order a Gordal for a large, meaty olive and a Manzanilla for a bowl of small round ones to share. The Gordal de Sevilla is the olive that runs from 60 to 140 fruits per kilo, and the Manzanilla the one that runs from 141 to 350. Compare the largest Gordal with the smallest Manzanilla and a kilo of the second holds almost six times as many pieces.
Back home, manzanilla on a supermarket label can mean any small green olive; in Seville it means the Manzanilla Sevillana variety, round with an even bright to yellowish green skin. Ovoid with no nipple, the Gordal has small white lenticels on a yellowish green skin, the quickest tell in a tapas dish, and more flesh on the stone, above 1.1 mm against 0.9 mm. Loose olives are a morning errand at the Mercado de Triana, where fresh stalls close at 3pm.
The two size ranges never cross, so a jar of Seville olives can be identified by counting rather than by reading.
Manzanilla or gordal, which Seville olive should I order?
The Gordal de Sevilla is the large one, ovoid and asymmetrical, at 60 to 140 fruits per kilo with thicker flesh on the stone. The Manzanilla de Sevilla is small, round and symmetrical, at 141 to 350 per kilo. Both get the same Sevillian cure, so the choice comes down to size.
What manzanilla means on a jar back home
The word appears on supermarket shelves across the English-speaking world attached to small green olives of unstated origin. Under the protected indication it means something narrower: the Manzanilla Sevillana variety, grown and cured within the province of Seville, meeting a written specification.
Only fruit that meets that specification carries the name legally, according to the Junta de Andalucía. The curing method is a separate matter with its own name, the Sevillian style, and it applies to both indications rather than to one. A small green olive stuffed with pimiento is not necessarily a Manzanilla de Sevilla, and a Manzanilla de Sevilla is not necessarily stuffed at all.
To take the real thing home, buy a jar rather than a loose bag, because only the jar carries the numbered back label. Liquids in cabin baggage go in containers of up to 100 ml inside a clear bag of up to one litre, according to Aena, so a jar packed in brine is safer in the hold, and the airline can confirm before packing.
Which one to order, by counting
| Indication | Smallest fruit allowed | Largest fruit allowed |
|---|---|---|
| Aceituna Manzanilla de Sevilla | 321/350 fruits per kilo | 141/160 fruits per kilo |
| Aceituna Gordal de Sevilla | 121/140 fruits per kilo | 60/70 fruits per kilo |
The smallest Gordal the rules allow is still larger than the largest Manzanilla the rules allow. The border sits between 140 and 141 fruits per kilo.
That ratio matters at a counter, because a price per kilo hides it. At the border a kilo of each holds almost the same count; at the extremes, a kilo of the largest Gordal (60 to 70 fruits) against a kilo of the smallest Manzanilla (321 to 350) differs by more than 250 olives. Both specifications rest the olives’ reputation on their age-old use as an aperitivo in the province, and neither reserves stuffing for one of the two, so size and texture decide: large and fleshy with reduced bitterness for the Gordal, small with a stone that comes away easily for the Manzanilla.
At a bar counter the Gordal is ordered by name: Blanca Paloma, in Triana, charges 4 euros for a tapa of gordal olives, and the bars worth sitting at, area by area, are in where to eat in Seville.
Where to buy Seville olives and when the stalls close
Loose olives are sold at the city’s municipal food markets, in the morning. The Visit Sevilla market guide gives general stall hours of 8:30am to 3pm, Monday to Saturday; at the Mercado de Triana the food stalls run 9am to 3pm while the building and its bars stay open until midnight. There are no food stalls on Sunday, and on Monday only the fish stalls stay shut.
Entry is free and no booking is needed, so the only fixed cost is the bus. A single ticket on a TUSSAM city bus costs 1.40 euros, paid on board or by tapping a contactless bank card.
- Mercado de Triana. Calle San Jorge 6, on Plaza del Altozano at the end of the Puente de Triana. The San Jorge (Altozano) stop, line 43, is about 60 metres away; Plaza de Cuba metro is an 11-minute walk.
- Mercado de la Encarnación. Under Las Setas, on Plaza de la Encarnación. The Imagen (Plaza Encarnación) stop on line TB1 is about 140 metres away. Of its 40 stalls, pickles share a category with frozen food, bars and jewellery, four stalls in all.
- Mercado de Feria. On Calle Feria, about 630 metres north of the Encarnación. Feria (Relator), on lines 13, 14, A7 and C5, is about 60 metres away; the metro is more than twenty minutes on foot.
Arriving from the airport, the EA bus (6 euros single) stops at Marqués de Paradas, about 450 metres in a straight line from the Mercado de Triana, so a first morning can end at a stall before 3pm. The airport run is covered in the Seville airport to city centre guide, and the other markets in Seville food markets and their two clocks.
Avoid the afternoon: the same buildings keep serving drinks, but the stalls have shut.
How to read the jar and its stuffing
Jars carry the indication logo and numbered non-reusable back labels that the Consejo Regulador issues, plus the compulsory mention of the protected indication. An optional line, picked by hand, is permitted precisely because the harvest is manual. A market counter has none of that, so there shape and size are the test.
Three commercial presentations exist: whole, pitted and stuffed. The stuffing list is closed, and it is not the same for both olives.
- Both. Pepper, piquillo pepper, onion, almond, celery, anchovy, olive, orange or lemon peel, hazelnut, caper, tuna, salmon, garlic, lemon and jalapeño chilli, or their natural pastes.
- Manzanilla only. Cheese and ham, which take its list to seventeen against fifteen for the Gordal.
A cheese-stuffed or ham-stuffed Gordal cannot carry the indication. Each olive is also graded Extra or Primera, a separate label from the indication itself.
What the Sevillian cure does, and where the two differ
Both specifications describe the same ten-stage sequence, from harvest to packing. The first treatment is a dilute sodium hydroxide solution, the operation the specification the Junta de Andalucía publishes calls cooking in the Sevillian style.
Its purpose is to hydrolyse oleuropein, the bitter glucoside in the fruit. The olives are then washed and moved to brine, where natural lactic fermentation leaves the pH below 4.2 and the salt between 7.5 and 9 per cent. That brine is also what the specification credits with letting the olives be sold far from where they grow, and with the start of their export.
| Parameter | Gordal | Manzanilla |
|---|---|---|
| pH | Below 4.2 | Below 4.2 |
| Salt, weight per volume | 7.5 to 9 % | 7.5 to 9 % |
| Residual alkalinity | Below 0.140 N | Below 0.140 N |
| Free acidity as lactic acid | 0.7 to 1.5 % | 0.7 to 1.2 % |
| Flesh to stone ratio in thickness | Above 1.1 mm | Above 0.9 mm |
| Shape | Ovoid, no nipple, asymmetrical | Spherical and symmetrical |
Three of the six parameters are identical and three diverge. Free acidity is the only chemical split, at three tenths more ceiling for the larger olive.
Why picked by hand, and where they are made
Both are picked before they change colour, once the fruit has reached its full size, by ordeño: pickers strip the olives by hand into a container hung from the neck, the macaco. The specification puts it down to the thin skin of both varieties.
The production and processing area covers the whole province of Seville, and the specification links quality to a mild, warm climate and to olives grown in the Guadalquivir valley. A July mean daily maximum of 36.0°C is part of that picture, and it is the same ground crossed by the day trips out of Seville by bus, on the M-124 towards Carmona or the M-170A and M-170B towards Santiponce.
Frequently asked questions about Seville olives
What is the difference between manzanilla and gordal olives?
Size, fixed by their specifications with no room for doubt. The Gordal de Sevilla admits 60 to 140 fruits per kilo and the Manzanilla 141 to 350. The two ranges are adjacent and never overlap at any point, so counting settles it.
Is manzanilla an olive variety or a curing style?
A variety, with a legal definition. The protected indication covers the Manzanilla Sevillana variety cured the traditional way of the area, and only fruit meeting the specification can carry the name. The curing itself is a separate thing, known as the Sevillian style.
Where can I buy Seville olives in Seville?
At the stalls of the municipal food markets, Monday to Saturday in the morning: general stall hours are 8:30am to 3pm, and 9am to 3pm at the Mercado de Triana. There are no food stalls on Sunday. Loose olives carry no back label, so the protected indication can only be checked on a jar.
What is Sevillian style curing?
Treatment with a dilute sodium hydroxide solution, the opening stage of the process. Its purpose is to hydrolyse oleuropein, the bitter glucoside behind the fruit’s natural bitterness. The olives are then washed and moved to brine for natural lactic fermentation.
What can be used to stuff a Seville olive?
The Manzanilla has a closed list of seventeen products or their natural pastes, from pepper, anchovy and tuna to cheese, ham and jalapeño chilli. The Gordal list has fifteen: the same without cheese and ham.
One hundred and forty is the last Gordal size. From one hundred and forty-one fruits per kilo, the olive is a Manzanilla.