Italiano
€7,30
Taggiasche olives are a very common olive cultivar in western Liguria, particularly in the Imperia area.
It is the climatic peculiarity of this area of Liguria that guarantees the uniqueness of this sweet, juicy product with a fruity aroma, perfect to be preserved in oil or brine.
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There are many varieties of olives, but those whose names are immediately recognisable and reliable can be counted on the fingers of one hand. We can hazard a guess that Taggiasca olives are probably the most famous and celebrated olives in the world, prized for their unmistakable flavour and delicious oil. Olives are a ductile product, suitable for all kinds of recipes.
Taggiasche olives are a very common olive cultivar in western Liguria, particularly in the Imperia area. In fact, the name derives from the nearby town of Taggia, where the monks of San Colombano brought this type of olive with them from Lerino, an island-monastery in Provence. Over the centuries, the cultivation of this type of olive has intensified in western Liguria, covering a large part of the Imperia and Savona areas, whose terraces, or fasce in Imperia dialect, are an iconic landscape.
It is the climatic peculiarities of this area of Liguria that guarantee the uniqueness of this sweet, juicy product with a fruity aroma, perfect to be preserved in oil or brine. The Taggiasca olive is firm, with a brownish-purple colour and an elliptical shape, not very large and immediately recognisable. Its pressing produces a fine olive oil, yellow-green in colour, fruity, sweet and bitter only in the aftertaste, with hints of almond. There has been a controversy over the awarding of the PDO label to olives for a number of years because, according to EU directives, the name of the product would have to be changed. In other words, the PDO designation cannot be assigned to a plant variety. It would therefore be necessary to replace the name taggiasca with a synonym – the most popular is ‘giuggiolina’ – in order to link it to the PDO. This is a bureaucratic issue that, however, displeases Ligurian producers, who on the one hand want greater protection for a product that must not be confused with imitations of it, and on the other hand cannot change its name because it is precisely in the term ‘taggiasca‘ that this excellence is recognised.
| Weight | 0,35 kg |
|---|---|
| Region of origin | Liguria |
| producer | Azienda agricola e agrituristica villa Arianna |
| Zona di produzione / lavorazione | IMPERIA (IM) |
| packaging | 180g |
| Main ingredients | pitted Taggiasca olives (60%), EVO oil (39%), salt |
| appearance | pitted olives in extra virgin olive oil |
| color | Green and Brown |
| smell | ripe fruity |
| Taste | sweet and well-balanced, with a slight hint of bitterness |
| conservation method | After opening, cover with oil, store at +4°C and consume within 7 days. |
| designation | Tq.I.P. |
| Recommended pairings | aperitifs, flavouring salads and fresh summer dishes, seasoning for fish and vegetable dishes, for cooking Ligurian-style main courses. |
| Notes | Olives produced according to a traditional recipe. The processing cycle does not exclude the presence of olive stones and stalks. |
| Expiration date | |
| smaltimento | glass jar with aluminium cap; the metal/aluminium collection cap and the glass collection jar. |
Nutritional values
NUTRITIONAL VALUES PER 100 G:
ENERGY VALUE 1457 kJ / 354 kcal
PROTEINS 1,6 g
FATS 37 g of which saturated fatty acids 5,8 g
CARBOHYDRATES 1,9 g of which sugars 0,9 g
SALT 2,47 g
FIBERS 3,5 g
The producer
The Villa Arianna farm is located on the heights of Imperia, the capital of the Riviera dei Fiori. The estate looks like a pretty little villa that stands out among the green of the olive groves and the bright pink of its walls, which is reminiscent of the flowers, such as oleanders, that dress the shores of western Liguria in spring.
Villa Arianna, as we can deduce from the name “agritourism”, is not simply a classic farm, but since 2010 is also a beautiful residence with 5 flats perfect for a relaxing stay in absolute peace and quiet surrounded by greenery but always close to the sea that on clear days you can see in the distance between the leaves of the small citrus grove in the garden of the villa.
Mr Raffaele Degola is in charge of managing the property and olive production. Following the ancient family tradition, in 2007 he decided to take over his land, which had previously been entrusted to sharecroppers and had been partly abandoned, and he restored it, saving the existing trees and planting new ones for a total of almost 800 hectares of olive groves.
We are talking about a family tradition because Raffaele’s grandfather already worked in this sector, he was in fact the owner of a friend’s oil mill and produced oil, a passion that he also passed on to his son, Raffaele’s father, who assisted by sharecroppers took care of the olive trees on their land and produced small quantities of oil for his family.
The large plots of land in which the olive trees of Cultivar Taggiasca grow are not located around the house, where there are 16 scattered around the courtyard of the house, but are situated in the Upper Arroscia Valley between the small towns of Cesio and Vessalico in Imperia, a village known for the production of what is perhaps the best garlic in Italy.
This particular location of the olive groves is very important for the quality of the olives, which, thanks to the higher altitude of the upper valley, are much more natural and pesticide-free, since the major pest of olive trees, the batocera olia moscolaria, does not live at higher altitudes. By retaining all the natural cultivation and processing processes of the fruit, the resulting oil retains all its best qualities and organoleptic properties.
Production area
The Taggiasca olive is a cultivar of olive tree, originating in particular from the province of Imperia.
Imperia is an Italian municipality with 42602 inhabitants, capital of the province of Imperia in Liguria, located on the Riviera di Ponente, born from the fusion in 1923 of Porto Maurizio and the town of Oneglia (located respectively on the right and left of the Impero torrent).
Imperia built its industrial centre through the production of olive oil, but it should not be forgotten that it was also famous for its pasta production. Oneglia, which has a purely commercial vocation compared to its neighbouring town of Porto Maurizio, is characterised by its Piedmontese-style architecture.
The cultivation of olives, which began in the 12th century, has profoundly affected the history of the Imperia area, as have tourism and flowers. The olive trees are cultivated on terraced hills, which in Imperia dialect are called fasce, with their characteristic dry stone walls (now a Unesco World Heritage Site) creating an enchanting and historic landscape.
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