Konservolia
Grown almost entirely as a table olive, yet its oil carries the highest mean oleic acid of the four widely planted Greek cultivars measured side by side. The fruit’s commercial role and its oil chemistry point in opposite directions.
In the grove
Konservolia — a coined commercial name, from "conserve" — is the variety of Agrinio, Amfissa, Arta, Lamia, Stylida and the Pelion, and appears across central and western Greece under a string of local names: Amfissis, Agriniou, Artas, Voliotiki, Patrinia, Chondrolia. It is a large tree, seven to ten metres, with fruit of five to eight grams and crunchy flesh that detaches cleanly from the stone.
It is processed green, blonde and as natural black olives, hand-harvested in November and December under its PDO specifications. Its oil is a secondary product, and while the fatty acid profile is the best of the group, no oil polyphenol range has been published for the variety at all.
Compared with the other reference cultivars
| Cultivar | Origin | Typical polyphenols | Sensory profile | Best pairing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Konservolia | Central Greece | Not published | Not published for the oil | The olive itself — meze, salads |
| Picual | Jaén, Spain | 300–700 mg/kg | Intensely green, clean bitterness, late-building pungency | Tomato salad, grilled vegetables, bread and salt |
| Coratina | Puglia, Italy | 330–410 mg/kg | Powerfully green and herbaceous, strong bitterness and pungency | Bean soups, grilled meat, bitter greens |
| Koroneiki | Messinia, Greece | Around the Greek mean; Cretan surveys 138–441 mg/kg | Green and aromatic, balanced bitterness and pungency | Greek salad, feta, grilled fish, horta |
| Arbequina | Lleida, Spain | 200–230 mg/kg | Soft, sweet entry, barely bitter, light pungency | Fish, salads, baking, mayonnaise |
| Kalamon | Messinia, Greece | Among the highest-mean Greek varieties | Not published for the oil | The olive itself — salads, tapenade, bread |
| Manaki | Central Greece | Not published | Mild and fruity, apple and tomato | Steamed greens, fresh cheese, delicate fish |
| Tsounati | Crete and the Peloponnese, Greece | 173–641 mg/kg | Not published from a primary source | Cretan cooking — pulses, wild greens, rusks |
Polyphenol figures are the ranges published for each variety, not measurements of any bottle in the library. A single oil's figure depends on when it was picked and how it was milled, and is shown on that oil's own page where the producer states one.