Mission is the oldest cultivated olive in California, planted at the Spanish missions from the 18th century and still grown for both table fruit and oil. The oil is mild-to-medium and rounded: ripe fruit and almond with a soft, late-arriving pepper. While modern California producers also plant Tuscan and Spanish varieties for high-end oils, Mission remains the state's nostalgic, dual-purpose heritage olive, ripening late to a deep black for table curing.
Mild-to-medium and rounded: ripe fruit and almond with a soft pepper.
A late ripener; green for oil, fully black for table curing into winter. Buy the freshest crop you can find — and check the harvest date on the bottle.