Roland Foods Pitted Country Olive Mix, 4.4 lb

The olives themselves are of excellent quality. They are very salty. I rinse a few cups at a time in water and soak in water in a mason jar overnight before eating. This reduces the saltiness a lot. I just keep the rest of them in the brine until I want more.

These are so good. There's a good blend of olives, which is just what I was looking for. I like to put olives out with the appetizers when I'm hosting friends, and having a big jug helps me feel like I can snack on them without guilt! The olives are firm, and the brine is salty enough to preserve them safely without need for refrigeration.

The olives are good although saltier than normal. The value is there. My issue is with the packaging. Every food I have ever bought in a container in the last 20 years has a seal on it to prevent tampering. This does not. The packaging seems like it dates back to a more innocent time when no one ever messed with food for evil purposes. BTW to get the white strainer out of the top I used pliers. Later I read you can rotate the strainer to pull it out.

These are packed with brine. Which is salt. There are several suggestions out there as how to lower the salt level. When I first opened this barrel (stored 3 months in a refrigerator no problems) I expected salt. I rinsed the serving twice in tap water to get rid of surface salt, and then soaked for a half hour in water. If you need more than that then soak them for longer. I plan to take up the method of another reviewer and just replace half the brine in the barrel with water. As to taste, they are an inexpensive combination of inexpensive olives. They taste OK with my keto-based salads and give good value.

The barrel label says that black and green olives a Jumbo. Can you compare the small bowl olives sizes from the barrel with the Greek olives I bought from Costco on the right side. And the Roland Foods olives are extremely heavy salted compared to the brands I bought before, such as Krinos Whole Kalamata Jumbo Olives (they lied about the Jumbo size too, to be honest if I compare to any in stores Jumbo olives or the Costco ones from the picture) and ILIADA Kalamata Pitted Olives.

This review is for the second barrel of olives we received, the first earned 5 stars. This batch was excessively salty. So salty I rinsed them and that barely helped. Currently testing how long I have to soak them in water to make them more palatable. I'd order again as they are good quality and the first batch had a perfect salt content.

My prejudice is pro-Greek olives. I’m on my second cauldron and can report that I’ve not tasted a better blend for the money. High quality with a value price tag.

Waited for my second order to review these, to verify how long they stay good (going strong at four months in the original package & brine, accidentally left out overnight once but otherwise stored in the fridge) and consistency (second package seems exactly the same as my first). The olives have been in good shape, reasonably firm and whole, and tasty. The quality *and saltiness* is on par with an upscale supermarket's olive bar, but for close to half off the price. I don't think they're any more or less salty than I'd expect at a restaurant either, with tapas or charcuterie or in a Greek salad. Really not sure what all the "too salty" reviews are comparing to unless it's olives from a can, an entirely different (ugh!) animal. Regardless, as others have said, the brine is briny for a reason - salt is a preservative, it's there to prevent nasties from growing in the water and on your olives. If you replace the brine with plain water, don't expect these to keep for nearly as long unless you do something else to preserve them, like maybe freezing or canning most of them. My household goes through about a pound a month, and after four months the last olives were as good as the first. I just keep them in the original plastic mini-barrel and use a perforated serving spoon, which is now known as "the olive spoon," to dig them out.