- Roland Foods Whole Pitted Kalamata Olives From Greece, Specialty Imported Food, 4.4 Pound, Pack of 1

I would buy these Board Head olive containers from the refrigerated deli section of my local supermarket. It's olives, (in canola oil!) with some spices, and it's $5.99 for 7 ounces. Pretty pricey, especially considering that 7 ounces includes the weight of the oil. Well this is 4.4 lbs of olives, and that is the dry weight. Quite a bit cheaper. You should know they are very salty at first but you can lessen the saltiness if you want. Here's what I do with them: When you first get the olives, open it and drain it (there's a strainer built into the packaging for a reason). They will still be extraordinarily salty at this point. I then refill the whole container and drain that too. It's now a lot less salty. If you want even less salty, just fill the container again and let them sit for 30 minutes. Or an hour. Or a day. They're your olives and they're waterproof, so you decide how much salt you want to wash away. Anyways, from there I drain them well and put them in deli cups with a little bit of olive oil and mix them around with a regular boring supermarket Italian spice mix. Put them in the fridge and I have snacks to eat for weeks. I will note that when you get the aforementioned Board Head olive package, every olive is dark black, perfectly ripe and fairly firm. What you get from Roland is less of a "premium" experience - some are green, occasionally some olives are a little mushy. You might find some stems or an olive with the pit still in. But given that on a per-olive basis it's about half the price, I am ok getting my olives this way.

Delish & great buy!

Salty. Had to soak twice. Yum over all 5 star restaurant quality.

I'm addicted to kalamata olives. I ordered these with trepidation as others have reported they're not as good as the non pitted olives and my tastebuds disagree. I eat them with tuna, plates of artichoke hearts with hummus,feta,tomatoes and crusty bread with a balsamic vinegar and olive oil and SO tasty, satisfying and healthy!!

We've been getting this for a while and many of the batches are fantastic - great taste and great value for money, actually I haven't gotten this good tasting olives from any store. But some batches are bad - from the last 3 orders 2 of them were bad. One had pale, soft olives, with throw-up taste, and the other batch was extremely bitter. I had never tasted such bitter olives in my life, and I had eaten a lot of olives. I still think there must be a way to salvage them and researched online, so now I'm soaking them in water and changing the water daily, hopefully this will help. Roland should be doing better quality control. For now I'm discontinuing my subscription. Update: I managed to save the bitter olives by soaking them in water for a couple of days (and changing the water daily), and then soaking them in the brine left from another olives container. I resumed purchasing these olives and the last batch was great.

Great tasting Kalamata olives. I’ve bought these from different places and Roland seems to be the most consistent when it comes to taste. They’re firm, smell fresh, great color and taste amazing! The seal on the container helps maintain the freshness for months.

I had bee buying Vertullo whole pitted Kalamatas and really liked them, the best. Alas they are no longer available. I thought I'd give Roland's a try, and while the flavor is OK, they lack the sharpness of Vertullo, and have a somewhat rubbery texture, not the most pleasant mouth. They improve as an ingredient in cooked dishes, but will not be my preference for table olives.

These olives lasted us a LONG time, much more affordable than the grocery store. No problems at all, and they were delicious. Will be buying again, for sure.