# Why do black olives never come in jars? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 23, 2000, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-black-olives-never-come-in-jars/37975 "2000-10-23T15:16:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![electricwookie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3e96dc/32.png) [@electricwookie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/electricwookie)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2000, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-black-olives-never-come-in-jars/37975/1 "2000-10-23T15:16:14Z")
HMMM??! ---
**Author:** ![Engineer\_Don](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e95f7d/32.png) [@Engineer\_Don](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Engineer_Don)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2000, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-black-olives-never-come-in-jars/37975/2 "2000-10-23T15:32:27Z")
'cause all you would see would be icky looking grey-brown water with lumps in it. No one would buy it. ---
**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2000, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-black-olives-never-come-in-jars/37975/3 "2000-10-23T15:38:14Z")
Greek style black olives come in jars. I buy 'em all the time. ---
**Author:** ![Engineer\_Don](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e95f7d/32.png) [@Engineer\_Don](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Engineer_Don)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2000, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-black-olives-never-come-in-jars/37975/4 "2000-10-23T15:52:36Z")
I don’t know how greek olives differ from other varieties. Is it part of the preparation process, or are they imported? You can find black olives in jars if you look hard enough. Local vineyards grow olives and process them in small batches. They sell them along side the wines, and I have seen those in jars. They are about 5 times as expensive as store bought black olives, though. I think the simple answer would be because the customers haven’t requested it in large quantities. I have been to at olive plant near Visalia (Lindsey) twice now, and they do both black olives and green olives w/ pimentos. The green olives go into jars, and the black olives go into cans. It would be quite possible to put the black olives in jars, but because of the way they sell them they don’t. The Lindsey plant bright packs for a huge number of supermarket chains. On a per pound of olives basic, jars are more expensive in materials cost, handling (more breakage) and shipping. Cans are acceptable to most consumers, and therefore are used. Why would you want jars, and how much more would you be willing to pay? ---
**Author:** ![Gravity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gravity/32/14322_2.png) [@Gravity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gravity)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2000, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-black-olives-never-come-in-jars/37975/5 "2000-10-23T16:02:13Z")
I know that oil-cured black olives come in glass jars. ---
**Author:** ![cleosia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@cleosia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cleosia)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2000, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-black-olives-never-come-in-jars/37975/6 "2000-10-23T20:19:31Z")
According to a stand up comedian, his father, who had just recently converted to Islam, maintained that it was a conspiracy against the blacks. They wanted to make sure the black ones couldn’t get out! ---
**Author:** ![electricwookie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3e96dc/32.png) [@electricwookie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/electricwookie)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2000, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-black-olives-never-come-in-jars/37975/7 "2000-10-24T06:08:57Z")
I’d appreciate it just for convenience I suppose…I’m very lazy so even having to open the can is somewhat of an obstacle. I did consider the appearance factor but gefilte fish come in jars and they resemble god knows what so why not black olives. I have seen greek olives in jars but I prefer the plain ole’ variety. Thanks for the ideas. ---
**Author:** ![Zenster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/cdc98d/32.png) [@Zenster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zenster)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2000, 8:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-black-olives-never-come-in-jars/37975/8 "2000-10-24T08:21:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by cleosia \* > \*\*According to a stand up comedian, his father, who had just recently converted to Islam, maintained that it was a conspiracy against the blacks. They wanted to make sure the black ones couldn’t get out! \*\* We may have seen the same comedian. The routine that I saw was hilarious and went something like this: “My father believes that everything is a white conspiracy being perpetrated against the black man. I took him to the grocery store and guess what he said?” “Looky there son, see them olives? Yeah, the green ones get to look out through the glass. But the black ones are stuck inside the can.” “So there we are at the cereal aisle, and what does he say?” “I tell you boy, just look at these boxes! Them white Sugar Frosted Flakes are Grrrreeaaat, but you gotta be cukoo for them Cocoa Puffs.” “Well after we went shopping, we headed down to the pool hall and it starts all over again.” “Yeah boy, just you see what I tell you. The white ball gets to hit all them colored balls around, but the black one is bad luck! Sink that one and you lose!” “So I got fed up and took him bowling. Now that he liked! I mean you get this big black ball and you aim it at all of these white pins and each of one of them has a little red neck…” ---
**Author:** ![Spider\_Woman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cdc98d/32.png) [@Spider\_Woman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spider_Woman)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2000, 8:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-black-olives-never-come-in-jars/37975/9 "2000-10-24T08:45:09Z")
In our area they sell black olives (which are one of the four basic food groups) in pop-top cans. ---
**Author:** ![MonkeyMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@MonkeyMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MonkeyMan)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2000, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-black-olives-never-come-in-jars/37975/10 "2000-10-26T01:56:31Z")
Aren’t greek olives in jars because they’re drowned in brine? The juice around the greek olives is painfully salty, while the juice in olive cans is usually only mildly salty. ---
**Author:** ![aseymayo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a88e57/32.png) [@aseymayo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aseymayo)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2000, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-black-olives-never-come-in-jars/37975/11 "2000-10-26T04:20:16Z")
In a previous thread about olives, **Curwin** provided this information: > [@](#): > > I mention in passing there that black olives are dyed. There are very few olives that become ripe enough to turn black. So most are dyed. In our plant they were dyed with ferrous sulfate, if I remember correctly. I think in earlier times some type of ash was used. If you want to find out what your brand of black olives uses, look at the ingredients. I think they are obligated to list the chemicals used. > > By the way, the blackening process had a terrible smell, and left my hands black (even with gloves) for days. So, if the liquid surrounding the black olives contains dye, is it possible that the dye reacts badly with glass, or that it is adversely affected by sunlight - and that’s why cans are used? Or is this idea the pits? ---
**Author:** ![curwin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@curwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curwin)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2000, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-black-olives-never-come-in-jars/37975/12 "2000-10-26T06:32:08Z")
> [@](#): > > So, if the liquid surrounding the black olives contains dye, is it possible that the dye reacts badly with glass, or that it is adversely affected by sunlight - and that’s why cans are used? Or is this idea the pits? Actually the liquid that the olives are packed in doesn’t contain the dye. If I remember correctly, the process works something like this: The green olives are sorted, and the ones intended for dying are put aside in a saline solution for a number of weeks. The saline solution is then drained, and replaced with caustic soda for a few hours, until the soda has somewhat penetrated the olives. Then the soda is drained, and it is replaced with the ferrous sulfate and tannic (I think) acid solution. The olives are kept in the dye for a few days, until the olive is black almost until the pit. Then the dye is drained, and soda is put back for another few hours. After the soda, there are two rinses of water, and then the olives are returned to the saline solution. While the saline solution ends up a little bit black, even that solution is not what the olives are packed in, but rather a new saline solution at the packaging end. I think that in my plant you could buy black olives in jars, but I’ll go along with the idea that because the liquid isn’t going to be 100% clear, black olives are mostly packed in cans.