Award Winning Olives
Since launching West Country Olives we have won over 20 awards from Great Taste, Food Drink Devon, Taste of the West and Farmshop Deli.
These food awards are a fantastic recognition in the food and drink industry, in the South West.
We are fortuante to be surrounded by so many quality, artisan producers.
We have 12 flavours currently in our range, 6 of which are our award winning best sellers.
Lets talk about our 6 front runners
Classic Blend
Classic Blend – The crowd pleaser!
A mix of two classic olives, Green Halkidiki, Mammoth Olives and Pitted Kalamata olives. With a generous amount of a herby blend including thyme, parsley, lemon juice and Bell and Loxton rapeseed oil.
Classic Blend has won two gold awards and one silver from Taste of the West.
The difference between Halkidiki Green and Kalamata Olives?
We get asked alot about the difference between green olives and kalamata olives,
We will explain the main difference between Green and Kalamata olives –
Green Olives
Green olives refer to a stage of ripeness, not a specific variety.
They are picked from the tree earlier before they have matured, are firmer and more crisp in texture. Slightly bitter to taste.
We desalinate over night in cold water to reduce the salt content, for when we produce the following day.
Our Green Halkidiki olives are sourced from Ormylia, Halkidiki a family run olive farm.
They harvest in September and we have been and visited in September 2024 and were lucky enough to meet the two brothers who own and run the business and their harvest in process.
The harvest is a busy period, they work long hours to ensure the harvest is time in the right time frame so that the olives are perfect.
Kalamata Olives
Kalamata olives are left to ripen on the tree for longer and harvested when fully ripe that’s also why they are darker in colour.
Add Kalamon….??
Garlic and Chilli
Our Garlic & Chilli Olives are the perfect balance of garlic and chilli, minced garlic, Bell and Loxton rapeseed oil and we use South Devon Chilli Farm Chilli flakes which is a blend of four different chilli varieties –
- Guajillo: adds a rich, smoky and sweet flavour – highly sough after in Mexican and TexMex dishes.
- Pasilla: this is the ripened and dried Chilaca chilli which has a rich and tangy flavour.
- Anaheim: this classic NuMex variety has a sweet flavour and mild heat.
- Big Jim: Mild, gentle and sweet flavoured to warm the taste buds
These chilli flakes really are the star of the show, the difference flavours really come through and make these a favourite for a lot of customers.
Hand Stuffed Garlic
Hand Stuffed Garlic, an absolute winner for the garlic fans out there! This has always been one of our best selling flavours, stuffed with a whole garlic clove then blended with sweet minced pickled garlic.
This absolute beauty of a flavour has won the most awards, it was the first flavour we entered for judging back in 2021 the year after we first launched. We decided to enter into the Guild of Fine Foods Great Taste awards and we won 1 Gold Star.
We have since won Gold in the Taste of the West awards 2022, Food Drink Devon 22/23 and 24/25 and Taste of the West 2025. An all round Gold winner in our local food and drink awards!
This flavour can be purchased on it’s own in our shop or as part of the 3 piece Garlic Bundle, Hand Stuffed, Rosemary and Garlic and Garlic and Chilli and you get abit of saving ordering our 3 piece bundle too!
Rosemary and Garlic
Rosemary and Garlic, another one for the garlic lovers and one of my personal favourites too!
Such an amazing pairing anyway, then adding the olives too these are so scrummy.
Mammoth green Halkidiki pitted olives mixed with sweet pickled minced garlic, a sprinkling of rosemary, lemon juice and Bell and Loxton Rapeseed oil.
These are the perfect snacking olive, but also delicious in a focaccia bread or along some bread and oil. How about the Bell and Loxton garlic oil? Now were talking!
Rosemary and Garlic has got three awards to it’s name, winning Taste of the West Gold 2022, and 2025 and Silver in the Taste of the West awards 2024/2025.
Lemon and Tarragon
Lemon and Tarragon olives, this particular flavour gets a mixed reaction but when tasted it usually completely surprises people!
It is such a fresh tasting olive flavour, a real pallet cleanser, pair with a crisp, cold glass of sauvignon blanc or a Gin and Tonic.
Mammoth pitted green Halkidiki olives, fresh lemon juice and the zest, combined with tarragon and Bell and Loxton Rapeseed oil. Refreshing and bright, the right amount of lemon and not over powered by the tarragon.
Not tried these before? Definitely worth a try see what you think.
Lemon and Tarragon has won three awards, this was a flavour that came abit later to our range.
Taste of the West 22 – Gold, Food Drink Devon 22/23 – Silver and most recently Taste of the West 2025.
South Devon Basil Pesto
South Devon Basil Pesto is one of our newest flavours to the range, I was really excited about this one.
We originally were going to use the pesto from Tideford’s but they stopped producing their pesto, so we had to go back to square one and start looking at other options.
I knew of Janey from Feast Kitchen, her food always looks incredible so I got in touch with her to see if a collaboration was something she would be interested in.
Luckily for us it was! Janey got to work experimenting with some recipes, we spoke about the option of keeping it nut free and vegan and she produced the most utterly delicious, moreish pesto which were so excited to pair with the olives.
Mammoth pitted green Halkidiki olives are marinated in this vibrant pesto, basil, garlic, sunflower seeds (to keep it nut free) and a vegan cheese to give it a creamy texture. These are my absolutely favourite olives, this flavour is so good we have converted lots of olive haters into lovers too! Including my Dad!
We entered Basil Pesto into the Taste of the West awards before we even launched this flavour in 2023, and it struck Gold straight away! It was amazing to have an award to a flavour before we even launched it.
Since then and more recently winning Silver in the Food Drink Devon awards 24/25 and Gold again in the Taste of the West awards 2025.
Our other flavours
As well as our award winning olives we have also got 6 other flavours in the range.
Green Pitted
Kalamata (Stone remains)
Moroccan Black (Pitted)
Picante Pimento
Hot Chilli
Nocellara Del Belice (Stone remains)