On Fri, 28 Sep 2018 21:18:21 +1000, Brice >
wrote:

> 1. Wrinkled black: these are the best industrial olives. They're black
> and wrinkled because they're ripe.
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> 3. Smooth black olives: don't get these. They're really green, unripe
> olives that have been made black using a chemical process. A naturally
> black, ripe olive's always wrinkled.

I live in an olive-growing region of an olive-growing country and I
can say from personal experience that ripe olives on the tree are not
wrinkled. I know the olives are ripe because I've picked them off the
tree and eaten them myself. (Nothing to write home about, by the way;
they're bland to the point of "blah".)

I'm told that the wrinkling is a byproduct of the curing process that
uses mainly or only salt, which extracts water from the fruit. As for
smooth-skinned olives, the curing process may involve lye but not
necessarily. Kalamatas for example are smooth-skinned but they're
cured in brine. The additional water in the brine keeps the skins
smooth.

--
Bob
St Francis would have done better to preach to the cats