In Spain, which experienced a drought in the summer of 2012, the olive harvest is predicted to be down by as much as 60 per cent this year compared to last – from 1.6 million tons to 700,000 tons.
This has created a shortage in extra virgin olive oil and pushed up prices as a result.
[. . .]
But because Spain normally provides between 40 and 60 per cent of the world's supply, there are fears there will not be enough olive oil this year to meet worldwide demand.
Few things are tastier than a piece of crusty bread dipped in a splash of EVOO infused with garlic and Parmesan. Oh, Lord, I'm making myself very hungry here.
Comments
I'll believe there is an olive shortage when Taco Bell stops selling the three-olive enchirito.
My goodness, if they do that, I'll have to switch to the Bell Burger.
Or else switch to Chi-Chi's for green olive specialties.
Do you suppose Olive Garden will start putting pearl onions instead of olives in their gin/vermouth drinks? (People today don't know what a real martini is.)
A real martini: Pour in vermouth. Swirl in glass. Pour out vermouth. Pour in gin. Enjoy.
The original recipe was 3:1, dry gin to sweet vermouth, with a green olive.
The extra-dry craze hit in the late 1950s, about the same time as Ian Fleming popularized "shaken, not stirred". Extra-dry is for people who love the taste of gin and hate martinis (and I admit, it's an acquired taste.) And shaking instead of stirring simply results in more ice melting, and you end up with a watery drink.
But a chocolate martini? Martinis are NOT candy. Drink chocolate all day and all night, and god bless you, but don't call it a martini unless it IS one.
Leo:
Although I commend your method for a GOOD martini, you're not doing it the OLD-FASHIONED way...
Pour gin into glass. WAVE vermouth bottle OVER glass. Put down vermouth bottle. Enjoy.
:)
Here you go, Harl. Check out this post on "the original martini." http://pjmedia.com/rogerkimball/2013/03/08/martinis-the-original-underst...
I seem to think that I once knew ehat originally it called for a twist of lemon, but like my waistline, my hairline and my good manners, my memory is the victim of my geezerhood.
Remember Virgil I Partch, the cartoonist? He dida VIP cartoon in the 50s, showing a guy with a bunch of empty martini glasses an a half-full small wide-mouth bottle. "My wife sent me out to get a bottle of olives, but didn't say I had to get them at the grocery, he's telling the fellow on the next stool.
I'm not a fan of the juniper. If not for the olive, I'd never accept a martini. Tequila, rye, scotch, irish whisky, schnapps, comfort, yeah, but not gin. And if it's vodka, it better be tasteless. These new "vodkas" are a blasphemy!