These olives are made from gorgeous reddish-purple olives are known as beldi in Morocco. The olives are picked when they have just turned from green to a beautiful red-dove gray hue - the are also known as tournante rouge, "turning red," in French.
They are softer and than green olives, and they have a delicious, slightly nutty flavor and a hint of bitterness on the finish. They used in a whole host of dishes in Moroccan cooking, especially tagines and stews. They also offer a fun contrast in color and flavor to black and green olives.
Over the last two millennia the indigenous Berber peoples have endured invasion and conquest, each culture that came left its mark on the land, its people, their cuisine. A wealth of culinary creativity and the amazing quality of the bounty of ingredients from the everyday to the exotic make Morocco a culinary mecca.
Olive cultivation is central to Moroccan cuisine and culture. One can understand then why the Moroccans are masters of curing, marinating and infusing olives, and why they eat olives with just about every meal, even breakfast.
Olives were most likely first planted in ancient times, and each succeeding culture that invaded and stayed planted or replanted. Today the predominant variety of olive planted in Morocco is the Picholine Marocaine, the cousin to the French Picholine Languedoc. Given the milder and more consistent climate in Morocco the Picholine Marocaine grows into a superior table olive. The proof of this proposition is that France imports tons and tons of these olives to eat themselves and to export as a "Product of France" - yes most "French" Picholines that are sold in this country are in fact grown in Morocco. The best olives come from the foot of the Atlas Mountains.