Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Savor production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: I'm Annie and I'm more in Vocal Bomb and today
Speaker 2: we have an episode for you about Kalamada olives.
Speaker 1: Yes, and I have to tell you I love a
Speaker 1: Kalamada olive. But wow, did this episode give me some trouble?
Speaker 1: Because people love they love talking about olives, and they
Speaker 1: love talking about olive oil.
Speaker 2: Uh huh, And I think it was mostly talking about
Speaker 2: olive oil. Finding the information about table olives specifically, which
Speaker 2: is what we as humans call the things that we
Speaker 2: eat out of hand like a Snack's that?
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Less information is about.
Speaker 1: That, yes, and confusing information often, but I feel we
Speaker 1: have done our best here and a lot of legally
Speaker 1: used to talk about which you know, yeah, I'm someone
Speaker 1: that enjoys that. Well, Lauren, was there any particular reason
Speaker 1: this was on your mind?
Speaker 2: I think I realized we had never done an olive
Speaker 2: episode and maybe maybe you suggested something about olives for
Speaker 2: Mother's Day?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, my mom does love olives.
Speaker 2: Okay, heck yeah, and I and I didn't select it then,
Speaker 2: but I was like, yeah, sure, let's let's return to that.
Speaker 2: Let's have that be a headache for today. Sure, and
Speaker 2: here we are. I do also love a Columnuda olive
Speaker 2: and this this was an episode where the cravings are
Speaker 2: so strong I need am as a plate immediately immediately.
Speaker 1: My mom actually gave me some.
Speaker 2: Oh I hate you a little bit right now. Oh
Speaker 2: it's fine. I you know, I haven't checked. I strongly
Speaker 2: believe that somewhere deep in my pantry, I have like
Speaker 2: a little packet of Colmuda olives that I got. And
Speaker 2: there was like a year or two ago I was
Speaker 2: ordering a lot of those like food boxes because I
Speaker 2: was like, Wow, I'm not feeding myself. I guess I
Speaker 2: need to figure out a way to get other people
Speaker 2: to make choices for me, so that'll actually do this thing.
Speaker 2: And I think I still have a packet from that.
Speaker 2: I hope, so me too, hope. So I mean I
Speaker 2: can buy more. It's not a problem, just you know. Yeah,
Speaker 2: but it would be nice, It would be so good, it.
Speaker 1: Would be nice. Well, yes, I think because this was
Speaker 1: our first foray in two oliops, we have been putting
Speaker 1: off olive oil. Oh yeah, that's one of the reasons.
Speaker 1: It might have been a little bit difficults But never fear,
Speaker 1: I've found many rabbit holes. I wanted to go.
Speaker 2: Down cool awesome.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yes, so one day many episodes will come from
Speaker 1: this one. But here's our entry, our appetizer. But I
Speaker 1: guess that brings us to our question. Kalamada olives what
Speaker 1: are they?
Speaker 2: Well? Kalamada olives are a cultivated variety of table olives
Speaker 2: that are picked when they've reached this deep reddish purple
Speaker 2: black in color. They're oblong around it at one end
Speaker 2: and pointed at the other, a little over an inch
Speaker 2: in length and like half that in width, maybe three
Speaker 2: by one and a half centimeters, fleshy, with a thin
Speaker 2: skin and a stony, oblong seed in the center, which
Speaker 2: can be removed during processing. They're fermented in brine and
Speaker 2: then packed in either brine olive oil, sometimes with some
Speaker 2: nice like heady herbs, giving them a final texture that's
Speaker 2: pleasantly soft and chewy with a slight snap from the skin,
Speaker 2: and this buttery, rich, briny savory flavor that's slightly fruity, tart, funky.
Speaker 2: The flavor and texture will depend on the exact process used,
Speaker 2: you know, like like they can be milder or stronger,
Speaker 2: kind of meltier or chewier. They can also be dried
Speaker 2: resulting in a somewhat meteor texture. They're often eaten as
Speaker 2: they are as a snack or part of like a
Speaker 2: snacking plate, though they can also be tossed whole or
Speaker 2: sliced into salads, pastas, or stews, or chopped fine to
Speaker 2: make spreads or dips. They're kind of a powerful flavor,
Speaker 2: but the sort of thing that keeps you coming back
Speaker 2: for more. With that combination of like rich and bright,
Speaker 2: they're like a sparkle in the darkness.
Speaker 1: Yeah, just have a lovely, tame, zippy like when you
Speaker 1: bite into it, it does feel like oh yeah, oh yeah,
Speaker 1: kind of a jolt of electricity almost.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, okay. The Kalamada variety of olives are named
Speaker 2: for the area they come from, which is around the
Speaker 2: city of Kalamada in southwestern Greece on the Peloponnese Peninsula.
Speaker 2: Olives in general grow on these evergreen trees that can
Speaker 2: range from like a bit over human height to like
Speaker 2: sixty feet that's twenty meters tall. Their trunks tend to
Speaker 2: be increasingly gnarled the older that they get. The trees
Speaker 2: have these like leathery silver green leaves, and they thrive
Speaker 2: in hot subtropical weather and can with stand drought, though
Speaker 2: of course, like their fruit yield won't be as good
Speaker 2: if they don't get enough water. Makes makes sense. Yeah,
Speaker 2: They flower in the spring around April to May, and
Speaker 2: apparently kalamada trees in particular, they're a variety of the
Speaker 2: overall species of olive of like fruiting olive. Apparently, lamadas
Speaker 2: are bad itself pollinating, like you really have to have
Speaker 2: other cultivars nearby in order to make it happen. If
Speaker 2: they do get pollinated, the flowers will develop a single
Speaker 2: fruit through the summer that will mature in the fall.
Speaker 2: For table olives, they're picked when they're mature but not
Speaker 2: quite ripe, around November. In the case of kalamadas, oil
Speaker 2: olives are picked after they're ripe around like December, because
Speaker 2: the oils develop as they ripen. The fruits are either
Speaker 2: handpicked or gently shaken from the trees. And olive fruits
Speaker 2: are drupes, meaning that they have a pit a seed
Speaker 2: that's encased in a hard outer shell in the center
Speaker 2: of the fruit, like a peach or a cherry. The
Speaker 2: thing is fresh. Olives don't last very long, and kalamadas
Speaker 2: in particular are a little bit bitter, So how do
Speaker 2: you preserve them while also reducing the bitterness? Fermentation? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: yeah yeah. The fermentation process used on kalamada olives is
Speaker 2: called Greek style processing. It involves submerging the olives in
Speaker 2: a brine solution that's like six to ten percent salt
Speaker 2: and storing them for four to twelve months, adding more
Speaker 2: salt to the top of the vessels as needed. During
Speaker 2: this time, the olives will undergo spontaneous fermentation thanks to
Speaker 2: the wild bacteria and yeasts that grow alongside them, including
Speaker 2: some familiar lactic acid bacteria, which are friendly bacteria that
Speaker 2: eat sugars and poop acids, which helps guard the olives
Speaker 2: against unfriendly bacteria and yeasts. The acid also adds flavor,
Speaker 2: and both the bacteria and yeasts produce other flavors as well.
Speaker 2: Bacteria and yeast poop. Researchers are still looking into the
Speaker 2: exact strains that facilitate the process. One DNA study found
Speaker 2: hundreds of strains of both bacteria and yeasts in each
Speaker 2: sample that they tried working together in these lovely little microbiomes. Generally,
Speaker 2: industrially produced kalamada olives are made without starter cultures, which
Speaker 2: is a little bit like weird in the fermentation universe,
Speaker 2: but I love it like definitely. Some of the research
Speaker 2: happening right now is looking at helping producers standardize their
Speaker 2: brine microbiome by developing starter cultures. So I don't know
Speaker 2: what the future will hold, but here we are. After fermentation,
Speaker 2: the olives can be dried, or they can be packed
Speaker 2: in brine or olive oil. Before packing, they might be pitted,
Speaker 2: after which they might be had quartered, sliced into rings,
Speaker 2: or diced. Pitted klamadas might be stuffed with something like
Speaker 2: a little bit of garlic or a peel of lemon
Speaker 2: or orange. They can also be smoked, or the packing
Speaker 2: liquid can be seasoned with herbs or spices. There is
Speaker 2: a pedo protected type of Kalamada olives, which are Kalamada
Speaker 2: olives of Myscinia, Macinia being the prefecture that Kalamada is
Speaker 2: the capital city of. I think, and I ran into
Speaker 2: some translation related difficulties while reading for this episode, but
Speaker 2: I think the PDO process involves hand harvesting, making a
Speaker 2: slice lengthwise down the al of before fermenting, and then
Speaker 2: after fermenting, marinating in vinegar and olive oil. I think
Speaker 2: if you know more about this right in, But I
Speaker 2: do know that only about five percent of kalmada olives
Speaker 2: carry this pdo And yeah, however precisely they're made. They're
Speaker 2: used on their own as a snack or part of
Speaker 2: a messe plate that's like a snack or appetizer plate,
Speaker 2: or as a topping for whatever savory dish. Or it
Speaker 2: can be cooked into stews to add a little bit
Speaker 2: of brine and brightness in there, or they can be
Speaker 2: chopped into like a topknot or something.
Speaker 1: Oh.
Speaker 2: They're just so fruity but also like meaty, chewy and
Speaker 2: also salty savory at the same time.
Speaker 1: They're lovely. They're really lovely.
Speaker 2: Minus the crunch. I feel like their nature snack chip.
Speaker 1: Oh yes, I was reading all the ways people use
Speaker 1: them as part of this research, and I was like,
Speaker 1: why have I never thought of topping roasted cauliflowers?
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, right, any kind of roasted veg just yeah,
Speaker 2: like like pull it out of the oven or off
Speaker 2: the grill and toss a little bit of kalamado olives
Speaker 2: on there. Yeah, why wouldn't you?
Speaker 1: It's what have I been doing? Anyway? Well, what about
Speaker 1: the nutrition?
Speaker 2: Olives are a good for you, but nutrient dense food.
Speaker 2: They've got a bunch of good fats and proteins, plus
Speaker 2: a bunch of vitamins and minerals and other micronutrients. A
Speaker 2: surfing size is like five to eight olives, so like,
Speaker 2: watch your portion sizes. They do contain a lot of
Speaker 2: sodium too, so watch out for that if that's something
Speaker 2: you're watching out for.
Speaker 1: Dang all right, good to know, good to know. Well,
Speaker 1: we do have some numbers for you.
Speaker 2: We do, okay, So as I said, cultivated olives all
Speaker 2: belong to the same species, but there are over two
Speaker 2: thousand different varieties. Grease produces the second most table olives
Speaker 2: in the world after Spain, and Kalamada olives make up
Speaker 2: a little bit less than a third of Greece's table
Speaker 2: alive market, being the second most important cultivar that they produce.
Speaker 2: Grease harvests around ninety thousand tons of Kalamada olives every
Speaker 2: year from some thirteen nine hundred farms. About ninety percent
Speaker 2: of those olives do go towards the production of table olives,
Speaker 2: not olive oil, of those that are. Of those table
Speaker 2: olives that are produced, eighty five percent are exported to
Speaker 2: other countries, and of that total, about sixty percent are
Speaker 2: pitted before being sold.
Speaker 1: Interesting because I ran into this trouble a lot in
Speaker 1: the history section as well, whereas like how many were
Speaker 1: being exported, how many were being pitted? Difficult?
Speaker 2: Yeah, those are numbers from I want to say, right
Speaker 2: around like twenty eighteen to twenty twenty. The PDF I
Speaker 2: was reading wasn't dated.
Speaker 1: I love it when, which is fun.
Speaker 2: But the scientific paper that reference to the PDF was
Speaker 2: from twenty twenty, so I strongly believe it was from
Speaker 2: the past couple of years. I think that that also
Speaker 2: because they're a natural product. Of course, you're going to
Speaker 2: have different harvest numbers every year. I read a bunch
Speaker 2: of different ones. Ninety ninety thousand tons seemed like a
Speaker 2: decent recent one.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2: If anyone was like in a life or death situation
Speaker 2: where they needed to answer completely honestly about this, I
Speaker 2: just want to make sure that you have the full story.
Speaker 1: Wow, and also let us know what was going on.
Speaker 2: I Hopeulley, you don't, but right right, Oh goodness, Okay.
Speaker 2: Greece does hold a festival of olive oil and olives
Speaker 2: every year. This year it was held in the city
Speaker 2: of Kalamada in like late May early June. I think
Speaker 2: it was in its tenth year, and that it's mostly
Speaker 2: like an agriculture industry learning networking conference. They've got presentations
Speaker 2: and exhibitions from researchers and other academics, plus representatives from farms,
Speaker 2: oil mills, packagers, producers of the machinery and other technologies, buyers, exporters,
Speaker 2: and the restaurant industry. They also have tastings and contests
Speaker 2: for both table olives and olive oil us a cocktail
Speaker 2: competition involving the winning olive oils, and apparently it is
Speaker 2: the largest expo of its kind in the Mediterranean. Oh, listeners, please,
Speaker 2: oh my goodness, let us know if you've been Oh
Speaker 2: my goodness, Yes.
Speaker 1: I'm involved.
Speaker 2: Oh heck, it sounds really cool in a very niche,
Speaker 2: agricultural nerdy kind of way. Yeah. And I will say,
Speaker 2: because you made a face about the olive oil in
Speaker 2: cocktails situation, y'all. And he definitely made a face. I
Speaker 2: I was wondering about that being like a translation issue
Speaker 2: as well. Certainly table olives can go into uh into cocktails,
Speaker 2: But my dear and dearly departed friend Darryl did used
Speaker 2: to make a martini for his wife mel with all
Speaker 2: of oil instead of olive brine, because she didn't like
Speaker 2: olives but wanted the martini experience. And it was really
Speaker 2: just a little floater of olive oil on there, like
Speaker 2: a really nice robust one, so good with the vermouth
Speaker 2: and the in the gin. Yeah, anyway, I.
Speaker 1: Can see that working, especially if you have a good
Speaker 1: quality olive oil.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, because kind of plays off of the
Speaker 2: like fruity spicy flavors of the gin. Anyway. Okay, here
Speaker 2: we are one last number for you. A mature olive
Speaker 2: tree can produce some fifty thousand flowers a year, only
Speaker 2: about one to two percent of which will actually develop
Speaker 2: into fruit.
Speaker 1: Huh. That's my brain is struggling to make sense with
Speaker 1: those numbers because it seems like a lot and then
Speaker 1: like a little.
Speaker 2: I mean, but that's we love all of But that's
Speaker 2: one to two percent. One to two percent of five
Speaker 2: hundred thousand is still quite a bit.
Speaker 1: Yes, that's true. That's true. Okay, okay, all right, Well
Speaker 1: the history is quite tangly, but we do have a
Speaker 1: history for you.
Speaker 2: We do, and we are going to get into that
Speaker 2: as soon as we get back from a quick break
Speaker 2: for a word from our sponsors.
Speaker 1: And we're back. Thank you sponsors, Yes, thank you. Okay,
Speaker 1: different episode episodes, but olives in general are quite old.
Speaker 1: Fossil evidence suggests that the leaves of olive us go
Speaker 1: back over two point five million years, a long time.
Speaker 1: They likely originated from what is now Syria and Asia Minor,
Speaker 1: although I've seen a bunch of other their places floated
Speaker 1: as well. Historians believe humans domesticated the olive tree around
Speaker 1: eight thousand years ago, making it one of the first
Speaker 1: trees people ever domesticated, which demonstrates the importance, perhaps of
Speaker 1: this crop. Evidence indicates people were eating all of us
Speaker 1: picked from the wild earlier than that, though at least
Speaker 1: ten thousand years ago. The discovery that the olive could
Speaker 1: be pressed for oil happened soon after domestication and changed
Speaker 1: the landscape of so many cuisines. But again a separate
Speaker 1: episode or probably episodes, because olive oil is huge, and
Speaker 1: every thing I was reading wanted to make this all
Speaker 1: about olive oil, so it was kind of complicated, and
Speaker 1: here I am doing it, But just a couple facts
Speaker 1: in here. In nineteen ninety seven and all of oil
Speaker 1: press dating back six five hundred years was discovered. Older
Speaker 1: presses going back eight thousand years have been discovered too,
Speaker 1: so it was really happening in tandem. From what we know,
Speaker 1: at least in their early days, the pits and oil
Speaker 1: may have been used as a fuel for fires, but
Speaker 1: olives not today olive oil. By eight hundred BCE, all
Speaker 1: of cultivation was widespread across Greece. Kalamada alive specifically are
Speaker 1: indigenous to Greece's Messenia region and particularly its capital and
Speaker 1: port city, Kalamada, a location with local water resources and
Speaker 1: a mild climate. A lot of the specifics are lost,
Speaker 1: but the production of this variety was probably going strong
Speaker 1: from about three hundred CE to the fourteen fifty CE.
Speaker 1: They were a big part of the local diet but
Speaker 1: also economically valuable. According to one source, one of the
Speaker 1: first known written mentions of Kalamada olives particularly comes from Homer,
Speaker 1: who described them as black as wine. They were eaten
Speaker 1: as table olives, fermented with brine to make the bitterness palatable,
Speaker 1: but a good chunk of olive production went to olive oil.
Speaker 2: Certainly, table olives like klamados are one of the oldest
Speaker 2: and most continually popular fermented vegetables of the Mediterranean basin.
Speaker 1: Yes and Kalamada olives were prized by the ancient Greeks
Speaker 1: for their flavor and perceived health benefits. From the early
Speaker 1: days of their cultivation. Growers picked them by hand, and
Speaker 1: then they went into a multitude of products on top
Speaker 1: of that, olives in general or just a really popular
Speaker 1: food stuff in the region. Soon that popularity spread from
Speaker 1: Greece to other parts of Europe like Rome and Spain
Speaker 1: and North Africa. Trees were planted via cuttings, and the
Speaker 1: by products of olive oil production were used to feed livestock.
Speaker 1: The tree was fairly hardy and long lasting, which made
Speaker 1: it even more profitable. Olive oil could be used to trade,
Speaker 1: and the all of itself gained a cultural significance in
Speaker 1: places like Greece, where the olive branch became symbolic of peace.
Speaker 1: Producing olives and olive oil was fairly lucrative for the region,
Speaker 1: and entire cities focused almost entirely on growing olives. But
Speaker 1: a lot of specifics around early production of Kalamada olives
Speaker 1: are missing. Researchers have made educated guesses, though one is
Speaker 1: that the early brine used was probably saltwater, and then
Speaker 1: the olives were possibly flavored with available ingredients. Another thing,
Speaker 1: because olives are such a historically culturally valuable product, there
Speaker 1: has been discourse and are argument about who was growing them,
Speaker 1: and who could grow them, and if they were as
Speaker 1: commonplace in ancient Greece as we often have been told
Speaker 1: as the narrative often goes or instead a luxury crop
Speaker 1: grown and enjoyed by the wealthy. If you want to
Speaker 1: learn more about that, entire books exist, which speaking of
Speaker 1: fun rabbit hole of the episode, but a brief investigation
Speaker 1: that I did suggest that people started stuffing pimentos into
Speaker 1: olives in France in seventeen hundreds to mitigate some of
Speaker 1: that bitterness, and the process was done by hand. This
Speaker 1: was the earliest date I could find two people stuffing olives,
Speaker 1: which people sometimes do with kalamados. But again this was
Speaker 1: a real brief research session and I didn't even include
Speaker 1: pimento in my search, but it was pretty much most
Speaker 1: of what popped up. But I did learn that stuffed
Speaker 1: all of innovations continue, and I'm interested to learn more
Speaker 1: about it.
Speaker 2: I do love like a blue cheese stuffed olive, or
Speaker 2: like a feta stuffed olive.
Speaker 1: It's really nice. Yeah, yes, my brief research indicates that's
Speaker 1: relatively recent and I want to go down that rabbit
Speaker 1: hole so bad maybe one day.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Olives were grown pretty much only right around the
Speaker 2: Mediterranean basin until European colonizers from that area started exporting
Speaker 2: them as they traveled during like the fifteen hundreds on.
Speaker 2: They mostly remained a Mediterranean product, though until like five
Speaker 2: hundred years later, around the year two thousand, serious cultivation
Speaker 2: efforts began in climate appropriate areas of China, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina,
Speaker 2: and Chile.
Speaker 1: And then jumping way ahead confusing legally es all right,
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety six, the European Union granted a protected designation
Speaker 1: of origin to Kalamada olives produced in Messenia under its
Speaker 1: Greek name. However, this caused some controversy amongst all of
Speaker 1: girers outside of the region in Greece who grow olives
Speaker 1: using the same cultivar and felt like they should be
Speaker 1: able to use the name. This went all the way
Speaker 1: up to the Supreme Court in Greece in twenty eighteen.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and for a while there producers of Kalamada variety
Speaker 2: olives outside of this Pedo area had to call their
Speaker 2: olives kalaman olives, which I'm pretty sure is a synonym
Speaker 2: in Greek, but isn't a well known term outside of.
Speaker 1: Greece, so right, So in twenty twenty two, the government
Speaker 1: decreed that all producers of this variety of olive could
Speaker 1: use the Kalamada name in Greece. Perhaps obviously, the number
Speaker 1: of exported Kalamada olives went up pretty significantly after that,
Speaker 1: which was sort of the crux of the whole argument
Speaker 1: for Greek all of farmers outside of that region. But
Speaker 1: then producers outside of Greece started using the name, so
Speaker 1: no one's happy, so say ya. Producers appealed this twenty
Speaker 1: twenty two decision in hopes of re registering the regional
Speaker 1: requirement of their products. In twenty twenty four, they registered
Speaker 1: the alive on the World Intellectual Property Organization are WIPO,
Speaker 1: which is an international legally binding register for things like
Speaker 1: appellation of origin. It's actually way more complicated than all
Speaker 1: of this, so if you want to look into it,
Speaker 1: you can, and it's been going on for a long time,
Speaker 1: these legal battles and disputes around who can use the name.
Speaker 1: Have been going on for decades and people have strong opinions,
Speaker 1: and the articles about them. I like, I'd never want
Speaker 1: to make a light of something like that, this because
Speaker 1: it is people's livelihoods. Oh sure, yeah, but the articles
Speaker 1: around them are kind of like and then this person
Speaker 1: through shade this person, and it's.
Speaker 2: Just it's a lot of drama. It is, it is.
Speaker 2: It comes off very dramatic and again, yes it is serious,
Speaker 2: but it's sort of reported on like a reality TV
Speaker 2: show and I'm like, what is going on? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Exactly, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2: Other serious note. As with many agricultural products, climate change
Speaker 2: is affecting all of production. Recent droughts in places like Spain,
Speaker 2: France and Morocco have caused a drop in Kalamada crop yields.
Speaker 2: For example, in twenty twenty three, due to like weird
Speaker 2: temperatures and low rainfall, the oil producing segment of the
Speaker 2: Kalamada region was down about a third of its usual crop.
Speaker 2: I didn't see a number for the table producing areas,
Speaker 2: but still researchers are working on it though. The EU
Speaker 2: actually launched an all of Climate project in twenty twelve
Speaker 2: to help test technologies for like adaptation to and mitigation
Speaker 2: of climate change around the Mediterranean and specifically all of
Speaker 2: growing regions. The city of Kalamada is participating in a
Speaker 2: EU mission for one hundred cities to go climate neutral
Speaker 2: by twenty thirty, and farmers are integrating measures like solar power,
Speaker 2: optimized water use, reduction of plant waste through composting up,
Speaker 2: further boosting of soil health through crop irrigation with like
Speaker 2: nitrogen fixing legomes, etc.
Speaker 1: Yeah, people are definitely really thinking about this.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, ways.
Speaker 1: To mitigate these things, and you can just tell people
Speaker 1: are very passionate about it. Oh yeah, even in the
Speaker 1: EU dispute, people really care about this product.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's really all of the olive oil are really
Speaker 2: integral to the Mediterranean basin. Too many Mediterranean basin diets
Speaker 2: and and and cultures and and so. Yeah, like it's
Speaker 2: it's really cool to see the work being done, you know,
Speaker 2: upsetting that it has to happen, but but really cool
Speaker 2: to see the work being done.
Speaker 1: Yep, as usual, it's sad that it's it's necessary, but
Speaker 1: glad that it's happening. Yeah. But yes, listeners, we would
Speaker 1: love to hear from you if you've been to oh yeah,
Speaker 1: Kalamada if you've been to the festival we mentioned.
Speaker 2: Yes, I understand that Kalamada City is also really full
Speaker 2: of cats. I understand that it is a like like
Speaker 2: a like a outdoor cat haven city. So let me know, yes,
Speaker 2: I mean, let us know, but let me know personally.
Speaker 1: All of it's welcome. We would love it. Any of
Speaker 1: your favorite uses.
Speaker 2: Of calaun Oh, yes, yeah.
Speaker 1: But that is what we have to say about the
Speaker 1: Kalamada all over now it is.
Speaker 2: We do already have some listener mail for you, though,
Speaker 2: and we are going to get into that as soon
Speaker 2: as we get back from one more quick break for
Speaker 2: a word from our sponsors, and we're back.
Speaker 3: Thank you sponsor, Yes, thank you, and we're back with listens.
Speaker 3: I feel like they're very bright, even though I think
Speaker 3: most of my experience with them has been in kind
Speaker 3: of dark bars, you know what I mean, like darkly
Speaker 3: litch mm hmm. But they just have such a bright
Speaker 3: zip that makes me feel like a spring day.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a brine and the and the again the
Speaker 2: fruitiness and the snap kind of so good.
Speaker 1: They're so good. Oh my gosh, okay, it's great. Well,
Speaker 1: we've got some to two listener males here that are
Speaker 1: kind of oddly related. Okay, okay, about chips and cheese,
Speaker 1: but they're not about the same episode.
Speaker 2: Cool, yeah, I love it.
Speaker 1: I love it. Okay, So joy wrote camon beer is
Speaker 1: probably my favorite cheese. I don't remember when I first
Speaker 1: had it, but I do remember one evening when I
Speaker 1: was living in Warsaw. I was running low on food
Speaker 1: and didn't feel like doing a grocery run. Some of
Speaker 1: my remaining food items were canon beer and pear. I
Speaker 1: sliced them both up and topped the pear with the cheese.
Speaker 1: The creaminess of the canon Bear and the slight sourness
Speaker 1: of the pear combined into one of the most delicious
Speaker 1: things I've ever made. I'm currently living in Taiwan. The
Speaker 1: Seven Eleven's here carry a Korean brand of cheese flavored cookies.
Speaker 1: One is Cheddar flavored and the other is Camon Bear.
Speaker 1: They are a delicious, thought slightly odd, sweet treat. And
Speaker 1: Joyce sent pictures of these products, and I'm very intrigued.
Speaker 1: I Camon bear chip.
Speaker 2: Cookie cookie not even a chip, It's a cookie.
Speaker 1: Oh, cookie makes more sense to me. I don't know
Speaker 1: why I thought it was a chip. Well, I think
Speaker 1: it's the picture on the bag looks like a chip.
Speaker 2: Oh well, then you know better than I do.
Speaker 1: Sure, well, who knows, I mean, I don't know, but
Speaker 1: I think that it makes sense. I can see a
Speaker 1: canon bear snack item like this whatever. It may be
Speaker 1: a triangular snack item, but also camm beer and pear.
Speaker 1: Oh yes, absolutely sure. That's one of the like instances
Speaker 1: in life when it seems so simple and it's one
Speaker 1: of the most magnificent things.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, Oh, those moments are so good.
Speaker 1: They are they really are.
Speaker 2: I don't think I've ever specifically tried that before, but
Speaker 2: the next time pairs are in season, that is a
Speaker 2: thing I'm making a mental note. Yes, yeah, and I'll
Speaker 2: have to look into like, like we really I really
Speaker 2: need to look in more into these cheese flavored cookies
Speaker 2: and or chips, because this is fascinating, Like sweet slash
Speaker 2: savory cheese products are not really a thing that we
Speaker 2: do in the United States, and I love that other
Speaker 2: places do them because I'm like, can you bring that here?
Speaker 2: Can you?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 2: Can you do that for me? I mean I could
Speaker 2: do it myself, but I would like if I could
Speaker 2: just yeah, get into the store Christine wrote, sadly, I
Speaker 2: can't answer the question about the different types of cheese
Speaker 2: doritos in Australia. Corn is one of the many foods
Speaker 2: that hates me, so I avoid corn and corn products,
Speaker 2: and that means I haven't eaten Doritos for years. I'm
Speaker 2: honestly not sure I ever have. I would probably like
Speaker 2: the plane original one's best because I always found other
Speaker 2: flavored corn chips too much. As you probably found in
Speaker 2: your research, Doritos in Australia have to compete with the
Speaker 2: locally developed CC's of corn chips. These were first marketed
Speaker 2: in the early nineteen eighties by chip manufacturer Smith's and
Speaker 2: were an instant hit. Doritos were manufactured under license by
Speaker 2: snack giant Arnit's share Arnits soon and the corn chip
Speaker 2: wars were on. Like everything, Australians have strong opinions about
Speaker 2: which is best. My memory of CC is far stronger.
Speaker 2: This is quite possibly because of the ads. The Smith's
Speaker 2: Company ads of the nineteen eighties were quite something. Ccs
Speaker 2: were introduced with the tagline you can't Say No, which
Speaker 2: is still in use today, and the ads were really,
Speaker 2: really weird. It honestly would not surprise me if the
Speaker 2: first ad creator had indulged in some mushrooms as he
Speaker 2: developed the concept, and the Smith's executives said, we don't
Speaker 2: get it, but we love it, so do them all
Speaker 2: like that. Just make sure you keep the bondage. In
Speaker 2: the nuns. Many of the ads featured people with exploding heads,
Speaker 2: and there was almost always people tied up and a
Speaker 2: pair of CC addicted nuns, and those nuns are still
Speaker 2: in some of the ads. Thanks to the confusing round
Speaker 2: of corporate mergers, takeovers, divestments and rebrands, ccs are now
Speaker 2: manufactured by Snack Brands Australia, not Smith's. Dorito's have returned
Speaker 2: to PepsiCo Australia, who now own all the Smith's varieties
Speaker 2: not owned by Snack Brands, and as far as I
Speaker 2: can determine, Smith's and Dorito's are produced in the same plant.
Speaker 2: I hope someone can clear up the mystery of the
Speaker 2: different cheese flavors of Dorito's for you. I'd risk the
Speaker 2: intestinal distress, but to be honest, I was never really
Speaker 2: enamored of corn chips in the first place.
Speaker 1: It okay, don't put your girl.
Speaker 2: Yeah no, no, no, don't do it. Don't do it. Yeah,
Speaker 2: especially if you don't really like them. That's yeah, Yeah,
Speaker 2: that's a lot, that's a lot. I need to look
Speaker 2: up these ads now, because.
Speaker 1: They signed it like a wild time. I was reading this,
Speaker 1: like wait, what, wait, what? We've got to look into this? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I have so many questions.
Speaker 2: Although I'm I am glad that that other places. Every
Speaker 2: time I see advertising from anywhere else, I'm like, oh,
Speaker 2: We're not the only ones. Ads are bonkers everywhere, Okay, cool?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I mean I'm sure if I searched my brain,
Speaker 1: I could come up with something pretty easily that was
Speaker 1: equally bizarre. This sounds like it is is, yeah, but
Speaker 1: it does sound quite especially for them to still be
Speaker 1: doing it.
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, that they that they at no point went like, okay,
Speaker 2: let's take these drug addled ads off the air and
Speaker 2: perhaps do something that makes sense for corn chips. Nah.
Speaker 1: No, I mean that kind of fits with Dorito's.
Speaker 2: Does it doesn't not?
Speaker 1: I know this isn't specifically Dorito's that you're talking about here,
Speaker 1: which is very interesting, all these corporate mergers and confusions,
Speaker 1: but yes, it does that whole vibe of the Douredo
Speaker 1: esque chip. This this falls in line with for sure.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, but I do hope. Another listener responds and
Speaker 1: answers the question of the Dorito's flavors in Australia.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, or anywhere.
Speaker 1: Anywhere, anywhere. We want to know. It's very important and
Speaker 1: we'll look into these ads.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I the power of corn chips compels me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yes, me as well. Oh well. In the meantime,
Speaker 1: thanks to both of these listeners you're writing in. If
Speaker 1: you would like to write to us, you can or
Speaker 1: email is hello at saverpod dot com.
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