6 Aldi Olives, Ranked Worst To Best

Adding olives to a recipe can completely transform the dish's flavor profile, giving it a salty, briny, and fresh-tasting quality that makes you want to go back in for another bite — it's why we love adding them to pastas, salads, and beyond. Olives are also delicious for snacking on all on their own, with that burst of brine that's hard not to adore. But why pay more for your olives when you can get them from a grocery store known for offering particularly affordable pantry staples? Aldi stocks a wide variety of olives, ranging from more basic preparations to stuffed varieties that pack an even bigger punch of flavor.

I went to my local Aldi to pick out all the varieties I could find, and then I tasted them side by side to get a sense of which ones tasted best. Honestly, I was pleased by the overall quality of these olives — I think they're all pretty solid. However, some are tastier and more unique than others. My primary criterion for this ranking was flavor, with the best-tasting olives coming out on top, although I also took novelty into account. The next time you start craving olives, Aldi might just be the best place to shop.

If you're primarily using olives as part of a recipe (and you're looking for black olives specifically), then Aldi's Tuscan Garden Black Ripe Pitted Large Olives could be your best bet at the budget grocery chain. They are quite large, with a meaty bite that feels satisfying. Because of their size, they're pretty easy to slice, which is how I most often see black olives used in recipes. They have perhaps the mildest flavor of any of the olives on this list, with that expected umami quality that can add a touch of complexity to dishes. To me, the flavor isn't super interesting — most of the other olives featured on this list are brighter with a bolder flavor — but they get the job done if you're just looking for a subtle olive note.

Instead of coming in a jar like the other olives I tried, these olives are canned, meaning that you can't just use a few and put them back in the fridge in their original container. To me, that seems more inconvenient than the jarred olive options out there. I'm also not the biggest fan of black olives myself, which makes me less inclined to buy these again. However, they're not a bad black olive option.

Pimento stuffed olives offer an arguably more dynamic take on olives than a standard pit-in variety. While I prefer the taste of unpitted olives, there's something to be said about the ease of using pitted ones. Plus, the visual appeal of that red piece of pimento in the olive is a selling point. The Tuscan Garden Pimento Stuffed Spanish Manzanilla Olives are a pretty good Aldi option if you're looking for that classic olive look and flavor.

These are the smallest olives of the lineup, which makes them great for a tiny bite. They're not quite as meaty as some of the others you'll find here but still have a satisfying full, plump quality. The pimento provides some sweetness, but it seems like it's mostly there for freshness and appearance. Overall, these olives have a pleasant taste and classic look that makes them perfect for a martini, especially if you're not into the more niche stuffed varieties. They'd be tasty served on a toothpick with other ingredients, like cheese or cured meats, offering acidity to the bite.

As an avowed garlic lover, I can't turn my back on a garlic-flavored product, and Aldi's Specially Selected Garlic Stuffed Olives are no exception. If you too love the boldness and intensity that garlic can offer, then these olives are probably up your alley as well. However, that all comes with a caveat: The garlic in these olives tastes raw, which means the flavor is especially strong. You're not getting the sweet, mild quality of roasted garlic but instead the spicy, powerful punch you'd get from a raw clove. There's also some crunchiness to contend with here, which creates a contrast with the soft, creamy flesh of the olives themselves.

Personally, I love these olives, and I think they'd taste particularly delicious sliced and added to a simple bowl of pasta. That said, I have no problem eating raw garlic, since I like that strong, almost spicy flavor. If you don't enjoy a strong, punchy garlic, then this may not be the product for you. Additionally, I wouldn't use this in a martini, as I think the garlic could overwhelm the other ingredients. Overall, though, for garlic lovers, this jar absolutely has its appeal.

There are so many types of olives out there to try, but Kalamata olives are one of my favorites. They have a fruitier, arguably more complex flavor than other varieties, with a softness and suppleness that gives them an appeal on the textural front. Again, I prefer when they're unpitted, but Aldi's Specially Selected Kalamata Pitted Olives are still quite tasty for a pitted variety. To me, they have a richness, fattiness, and smoothness you don't always find in lower-quality olives. The brine in this jar is also richer and oilier than any of the others I tried, only adding to that lusciousness. The olives are quite soft, offering a nice alternative to the snappier-textured olives that appear on this list.

If I were trying to find a plain, unstuffed Aldi olive to eat on its own, I would definitely choose this variety, although I also think that they'd be great in plenty of recipes. Yes, there are more interesting selections at the grocery chain, but I think that these olives are perhaps the tastiest on their own (even if others taste better or more complex when stuffed with other ingredients).

Now, from the olives on this list, Aldi's Specially Selected Jalapeño Stuffed Olives might just be the most interesting and novel of them all. Although you can find plenty of pimento-stuffed olives, I haven't seen jalapeño stuffed olives anywhere else. That's probably just one reason so many Aldi shoppers adore these jarred olives. The olives themselves seem to be pretty high-quality, but it's that touch of spiciness and crunchiness stuffed inside each olive that'll have you going back for another bite.

This could be a good olive for a charcuterie board, since it can perform well on its own while pairing beautifully with other elements. They offer a touch of heat from the inclusion of the jalapeño, so keep that in mind if you're averse to spice. I love spicy food and seek it out as often as possible, so I love that hint of heat — though I'm not accustomed to experiencing it in olive form. And if you want to make your dirty martini taste a little bit spicier, you absolutely have to give these bad boys a try.

Now, I understand that blue cheese olives can be a polarizing olive variety, since not everyone loves the funkiness of blue cheese. However, if you are into them, I think that Aldi's Specially Selected Blue Cheese Stuffed Olives are worth checking out. They're available at a relatively affordable price point, and the cheese quality seems quite high; it is soft and creamy, with just the right amount of funkiness to keep things interesting. And you're not just getting a tiny little dab of cheese — there's actually a decent amount of it stuffed into the center of these olives. The olives themselves taste bright and fresh, with a soft snap that gives them an interesting texture when combined with that creaminess in the center.

Of course, these are perhaps the best olives on the entire list for a martini, especially if you like yours extra dirty. They're also an excellent addition to snack and charcuterie boards, since you're getting more than a basic olive flavor with this variety. This could just be your next favorite aperitivo staple.

I grabbed all of the olive varieties I could find at my local Aldi and tasted them all at room temperature to better pick up on their flavor nuances. I tried them alone, without any other accoutrements. The most important criterion I considered while ranking these olive varieties was flavor. I picked the varieties that tasted the best (which, in this case, generally means the most interesting and/or complex). However, I also considered novelty, with more unique stuffed varieties tending to rank near the top of the list.