🫒 Toffahi

Toffahi (Teffahi) is an Egyptian table olive cultivar from the Fayoum district with very large fruit, grown above all for green olives. The tree is hardy and self-fertile, the fruit is very fleshy and holds only 5–7% oil. The cultivar is unsuitable for black olives: the fruit becomes too soft during processing.

The cultivar originates in the Fayoum district. It is grown in Giza, Fayoum and Beni Suef, and in Nubaria, Fayoum and along the desert road to Alexandria it covers about 10% of olive orchards. Across Egypt as a whole, Toffahi accounts for about 6% of the olive area.

The tree is hardy and comes into bearing early; it is self-compatible, so it needs no pollinator variety. It flowers and ripens early, and its yields are medium. The fruit has a great deal of flesh relative to the stone, and the stone comes away easily. There is very little oil — 5–7%.

The cultivar's peculiarity is that the fruit changes colour early yet is unsuitable for black olives: during processing it becomes too soft and starts to ferment. So Toffahi is prepared mainly as green olives. The fruit is easily damaged in transport and handling, and the tree suffers from the olive fly, leaf moths and leopard moth caterpillars.

What follows from this. Cultivars do not all suit every curing method, and Toffahi shows it well. Its large, juicy fruit is excellent green but is passed over for black olives because it softens. Look for Toffahi among green olives, then. And because the fruit bruises easily, it is worth checking that the olives in the jar are whole, with no dented sides.