Is an olive a fruit?

The olive is a fruit. Specifically, it is a drupe with a fleshy, outer covering that surrounds a pit. Olives are found on trees that can live to be hundreds of years old. Olives have been cultivated for thousands of years, and there are hundreds of types of olive cultivars.

Most olives are too bitter to be eaten straight from the tree. To improve the taste, they are cured or processed, before they are eaten as a snack or used in recipes. Olives contain a good amount of copper, iron and oleic acid, which is a monounsaturated fat that helps regulate cholesterol levels and blood pressure.