Somewhere in your kitchen you might have a bottle of olive oil.

When you made that purchase you probably didn't think twice about it.

But believe it or not, olive oil used to be one of the most important products in the world.

While today it's almost exclusively used for cooking in the past it had a wide

variety of uses which made it so valuable. The olive oil you consume today is

very similar to the product consumed thousands of years ago and in some cases literally so.

Learn more about olive oil and how important it was and is to the world on this episode of

Everything Everywhere Daily. everything everywhere daily. For most people, olive oil is just one of many options of cooking oil you can buy at the store, and olives are just something to garnish a martini or a

bloody merry. If all of the olives in the world disappeared tomorrow it would probably

be a bad thing but the world wouldn't end. However at one time olives really were a huge deal. They were on a par with wheat as being

one of the most important products in the ancient Mediterranean, and olive oil had a wide variety

of uses throughout the economy. The scientific name for olives is

Olia Europa or the European olive. And this is actually a misnomer because olives were and

are grown all around the Mediterranean including North Africa and the Middle East.

Olives are the fruit of the olive tree. We don't usually think of them as a fruit because they aren't sweet, but they are most definitely a fruit.

And likewise, that makes olive oil sweet, but they are most definitely a fruit.

And likewise, that makes olive oil a fruit juice.

If you ever want to be really clever, ask someone if they'd like some fruit juice

and then give them olive oil.

Hilarity will ensue.

Researchers aren't exactly sure where the olive tree originated,

but it was definitely somewhere around the Mediterranean.

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