Rajasthani olive wine or tea, anyone?

In the 16th century, intrepid Spanish seafarers decided to take some of their beloved Seville orange trees across the Atlantic and plant them in the sunny isle of Curaçao, perhaps for a taste of home in the Caribbean. But the immigrant oranges turned out to be bitter and inedible, but their aromatic peels were eventually distilled to make ‘blue’ Curaçao liqueur. Those who brought Israeli olive trees from the Negev and planted them in Rajasthan’s Thar desert had more commercial motives given the rising interest in healthy cooking oils. But it seems a failed crop or two have led our desi olive growers to emulate the spirit of those 16th-century Spaniards as there’s now news of olive ‘wine’ — with medicinal properties — and ‘tea’ being developed here, apparently from the leaves of the trees.

While olive tea may still pass muster, oenophiles and the industry tend to nitpick about the definition of the word wine, broadening it only enough to include the fermented juice of fruits. Leaves will then be a stretch, especially as not even traditional olive-growing countries have attempted a wine from the fruit or the foliage, particularly since presence of sugar — not oil — is needed in order to produce alcohol. But considering a divine miracle once turned water into wine, the spirit of entrepreneurship may yet ferment an olive leaf.