A fellow came into a bar and ordered a martini.
Before drinking it, he removed the olive and carefully put it into a glass jar.
Then he ordered another martini and did the same thing.
After an hour, when he was full of martinis and the jar was full of olives, he staggered out.
"Well," said a customer, "I never saw anything as peculiar as that!"
"What's so peculiar about it?" the bartender said. "His wife sent him out for a jar of olives."

Olives ...black, green or stuffed, you’re likely to find them in a martini glass.

Most martini recipes use olives for taste because they add salt, mainly due to their storage in the liquid material commonly known as brine.

The brine cures the olives so they can be eaten, so the contents have a great effect on the olives ultimate flavor.

The brine itself even becomes an ingredient in the famous dirty martini.

Martini connoisseurs can choose between unripe olives (green) or fully ripened (black) olives.

Either type can be eaten (most recently made famous in the recent “Matrix Revolutions” scene where the “Merovingian” eats one in a dance club.

The olive has even found more bold tastes as popular martini olive stuffings begin to pierce the drinking scene.

These martini stuffed olives include almonds, anchovies, blue cheese, cheese, herbs, mushrooms, peppers, pimento, smoked salmon and sun dried tomatoes.

If you’re feeling hot, hot, hot, then try some rocket olives or jalapeno stuffed olives.

If you want to customize a special olive taste, group your olives together and marinate them in oil, herbs, seed, juices and your other favorites that compliment/support your target martini.

You can also use vermouth soaked olives for your martini or even serve some olive tapenade (dip/spread) as a serving side with bread or crackers. Just combine pitted olives, garlic, olive oil and your favorite seasonings in a mixer, then stir, not shake.  

You’re sure to find what you want after exploring all of the alternatives. Olives, a good source of vitamin E by themselves, found a winning combination with the martini, just like jelly eventually found peanut butter.