Day one at the Fancy Food Show, cruising the aisles for interesting, new and outrageous specimens, I speared a blue cheese stuffed olive and  popped it in my mouth.

Despite expecting nothing shy of rapture, I couldn’t swallow the fetid thing. Hearkening back to the oil-slicked martini wherein I first experienced that precious, pungent, briney gem, I was sorely disappointed.  But filled olives were in heavy rotation on the convention center floor, so I set out on my quest.

I wish I could say that I rediscovered the joy that I found in that cocktail years ago, but alas it was not so. The blue cheese stuffed olives I sampled are listed from best to worst, but I’m still searching.

• Santa Barbara Olive Company: The olive nearly overpowers the cheese, but the filling is authentic, albeit weak in flavor, and has a bit of tooth to it, unlike every other one on the list.
• Miss Leone’s: pleasantly tangy with a bit of a spicy bite to the olive, but the filling is the consistency of whipped cream.  If I want blue cheese foam, I’ll go to wd-50 or Alinea.
• Mezzetta Napa Valley Bistro: Balanced flavor but kinda bland and the whipped cream filling was a little gritty.
• Delallo: Gray cheese; tastes like a cheap pickle.
• Silver Palate Kitchens:  The label says it comes from New Jersey and the flavor confirms it.  There was hardly any bad faux cheese in the middle but I’m not sure if that made it better or worse.
• Barhyte: Completely out of blue cheese stuffed samples early on the second day, but claiming to have the best.  If they had the best, they would have opened another jar to prove it to me and end my quest.

(Note:  All I can say about Divina‘s is that they don’t taste good after a mint.  My mistake.)