The Caspian Caviar Range – A Guide To Our Different Types Of Caviar
Eight years ago, we began our search for the perfect caviar supplier to complement our range of exquisite foods. But it wasn’t until we stumbled across Angus and his team at Caspian Caviar that we found exactly what we were looking for.
Not only does Angus provide us with a range of fairly priced, high-quality caviar, but he and his team are also incredibly knowledgeable and helpful. It’s no wonder our customers love this range – we can hardly keep up with the re-orders!
With so many different types of caviar to choose from, we wanted to give you all the facts and our own thoughts on each of the varieties we stock to choose from.
The Caspian Caviar Range
Royal Beluga Caviar
Introduced back in 2013, this luxurious delicacy has been a customer favourite and best seller ever since. And it’s no wonder why – the taste is exquisite, making it one of the finer beluga caviars out there.
If you’re new to the world of caviar, the royal beluga caviar is a great introduction. Yes, it comes with a moderately large price tag, but trust us, it’s worth it. A 30g serving will give you a taste, but if you’re feeling a bit more indulgent, go for the 50g serving per head. Anything more than that? Well, that’s just sheer indulgence!
Where Royal Beluga Caviar Comes From
Your Royal Beluga caviar is sourced from an outdoor farm in Northern Italy, where an exceptional level of attention to detail is maintained. The farm is spring-fed, ensuring high-quality water that undergoes rigorous monitoring for temperature, cleanliness, and purity. The food and processing also receive close scrutiny, resulting in a product that is truly exceptional in taste and quality.
What Royal Beluga Caviar Tastes Like
With its 3mm diameter, the eggs of this Royal Beluga caviar boast a deep, dark grey colour that delivers an explosion of flavour and creamy richness.
While Beluga caviar is renowned for having the largest egg size and being the most expensive of all sturgeon caviars, this particular variety is sourced from Huso Huso/Baerii hybrid stock. This is the primary source of farmed Beluga caviar, maturing a full ten years earlier than the pure Beluga sturgeon. Despite this, the caviar maintains the signature taste and size of Beluga caviar without the hefty price tag.
Special Reserve Beluga (Huso Huso) Caviar
We don’t always stock pure Huso Huso Beluga caviar due to the difficulty of finding excellent quality caviar at a reasonable price. We have tasted many pure Belugas that don’t look the part, don’t taste the part, or are offered at a silly price. We did like our last offering, but sadly, it has now moved into the “silly price” bracket.
So we have found a new supplier in Greece. This example really does tick all the boxes. Do take a look at the picture of the caviar pre-tinning. It really is very impressive on the eye and tastes gorgeous as well.
What Special Reserve Beluga Caviar tastes like
The eggs are very light grey and 3-3.5mm in diameter. What does it taste like? It has a delicate, creamy subtlety that is a joy on the palate. It should be savoured with few additions, preferably enjoyed on its own.
Pure Beluga Huso Huso Caviar is not widely farmed as it takes 18-20 years to mature. Even after all that time, there is no guarantee that the fish will produce really good caviar. We have seen many poor-quality examples but were thrilled to be able to source this example.
Our comments? A good example of pure Huso Huso caviar and our priciest caviar, as it takes so long for the sturgeon to come to maturity.
A 30g tin of Huso Huso special reserve beluga caviar will already give you an idea of what it’s like. That said if you did find this a little too expensive, the royal beluga (see above) is so good that we would not hesitate to recommend it!
Oscietra Caviar
Our Oscietra Caviar is sourced from a cold water out door farm in northern Italy. The good-sized egg makes it very impressive to the eye. The eggs are about 3mm in diameter (large for Oscietra) with a colour varying from a rich golden brown to dark tobacco brown. This Oscietra has a mellow nutty flavour that lingers long on the palate and longer in the mind, just as a really good caviar should. Like the Royal Beluga, it just puts you in a good mood! Why, we could not say, but it does!
Royal Oscietra Caviar
Due to our close association with the producers, we also have an allocation of their very best Oscietra – the Royal Oscietra Caviar. It has the same fantastic taste as the normal Oscietra, but the Royal Oscietra Caviar is the cream of the crop and is the largest egg of the harvest. A truly great caviar.
Oscietra Caviar is one of the famous Caspian caviars and comes from the Oscietra (aka Russian) Sturgeon, which has the Latin name of Gueldenstaedtii. It is farmed in various European countries as well as elsewhere in the world. However, it is amazing how the flavours vary from country to country and farm to farm, although it is the same type of sturgeon. We have carried out extensive tastings and are convinced that there is not a better Oscietra on the market, and certainly not at this price.
Caspian Caviar House Selection
It may be tempting to lament the decline of wild caviar, but instead, let’s celebrate the rise of sturgeon farming and the improvement in skills and farming techniques. Without such an improvement, it simply would not be possible to offer you caviar of this quality at such a remarkable price.
The eggs are similar in size to Oscietra but are rather darker in colour, some verging towards black. The caviar is lightly salted and has a mild, clean taste. It is surprisingly complex, with flavours of the sea sprinkled with citrus undertones. Best of all, at this price, you can have lots of it!
Angus and his team have taken a tasting tour of caviar from lesser-known sturgeon breeds being farmed across Europe in search of quality, low-cost caviar to offer to you as our House Selection. In the past, we have offered various interesting hybrid caviars, such as House Selection. However, we have now been able to do a great deal with our friends in northern Italy and offer this pure Siberian (Baerii) caviar as House Selection. Long-standing customers may recall it as it was our original Sibirskye.
At the lower end of the price scale, caviar can be a rather disappointing experience as it can be rather bland and tasteless. Some appear to be no more than the by-product of White Sturgeon meat production. This is not the case with our House Selection – the only complaint we have received is that it has too much complex flavour for caviar of this price!
Our comments? A superb and very affordable caviar which will not disappoint and a best-seller!
Caviar Special Offers At The Good Food Network
We regularly showcase and promote one caviar from the range for our regular customers on our caviar special offers page – and this can be an interesting way to try a new caviar, recommended by us, with usually not insubstantial savings.