I got these Sea Tales Sardines in Extra Virgin Olive Oil on sale at Whole Foods mainly to give the brand a try. I figured I should start with their basic sardines in EVOO. Let's see how it went.
Initial impression upon opening the can: 3/5.
he first thing you notice when you open the can is that it's two large, fat, humongous pilchards. Maybe it's not like that all the time, but this time it was. To be honest, for the money spent on these, I'd really rather a can of pilchards be 3 to 5 fish. Bigger fish just means bigger spines and bones. Also, there were more scales than I expected to see at this price point.
On the upside, these had a fairly clean aroma and taste, which is good. The olive oil tastes blandly neutral, not quite what one would expect of a good EVOO.
The package uses a paper overwrap typical of some of the premium tinned fish brands. It has some nice verbiage about family and Cornwall, UK history. But these are produced in Portugal. I later learned it wasn't uncommon for Cornish fishing fleets to bring their catch across the Bay of Biscay to Portugal, either for processing or for sale.
These also come in a "EVOO with lemon" version, but I'm now ambivalent about trying them. I'm going to try to look online to see if this "two big fish per can" is a regular thing or not.
Brand: Sea Tales
Description: Sardines in Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Species: Pilchards
Country of Origin: Portugal
Source: FAO27, Northeast Atlantic
Skin/Bones: Yes/Yes
Net Wt: 4.2 oz.
Price Range: $5-6