Another installment in the quest to find a really good sardine with lemon that the lemon actually shows up. Wild Planet Sardines in EVOO with Lemon - Lightly Smoked. I do realize that the process of cooking and canning is necessarily going to subdue a good deal of the bright acidity that fresh-squeezed lemon possesses.
Initial impression upon opening the can: 3.5/5.
Three medium-to-large sardines of the Northwest Pacific variety. Initially, I wasn't sure exactly what constituted the lemon in this one until I found an extremely thin slice in the murk at the bottom of the can. In the hope that it would improve things, I tried bites with a little of it added on top, but was not impressed. Even any lemon oil flavor that might have been in the zest was absent.
Unfortunately, I really didn't get any of the smoked notes promised, either. Oh, well... The $3 price made them worth a try.
These are Northwest Pacific Sardines sourced from Thailand and are therefore not sardina pilchardus. The can touts them as "scale free", which they apparently were.
It seems like, for many producers, "in olive oil" only means a little squirt in the can. Once the fish are gone, what appears to remain is just juice with small droplets of oil on the surface. More seems to sploosh out onto the rim of can when you first open it.
Brand: Wild Planet
Description: Sardines in Olive Oil with Lemon
Species: Sardinops sagax or melanostictus
Country of Origin: Thailand
Source: FAO61, Northwest Pacific
Skin/Bones: Yes/Yes
Net Wt: 4.4 oz.
Price Range: $3