A Tale of Three Chinese Caviars

One Transparent - One Restrained - One Subtle

This post is highly edited due to a critique of N25’s website which did not mention the country of origin. N25 is a highly respected brand of Chinese produced caviar with quality control processes for sorting and grading caviar in Germany. After a rousing debate about provenance due to the origin reference here of :

The founder after a brief discussion modified the web site and to include a more accurate origin and I rewrote the piece below:

Here is the edited version:

Kaluga Queen, Astrea and N25 are three leading, quality Chinese caviar producers with very different marketing strategies. Kaluga Queen proudly displays it’s Chinese credentials including home page photos of Thousand Island Lake, Astrea is aimed more at the high end American market You can find their Chinese roots if you look for them. N25 actively markets themselves as a German centric caviar brand with a big emphasis on their German quality control center . Collectively, these brands have helped lower the price of Chinese caviar by around 35% allowing a new younger generation to enjoy caviar albeit on Doritos to be shared on Tik Tok.

A further benefit of the Chinese farms is that they have decreased demand for wild Caspian Sea caviar. Who knows? Maybe one day thanks to these producers - we may one day be able to try wild Caviar again.

Kaluga Queen is proudly Chinese starting with their logo:

The company produces 60 tonnes of caviar annually, and is the largest producer of caviar in the world, responsible for 60% of world production. Kaluga Queen supplies caviar for 21 of the 26 three Michelin star restaurants in Paris

Media coverage of Kaluga Queen has often focused on the Chinese origins of the brand but not the quality, noting the lack of association between China and caviar. A piece in “that's” magazine noted that while Kaluga Queen is "hugely successful", the brand still finds it difficult to gain recognition (respect) in the international community.

Astrea caviar was founded by two Chinese women who downplay but do not eliminate the origins of the brand which is mostly marketed to high end customers in the USA:

It is strange that on the official website you find this slightly generic version in the About section but if you search via google you can find this alternate About US which proudly describes with text and photos the Chinese farm in detail.

N25 is in a league of it’s own when it comes to premium marketing by focussing on their German based sorting and quality control operation.

N25 means the 25th latitude where the Chinese farm is located. The web site references Germany in. a number of spots

N25 also uses the international Cite codes with which they boast “unparalleled traceability from sturgeon to tin”. Here is another screen shot:

After a bit of nudging - N25 is editing it’s web site to avoid consumer confusion about country of origin.

What To Do?

Given all of the fraud in the European caviar market, these brands provide a beacon of quality. All caviar should be required to clearly print Country of Origin on the tin. If Champagne can be protected…why not Caviar?

I contacted the founder of N25 (Who lives in Beijing according to his Facebook page) for this article - and we had a productive exchange about to improve the caviar market.

The Restaurants

Restaurants need to better train their staff. In a sample of 4 consecutive dinners with Chinese caviar in Munich with Paul Grinberg, we received 4 confusing answers from servers as to the question of country of origin. These ranged from “Germany” to “The Himalayas”. When challenged, the information was corrected. No-one ever answered: “China” at first prompt. Restaurants, who often loudly broadcast the providence of their ingredients should avoid confusing diners about their caviar country of origin.

Next up a review of European Caviar Farms.