The Tasting Notes: American caviar is real, and the best farmed American tins are good quality. For a UK buyer, though, the country on the label matters less than two things: which fish the caviar came from and how it was raised.
You've probably seen it on a menu or scrolling online. American caviar, sometimes with names like hackleback or paddlefish attached, and usually at a price that makes you wonder what the catch is.
It's a fair question. Most people picture caviar as something from the Caspian or Europe, so a tin from Missouri or California might feel like it shouldn't count.
At London Caviar Company, we'd rather you understood what you're buying than took anyone's word for it. So, here's the honest guide to American caviar: what it is, whether it's real and how it compares.
Does America produce caviar?
It does, and it has for a long time.
At the end of the 1800s, the United States was one of the world's leading caviar producers. Plenty of caviar sold in Europe back then started life in American rivers.
Today the picture looks different. Most of the best American caviar now comes from sturgeon farms, particularly in California, alongside a smaller trade in caviar harvested from rivers in the middle of the country.
What types of American caviar are there?
There are four you're likely to come across.
- Hackleback – Comes from the shovelnose sturgeon, a small river sturgeon of the Mississippi and Missouri. It's a true sturgeon, so it's true caviar. The pearls are small and dark, and the flavour is mild and gently nutty.
- Paddlefish – Sometimes sold as spoonbill caviar, comes from the American paddlefish. The pearls are small to medium and steel grey, with an earthier, more savoury taste than most sturgeon caviar.
- White sturgeon – Native to America's West Coast and is widely farmed in California. It's generally the most highly regarded American caviar, with medium, dark pearls and a buttery, rounded flavour.
- American-farmed osetra – The same Russian sturgeon species behind our own Oscietra, simply farmed in the US. Same fish, same nutty and creamy character. The difference is the farm, not the species.
Is paddlefish caviar real caviar?
This is where people disagree.
The paddlefish isn't technically a sturgeon. It's the sturgeon's closest living relative, and the two sit together in the same ancient group of fish. Some sellers insist that rules it out as true caviar.
The international rulebook takes a different view. CITES, which governs the global caviar trade, treats roe from both sturgeon and paddlefish as caviar, and in the EU the word "caviar" is legally restricted to those two.
So, paddlefish caviar is real caviar by the official definition. Whether it's to your taste is a separate question.
What about bowfin and other "American caviar" labels?
Here's where you do need to be careful.
Sold in Louisiana as "Cajun caviar", bowfin has black roe that looks the part. But ot isn't related to the sturgeon at all, so it's roe, not caviar. Our guide to caviar vs roe explains the difference and why it matters when you're choosing.
Names can be loose, too. "American black caviar" can mean almost anything, and grand-sounding names borrowed from famous varieties don't always match what's in the tin. True Beluga, for example, comes from one species only, Huso huso. If a tin claims the name, the species should back it up.
So, is American caviar any good?
Yes, with a sensible caveat about which kind.
Farmed white sturgeon and American osetra can hold their own against good, farmed caviar from anywhere. They're well made and properly delicious.
Hackleback and paddlefish are a different proposition. They're pleasant and milder, plus usually cheaper, and many people enjoy them as an everyday tin. They just don't have the depth, size of pearl or lingering finish of the more prized varieties.
For a UK buyer, there's a practical point too. American caviar is rarely sold here, and a tin has to cross the Atlantic before it reaches you. Caviar is a fresh product that should be eaten within 48 hours of opening, so the shorter and simpler its journey, the better.
If what draws you to American caviar is a clean, approachable flavour at a gentler price, Baerii gives you exactly that from farmed Siberian sturgeon. It's the natural starting point for newcomers, and our beginner's guide to buying caviar explains why.
How do I know what's really in the tin?
Turn it over.
Every legally traded tin of caviar carries a CITES label, a short code that tells you exactly what you've got. It looks something like BAE/C/FR/2026 followed by a few more characters.
The first three letters are the species. BAE is Siberian sturgeon, GUE is Russian sturgeon (osetra), HUS is beluga and PLA is shovelnose sturgeon, the fish behind hackleback. A code with an "x" in it, such as HUSxBAE, means a hybrid of two species.
The next letter tells you how the fish was raised. C means farmed, W means wild-harvested and F means the fish was born in captivity with at least one wild parent.
Then comes the two-letter country of origin, followed by the year and details of the plant that packed it.
It takes ten seconds to read, and it's the most reliable way to know exactly what you're buying. Wherever a tin comes from, you can trust it if the label clearly shows the species, the country it was farmed in and the year it was harvested.
That's the standard we work to with our caviar varieties: four farmed sturgeon caviars, from the buttery Baerii and golden Royal Imperial to the nutty Oscietra and rich, velvety Beluga.
Choose caviar you can trust at your table
American caviar is the real thing, and the best of it is excellent. But the flag on the tin tells you far less than the species, the farming and the label on the back.
When you're ready to taste the difference, you can buy caviar online from London Caviar Company and have it delivered across the UK.
London Caviar Company is a London-based company, founded in 2021 by three caviar enthusiasts who believed premium, sustainably sourced caviar shouldn't be reserved for the few. Every tin is Friend of the Sea certified and ethically farmed, which is part of why we hold a four-star Trustpilot rating across more than 195 reviews, and there's free UK delivery on orders over £200.
Curious how one of our tins compares with something you've tried elsewhere? Get in touch and we'll help you find the closest match.