How Much Caviar Do I Need? A Simple Guide to Portions & Quantities

The Tasting Notes: Plan around 20g per person when caviar is a starter, 10g when it's on canapés and 40g when it's the main event. Multiply by your guest count, round up to the nearest tin and you'll never run short.

Ordering caviar for a party comes with a very particular worry. Buy too little and it's gone before half the room has tried it. Buy too much and you're left with an expensive tin and 48 hours to finish it.

The good news is that the maths is simple once you know one thing: what job the caviar is doing. A spoonful on a blini at a drinks party is a different proposition from a tin in the middle of the table for two.

At London Caviar, it's one of the questions we're asked most often, so here's the full answer. Per-person amounts, tins for every group size, what the quantities look like and when a kilo makes sense.

How much caviar do I need per person?

It depends on the role caviar plays in the meal. There are three settings, and each has a planning figure you can multiply by your guest count.

• As a garnish or on canapés – Allow 5 to 15g per person. Plan on 10g, which gives everyone two generous blinis or a few small bites alongside other food.
• As a starter or tasting – Allow 15 to 30g per person. Plan on 20g. This is the sweet spot for most gatherings, with enough for several bites each and room to try it with different accompaniments.
• As the main event - Allow 30 to 50g per person. Plan on 40g. This is for anniversaries, milestone birthdays and serious caviar lovers, where the tin is the whole point of the evening.

Stuck between two figures? Go up. Leftover caviar is a far nicer problem than a guest left wanting. Once you've settled the quantity, our guide to how to serve caviar covers spoons, temperature and accompaniments.

How much caviar for 2, 4, 6, 10 or 20 people?

Here's the planning figure worked through for common group sizes, with the tins that get you there. Every variety comes in 30g, 50g, 125g and 250g tins.

For the larger groups, Oscietra and Beluga also come in 500g and 1kg tins, which saves juggling several smaller ones.

And remember, a tin that lands a little over your total is right. A tin that lands under it isn't.

What changes how much people eat?

The planning figures are a starting point. But a few other things can push the real number up or down.

What else is on the table?

The biggest is how much else is on the table. If caviar is one canapé among eight, people take less. If it's the only thing being passed around with the Champagne, it disappears quickly.

Who are your guests?

Your guests matter too. Newcomers tend to take small, curious tastes, while enthusiasts go back for more. If you're introducing friends to caviar for the first time, the lower end of each range is usually plenty, and our beginner's guide to buying caviar is a good place to point them afterwards.

How’s it being served?

How it's served makes a difference as well. Caviar eaten from the spoon goes further than you'd think, because it's rich and people savour it. Piled onto blinis with creme fraiche, it goes faster.

Try or pass?

And don't assume everyone will eat it. At a larger party there will usually be a few guests who pass, so plan for the people who'll tuck in rather than every name on the list.

What does 30g of caviar look like?

Grams are hard to picture, so here's a rough sense of scale.

• A 30g tin holds about six canapé portions at 5g each, or somewhere around ten to twelve small half-teaspoon tastes. That's a generous tasting for two, or a proper indulgence for one.
• A 50g tin tops about ten blinis. It's a lovely starter for two, or a garnish for a group of four or five.
• A 125g tin is where things start to feel abundant. That's around 25 canapés, or a proper starter for six.
• A 250g tin covers a drinks party of twenty at canapé portions, or a caviar-led starter for ten.

How many grams are in an ounce of caviar?

Many guides online work in ounces, so here are the conversions. One ounce is 28.35g.

So when you see a recommendation of 1oz per person, that's roughly 28g, which sits at the top of the starter range. Half an ounce is about 14g, and 2oz is about 57g, a touch more than the top of the main event range.

How do I split quantities across more than one variety?

Keep the total per person the same and divide it between tins. Don't double it.

If you're serving a starter of 20g each to four people with two varieties, that's 80g in total, so a 50g tin of one and a 30g tin of the other. Guests get to compare without anyone overeating.

Tastings are where this really comes into its own. Pour from mild to bold, starting with the buttery Baerii, moving through the golden Royal Imperial and nutty Oscietra, and finishing on the rich, velvety Beluga. Our guide to hosting a caviar tasting at home walks through the rest of the evening.

The simplest way to do it is a caviar tasting selection. The trio's three 30g tins work nicely as a tasting for four to six, with no guesswork over which tins to pair.

Is one big tin better than several small ones?

It depends on how you're serving it.

Larger tins work out cheaper per gram, and one big tin in the centre of the table makes a real statement. For a single sitting where everything will be eaten, that's the way to go.

Several smaller tins are the better choice when service is spread out. Once a tin is open, it should be eaten within 48 hours, so opening tins as you need them keeps the rest sealed and fresh. It also lets you hold a tin back in case the party runs longer than planned.

Anything unopened goes straight back into the coldest part of the fridge. The Food Standards Agency recommends fridges run at 5°C or below, and caviar is happiest colder still. Our guide to storing caviar has the detail.

Who buys 1kg of caviar?

More people than you might expect. A kilo is the tin for weddings, big birthdays, corporate receptions and anyone hosting on a grand scale.

At canapé portions, 1kg serves around 100 guests. As a starter, it's closer to 50. If caviar is the main event, a kilo feeds around 25 people handsomely.

A kilo also works out cheapest per gram of any tin size, which is why hosts planning for a crowd often go straight to the big tin rather than stacking smaller ones. Both Oscietra and Beluga come in 1kg. Oscietra is the crowd-pleaser, with its nutty, creamy character, and Beluga is the showstopper.

The one thing to plan for is the 48-hour window once it's open. For a single large event, that's no problem. For something spread across a weekend, two 500g tins are the smarter buy.

Order the right amount for your table

Getting the quantity right comes down to one question: is caviar the garnish, the starter or the star? Answer that, multiply by your guests, round up to the nearest tin and you're done.

When you've worked out your number, you can buy caviar online from London Caviar Company, with every tin size across our caviar varieties ready to mix and match.

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.

Still not sure how much to order? Tell us how many guests you're expecting and how you're serving it, and we'll suggest the tins. Get in touch and we'll help you get it just right.