One of the most common questions we get when someone is shopping for oysters is - 'what is the difference in flavor between them'? This can be a tricky question to answer because flavors will fluctuate with water conditions and the calendar, but we always try to at least offer up some basic starting points. For this week we called on the culinary expertise and creativity of our good friend Clay Morton, and he was kind enough to take on task of evaluating each oyster that we have in our list. Hopefully his notes will give you an idea on which oysters you might prefer, but I've always found that it's most fun to have a bit of a variety so you can actually taste the differences - it's similar to wine tasting! They're all excellent... and arguing about which one is The Best (and why) is always a fun time. :)
Kumamoto:
- softly metallic
- hint of celery
- slightly creamy
- mild/light cucumber
- light salt
- mild seaweed
Blue Pool:
- very cantalopy and slightly sweet
- medium salty
- savory aftertaste, almost yeasty/fresh bread
- rounded non-metallic, all around mellow
Kennedy Creek Pacifics:
- cucumber
- slightly metallic
- very firm snappy texture
- balanced saltiness
- pleasant lingering aftertaste
- mild kelp-ish aftertaste
Shigoku:
- very clean and bright
- pleasant briny-ness
- almost buttery
- light cucumber aftertaste
- no tidal flats notes!
Sea Nymph:
- very well balanced
- lightly briny
- creamy and round
- savory and melon together, like prosciutto and melon
- very pleasant back of the mouth aftertaste
- tastes like a perfectly fresh halibut smells