The Best Caviar Comes From China?

Ducks fly south for the winter. TPOL is planning on flying to the Far East for either the summer or fall of 2018. I already wrote about Taco Bell in Shanghai and followed up with the announcement of the stupidly big Starbucks opening there as well. Those posts reminded me of another Bloomberg article with the title, “The World’s Best Caviar Doesn’t Come from Russia Anymore.”

When I visited Russia as part of my Quest Around The Globe , I sampled the finest caviars at the finest restaurants, or so I thought. Come to find out that China is now supplying the top restaurants in the world with caviar. According to the article, Kaluga Queen is now the caviar of choice for 21 of the 26 Michelin three-starred restaurants in Paris, including Alain Ducasse at the Plaza Athénée Hotel. Seafood specialist Eric Ripert serves it at Le Bernardin in New York. Lufthansa offers it in first-class cabins. The company’s sturgeon roe was even part of President Obama’s meal at the 2016 Group of 20 summit.

The genius of their marketing is that they do not say that it is Made in China, something that would not resonate well with caviar aficionados. If you are wondering where the caviar comes from, “they are raised in the Zhejiang province of China, where the Huangshan Mountains supply the man-made Qiandao Lake with fresh, cold water. Each sturgeon has an identification number, and each tin has a code, which customers can use to trace the fish’s color as well as the results of its regular physicals.” This means that your caviar has a Fitbit ensuring it’s in tiptop shape before you shell out your hard earned euros for a product that is sold in yuan.

Can Russian caviar producers say the same? I think not.