Description
Ingredients: Sardines (Sardina pilchardus), Organic EVOO, Organic Red Pepper and salt.
The terms “spiced” and “spicy” are used pretty much interchangeably in the tinned fish world, to mean two different things: with a hot pepper (or hot pepper flavor), and with cloves/bay/carrot/hot pepper. There are many examples of both terms being used to mean both things.
We are so frustrated by how widespread this confusing inconsistent usage is that we’ve gone through our entire product line to correct the incorrect ones such that our description of “spiced” or “spicy” will always indicate which it really is, regardless of the packaging. “Spicy” = with hot pepper flavor. “Spiced” = with the cloves/bay/carrot/hot pepper flavors.
fibersides (verified owner) –
I love, love, love Small Sardines. I usually try a few different brands of small ‘dines or small mackerel when I get my tins. I just discovered this brand here on RTG, and tried my first tin yesterday. FANTASTIC FISH FOR SURE!
These Spanish babies are were perfectly formed, had that lovely meaty texture that the sardinillas do have, AND now we have the classic piri piri flavor. The flavors in this tin did seem to me to be brighter, and more interesting in some subtle way, “elevated,” as RTG says in it’s description above.
I have a few other tins from Maria Organic in my stash (small mackerel as well), and I have high hopes for those as well based on these Spicy Spanish Sardines.
Hream McDan (verified owner) –
Delightful small sardines with mild-medium piri spice, definitely a flavor depth upgrade over a lot of lower-priced spiced sardine tins. The sardines visually were very good, not perfect but above average. Skin was mostly intact and there were very few scales. The first filet fell apart like crazy for me but the rest held together nicely … texture-wise, just about perfect and consistent all the way through. Not too soft, not too firm and absolutely zero dry spots within.
Are the worth the premium price? Maybe, at least occasionally! While I wouldn’t say these are completely in a class of their own, I did walk away thinking that I pretty much got what I paid for. The oil was quite fruity, the sardine flavor had enough nuance that I really had no urge to add anything to the tin at all. The cost alone means it’s not a daily tin but honestly, this is a very good tin that is not only worth trying once but also worth getting again every once in a while as a splurge. This experience definitely made me eager to try other tins from Maria Organic.