Description
Ingredients: Sardines (Sardina pilchardus), tomato sauce (tomato pulp, olive oil, cloves, black pepper, laurel), cucumber, chilli, carrot, salt.
Check out the Mouth Full of Sardines blog post about Pinhais.
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.
TRM (verified owner) –
Opening the tin revealed three plump sardines in a vibrant red tomato sauce. The sauce has a nice tomato flavor, not sweet too sweet or acidic, with a potent spice that sneaks up on you. The heat is nicely balanced with the other flavors, so it does not overwhelm the palate. Served with a fresh bed of micro-greens, radish, chickpeas, and warm ficelle. One of my favorites for sure.
newsletteracct (verified owner) –
This tin contains a few lovely sardines with just enough flavorful tomato sauce. I ate these flaked onto crackers with some cucumber and a squeeze of lemon – the added acidity really brought the fish to life. Looking forward to adding another of this tin to my next order!
Hream McDan (verified owner) –
Winner (of course)! Equally as great as my beloved Nuri in spiced tomato sauce, much to zero surprise since Pinhais also makes Nuri. The only differences I could detect are easily attributed to small variations between batches – the Pinhais tin had slightly less sauce and perhaps slightly better sardine texture. (Note: I ate a Nuri spiced tomato right after this one to validate how similar they were and I am confident that I’d not be able to tell the difference in a blind taste test … but you know what, I should probably buy another and eat them side-by-side just to make sure.)
Sauce = perfect balance, seasoning, and thickness. Fish = flaky, moist, and absorbed the ideal amount of sauce. Tin = brilliant.
Summary: BUY. It’s as good as the Nuri spiced tomato if not slightly better. For me, it’s as good as a tomato’d sardine can get. The Pinhais / Nuri spiced tomato sauce continues to reign supreme.