What Is Caviar? A Plain Guide to Sturgeon Roe
Caviar is salt-cured roe from sturgeon — the family Acipenseridae and its relatives, collectively the order Acipenseriformes. Under international trade rules and EU labelling law, that is the whole definition: if the eggs did not come from a sturgeon, it is not caviar, it is roe. In the United States the FDA takes a softer line and allows other roes to be sold as caviar so long as the species appears on the label, which is why "salmon caviar" and "lumpfish caviar" are legal names on a US shelf and misleading ones anywhere else.
Roemance indexes 44 varieties from 16 countries, covering 23 distinct species and hybrids. 34 of them are farmed — which is now the normal case rather than the exception.
What caviar tastes like
Good caviar does not taste fishy. It tastes of salt, cream, and cold seawater, with a nutty or buttery finish that arrives after the grain breaks. The eggs should pop rather than smear, and the flavour should build over several seconds rather than hit at once. Anything sharp, sour, or oily is a fault, usually from age or temperature abuse rather than from the species.
Roemance rates every entry on five axes from 1 to 5: salinity, butteriness, nuttiness, umami, and complexity. Across the 44 varieties indexed, mean salinity sits at 2.5 out of 5 — modern caviar is far less salty than its reputation, because refrigeration replaced salt as the preservative.
Texture does at least as much work as flavour. Grain size, firmness of the membrane, and the "pop" are what separate a memorable tin from a competent one, and they are the qualities most damaged by freezing or by leaving the tin out.
Malossol, and why salt level matters
Malossol is Russian for "little salt" and describes a cure of roughly 3 to 5 percent salt by weight. It is the standard for premium caviar and the reason fresh caviar is perishable: there is not enough salt to preserve it, only enough to season it and firm the membrane. Malossol product must be kept just above freezing and eaten within weeks.
The alternatives trade flavour for shelf life. Pasteurised caviar is heated in the jar, which stabilises it for months but softens the grain and flattens the finish. Pressed caviar — payusnaya — is heavily salted and compacted into a dense, jammy paste; it is a different food rather than a lesser one, historically made from broken eggs and prized on its own terms.
What the grade names mean
Classic, Royal, Imperial, Reserve, 000/00/0 — none of these are regulated terms. Each producer defines its own ladder, usually on grain size, colour (lighter is scarcer and therefore priced higher), and firmness. A "Royal" from one farm can sit below another farm's "Classic" on every measurable axis.
Treat grade names as a producer's internal ranking, not a cross-brand standard. The reliable signals are species, farm, harvest handling, and the tin's production date.
Farmed versus wild
Almost all caviar sold legally today is aquacultured. Wild sturgeon populations collapsed through the twentieth century, and every sturgeon species has been listed on CITES Appendix II since 1998 — 38 of the 44 varieties in this index carry that listing. Wild-caught sturgeon caviar in international trade is effectively finished.
This is not a compromise on quality. Farmed sturgeon are harvested on a schedule, processed within minutes, and traceable to a single tank — three things the wild fishery could never guarantee. The best tins on the market are farmed.
Common questions
Is caviar just fish eggs?
Caviar is salt-cured roe from sturgeon specifically. Other fish roes — salmon, trout, whitefish, lumpfish — are roe, and in the United States may be labelled caviar only when the species is named. In the EU the term is reserved for sturgeon.
Does caviar taste fishy?
No. Well-handled caviar tastes of salt, cream, and clean sea air with a nutty or buttery finish. A fishy, sour, or oily taste means the tin is old or has been stored too warm.
What does malossol mean?
Malossol is Russian for "little salt" and refers to a cure of about 3–5% salt by weight. It is the premium standard, and it is why fresh caviar must be kept just above freezing and eaten within weeks.
Is Royal or Imperial caviar better than Classic?
Only within one producer's own range. Grade names are unregulated marketing tiers, usually based on grain size and colour. They are not comparable between brands.
Is farmed caviar worse than wild?
No. Farmed caviar is harvested on schedule, processed within minutes, and fully traceable. Wild sturgeon caviar is barely legal anywhere and is not a quality benchmark.
Last reviewed 2026-08-13 · Roemance editorial