Welcome back to our monthly oyster tastings!
We took a break from shipping oysters during the summer heat wave. We are beginning again with a nice small but meaty cocktail oyster. These oysters are considered the best oyster for the novice oyster eater and shucker. They are easy to handle and not overly strong in flavor or brine, and typically have a sweeter finish to them.
BEAUSOLEIL OYSTERS
Beausoleil Oysters are farmed in floating trays in Miramichi Bay, New Brunswick, which is about as far north as you can push a virginica oyster. Suspended just below the surface, gently jostled by the waves, they never touch the sea floor.
Specie: Crassostrea virginica
Origin: New Brunswick, Canada
Water Temperature: freezing to 64°
Tides:
Wild: 4 years
Average Size: 2 - 2.5 inches
Available: year around
FLAVOR PROFILE
BeauSoleil oysters offer both salty and sweet tastes with hints of hazelnut, while offering a full and firm flesh. “The flavor is refined and light, like a Caraquet, but with a bit more brine, and something of the yeasty warm-bread aroma you get with good Champagne. This makes them the perfect starter oyster;” says Rowan Jacobson.
Suggested Pairing: Champagne
BRINE INTENSIT
Medium
GROWOUT METHOD
Suspended just below the surface in floating trays, gently jostled by the waves, they never touch the sea floor. Half the year they grow in floating bags near the surface, enjoying as much warmth and food as the Canadian coast has to offer. When Canada’s dark winter sets in, they are suspended in deeper waters to ride out the ice. Because of their carefully controlled, rocking, uncrowded environment, Beausoleil shells are always perfect.
GROWER
Atlantic Aqua Farms provide product that has been raised, harvested and processed in an environmentally sustainable manner.