How Caviar Is Made (Farm To Table)

This is a 1oz tin of caviar.

On average this tiny tin cost $120.

And this is where it comes from.

Everyone always ask this one question why is it so expensive?

And is it even worth it?

So we're traveling all the way to the largest caviar Farm in America to

uncover the truth and once we're done we'll taste test the cheapest

and all the way up to one of the rarest

and most expensive caviars in the world.

But first let's make some caviar!

We're with our main guy here at Tsar Nicolai one of the largest caviar

farms in America I'm Ali Bolourchi

and I'm the president

and CEO of Tsar Nicolai caviar Farm.

We're going to see our native breed of white sturgeon

that we raised in the nation's only Eco certified farm

and hopefully make some award-winning caviar today with you.

I love it.

I also stole his jacket right now.

Cold.

How are we starting our day today?

So it's bright and early it's about 7:00 a.m. we're going to do some

ultrasounds and identify the caviar ready females

and we're going to do the process of selection once

that process is over we're going to go into the caviar making area

and begin the actual row extraction caviar making process all right a big ahead

of us and lots to tackle

so it's time to mentally prepare myself all right you ready right now yeah

7:00 in the morning it's good the water is just

as cold as outside oh great 40° perfect maybe I will keep your jacket

after all so I got all suited up to get into the sturgeon tanks

but then ol you let me know one tiny important detail you know really

in this tank alone we probably have a million dollars in caviar fish

so really please Joshua don't fck this up I will do my P

that said I got in the tank anyway

and immediately felt a little overwhelmed by the cold

but my main focus was tread carefully

because there's a lot of expensive sturgeon swimming around I'm stepping I got a

sturgeon literally right in front of me I mean the fish are literally like

rubbing up against you they SWAT your crotch every

so often I kind of like it

so what we're going to be doing with the ultrasound is we're going to

get a good look inside the internal organs of the fish

so we're looking for the ovaries

and we're looking for ripe eggs themselves it's the most fish friendly it's the

least stress on them

and it's the most humane way we can investigate

that obviously in order to check we need to catch one

so I give it my best shot I'm about to try holding one see

if you can grab it yourself all right she's gone all right we're going

to give that another shot oh perfect a gigantic one good one for Josh

to handle oh I did it yeah let's go wait wait wait wait no

no I just got you here I just got you here all right well

I'll let the pros do this

so we're kind of looking for

that nice roton belly they do have a sound you can kind of feel

it too oh my god wow it's

so noticeable this fish most likely is rape

so we'll kind of ultrasound hurt

so we're going to go through the belly wow this is huge yep

so that's a ripe female you can kind of see the fine dots right

beneath that skin layer this is great news we got caviar guys fish

that size so 120 lb we're going to buy 12 lb of caviar for

that fish wow now

that we've selected some Fales we're going to move them into a separate tank

then we'll do a final taste test to determine

that those are the fish we want to harvest this is like the earliest

tasting of any tasting I think we've ever done just to describe the flavor

there's no salt present whatsoever you really get this really fresh Oceanic flavor it's

not fishy at all the pearls are literally still warm I mean this is

the freshest consumable caviar in human existence it's amazing honestly incredible what you just

got to try is like Day Zero the process of today is to kind

of see the evolution of flavor right

so here you have raw sturgeon row

and that 2% flavor you got today will grow into

that full flavor profile I'm excited to see the next round you feeling warmer

I actually do feel warm that's my jacket

so Joshua here we are at our Hatchery all of our genetics all the

future species of white sturgeon

that we produce are all done right here

so there's no impact on the wild population of fish this is where the

magic happens wow they're

so little you kind of seen now how small the egg was you had

in your hand these fish respa in April

so about 5 months of growth

and then from this size to about year two that's the fastest growing at

year three we'll sex them

and then the females will go to one tank mes go to another from

there little caviar love these little guys

but they're a handful

as far as constant attention they're the babies okay ultrasound

and final selection completed now we're moving on to processing

but first one of our missions today is to learn about what makes caviar

so expensive let's see

if Oli can shed some light just wanted to thank you for uh giving

me my jacket back

and not telling me it was wet

so Oli what goes into making caviar why is it the price

that it is you're on one of the oldest farms in the world kind

of where the technology to farm sturgeon came to life

and we try to do it

as sustainable as possible we antibiotic free

or steroid free or fish are eating what fish would eat in the wild

a lot of it is done by hand it's a 10-year-old fish

so that's a labor of love you're going to be doing some expensive work

today I love it you're going to see

if you're R rain Supreme before we process the female fish what about the

protein what about the meat of the fish guys well they use the whole

thing so here we are at the end part of our Smokehouse we're in

NOA tail operation we try to limit waste

as much much as we can this is our award-winning Applewood smoke a sturgeon

four ingredients sturgeon salt apple wood

and a little bit of brown sugar low

and slow 8 to 12 hours it kind of tastes like the turkey of

the sea you want to join me yes please unbelievable this might be the

perfect intro to fish for anybody who may not be a fan of it

what I love about it is it's incredibly mild it's not fishy

but you still have

that Oceanic Umami quality to it it's steak like it's got really intense smoke

flavor a little bit of sweetness from the brown sugar it's seasoned wonderfully it's

sort of like like a nice in between of like a nice smoked ham

and like a jerky

and like a swordfish Allin one really tasty one day my kids will grow

up and know that I've been giving them smoked sturgeon

and it wasn't smoked ham

and turkey but we'll cross

that bridge when they're older

or maybe you never have to now I was time to get my game

face on cuz I'm entering the inner sanctum where around $250,000 of caviar is

processed daily they're trusting me to help them do this

so uh let's not this up our guide through this with millions of dollars

writing on his shoulders every week CH

and yang he's kind of a caviar badass every day they process about 40

sturgeon averaging about 120 kilos total of caviar 9 lb 9 lb of caviar

from that one fish okay I saw the pros do it I think I

can handle this it's just uh you know dropping an ounce this would cost

hundreds of dollars and there's a lot more than an ounce I'll tell you

that so what's the best method of transfer put my hand right here slide

it at the bottom make sure nothing connected still drive it this way

and this way it'll all come out in one piece yeah there's something stuck

back here is it okay to pull yeah just give it a little tug

I didn't want to damage it it's kind of easy there wow there same

thing again unbelievable everybody's standing around me in case I drop it they're like

please don't get Dro at this stage I was surprised to hear

that this is now my caviar I'm responsible for it this is my caviar

there are many other like it

but this one's mine I

then stepped into the caviar room

so there's five steps

that have to happen in this room

that are crucial to making this right messing up any of these steps could

totally ruin what would be hundreds of thousands of dollars of cavar

so we start with step one screening the caviar step two rinsing step three

drying step four salting

and we got to get it down to the exact gr

and step five the final dry before we pack the caviar into tins

and have our finished product the moment we've all been waiting for I finally

get to make my own caviar

so essentially first we're taking the row we're running them through these fine mesh

screens extracting every last egg

as much as possible without damaging them you have to be very delicate very

careful in this process I'm assuming I've never done this before I don't want

to destroy thousands of dollars with the caviar I'm going to do my best

here we go so you want to press down on it just enough where

the eggs fall right out I'm

so nervous to destroy the caviar you're pressing harder than I thought you'd have

to I feel like

when we think of caviar we think oh this is going to turn into

a pace but really it's very resilient I'm kind of shocked I guess it

says a lot about the quality too right they have all these little flaps

in between them too you got to flip them over a little bit

and then open it up oh wow okay I'm understanding now I'm understanding now

this is kind of fun I like it this is analisia our main egg

washer she'll just kind of rinse around the bowl to get all the eggs

in there and then

as you can see all the impurities come up

and then she'll give it a quick pour being very careful

as to not lose all the eggs in the bowl kind of like

when you're rinsing rice in a rice cooker it is right really expensive rice

what she putting in with the droplets

so we do four Rines in total the first two Rines we put in

our mixture to soften up the water first

and after that we just do Straight water

so this would be the second wash with the mixture wow

so delicate it's just an uous process even all the way down to rinsing

with water is so detailed you want to do the last two I'll do

that so just pour it in

and kind of mix them up with the water gently pour it in around

the bowl yeah and make sure to stir up the bottom my years of

doing the right thing

and washing my rice is finally paying off you see you could probably do

it too if you wash your rice you can take

that bowl and then we'll go over to the third step

which is over here there are very few people in the world who get

to taste caviar through every part of the life cycle

and I'm excited to say

that I'm one of them we tried it raw straight from the live sturgeon

and now we try unsalted

but rinsed so how does

that change the flavor wow

so fresh there's a little bit of umami there it's got almost like an

egg yolk like creamy pop in your mouth very fresh water flavor

and texture there's so much flavor naturally sitting there it's waiting to be brought

out by the salt it's really nice

and remember after we finish up here we'll be tasting the caviar among various

other levels of caviar Rarity to see

if expensive caviar is really worth it

so my glass has been fogging up after finally realized the trick is I

just hold my glasses up

and then use my eyelashes

as windshield wipers oh my God I can see I'm about to enter one

of the last stages

which is salting the caviar extremely important it has to be done perfectly cuz

this is going to be going out to three Michelin star restaurants for our

cavar we do the malis salt

which is lower in salt content we do about like a 3

and 1/2% salt to our eggs it's not

that it's lightly salted

though in my opinion it's just

that it's salted properly bad caviar is going to be super salty

and you're not going to taste much else

but salt this is Eon he's been salting caviar for 10 years

so he knows the stuff A Little Love Taps we want the weight before

and after the salt you're going to add until it says 13.5%

so you got your salt you got your eggs just got to pour it

in my hands are like frozen to give it a good stir yeah it's

so soft it's soft

but yeah they're really firm you could be kind of rough with him make

sure your hand is all the way to the bottom like this yeah

and then from time to time bring the bottom to the top to make

sure that every single eggs get some salt in it you can fill every

individual egg they're very firm extremely resilient it also feels kind of like I'm

a kid playing with like a bunch of really tiny Orbeez how are we

feeling so far looking okay it looks good at me yeah before this sits

for a bit we're going to give this one more try let's see how

you do is this my verification moment oh thank you

so buttery so rich very mild the salt level is literally perfect I mean

perfect thank you I tried I also had an electronic scale telling me exactly

what to do this is actually a really good fish that's like a reserve

level so good Reserve quality cavr Now we move on to the tinning what

you see here is the last step right before they get tined this is

Jose what he's doing is removing any impurities from the eggs look he spotted

that boom impuri is the size of a grain of sand Jose is catching

and tweezing out by hand don't ask me why this is expensive this is

the freshest caviar you can get before they get 10 Jose isn't right

if I try a little bit oh it's incredible every single step of the

process the caviar is transformed just this bite alone immediate burst of flavor the

Umami the salt level is absolutely perfect it's buttery

and that just fresh Oceanic flavor I can eat this right now Jose can

start off and show you how to pack with 1,700 G

and then you can pack your own 500 G after

that one you see what he's doing he's gently pressing it down to get

rid of all the air pockets on the bottom

and then he'll pack it on top again my God he Stacks it

so high see how masterful Jose is

that spatula is just an extension of his arm

and by eye he already pretty much knows what 1700 is 23 it's unbelievable

I'm 28 so verying long time

but as I watched

that beautiful tin walk away it was my turn to try

and mimic 23 years of experience in a single moment it's also not easy

with everybody standing here watching you like everybody don't be afraid to kind of

press down on it

and it kind of give it like a little smear to cover all the

little her Pockets yeah I need my guy here how am I doing am

I doing okay he's bullshitting me he's bullshitting

so now at this point you're just giving a little Mound yeah just a

little bit more that looks about 500 G

so just kind of clean up the edges just a little bit holy sh

how does he do this man

but just when I thought I was in the clear oh no now I

have to start over Jose look at this at least I got the practice

now right the tin becomes

so slippery and he's moving

so fast I feel like this one's 10 times messier than the last one

give it like just another little scoop of caviar

and then that should be about 500 g yep yep

that should be good right about there

so let's see how close you are to 500 540 540 okay okay

so after packing it we're just going to take these we're going to take

it to our sterilizer

and then we sterilize for about like 30 seconds just kind of stand here

and look awkward so yeah

and then we'll just take it out

and then this goes where take it back over there

so these are little particulars instead of just putting it in I like to

kind of go at an angle

and then close it in like this press it down just a little

if you can see like the bubble where like some juices come out

then that's good enough we've made it the final step before I cure my

very own caviar I had no idea how much effort concentration would be required

to get here day in day out there's tons of people

that are behind this operation

but more specifically it takes years just to get to the point of even

extracting the caviar let alone all the other things you need

so as i s my label I finally understood

that truly fine caviar is more than just a price tag I I just

made my own caviar I feel like I'm walking into tasting this caviar with

a completely different Viewpoint of it

and a whole new Found Love of it you did 12 years in a

day you did a great job you were Relentless our shoes got wet our

socks got wet my jacket got wet

but by the end of it I think we gained an appreciation for each

other's craft that was incredible thank you

so much for doing this for us

and showing us literally your whole process you ever decide for a different career

path there may be a future here

as our Nikolai team opens the door to you Joshua okay it's good to

know that there's always a fallback now let's taste some caviar now for the

big question we've seen the whole process of caviar

but there are more varieties at many different price points than you could possibly

imagine that's why I brought in three taste tessers to try four levels of

caviar we have Martins the World's Strongest Man from 2019 is he a local

college student and Chef Christian is caviar worth it

and does it get better the more you spend let's find out the most

holistic way to enjoy caviar just purely

as it is is to do what is called a bump you put a

little dollop on your wrist you suck it off your wrist

and you eat it like

that that said we instead decided to do it on a chip with a

little bit of creme fresh I think it's the easiest way to introduce anyone

to caviar as long

as the chip is not too salted

and not over fried

then you end up with really just a crunchy vehicle to

then taste the caviar

and the creme fresh helps mellow out the flavor of the Chip

And you end up with a really nice caviar tasting something

that everyone can enjoy have you ever had caviar before I have okay

and your thoughts on caviar I like it I love caviar it's nice decent

I don't eat it often I don't go to a restaurant

and like yo I'm about to drop a bag

if it's there and it's offered I'm taking a bump

so we have our first timer with caviar

which I'm pumped for you to try this is level one we've mixed

and matched these they could be high they could be low give it a

taste let me know what you think oh I'm excited for this we're thinking

creamy I was expecting it to be like a little grittier

but that one was like a little more gel smooth like a lot of

people would assume fish eggs are fishy this wasn't offensive like it don't like

it love it hate it a little underwhelming for my taste I want it

to pop I want it to pop I don't mind it it kind of

reminds me of like blue cheese interesting interesting not

as Briny as I'd like

or I'm used to

but it's good yeah it's good it's okay it's okay yeah okay since you've

never had cavier you may not know where to place your guess on this

but how much do you think a 1 oz tin is

and give me a guesstimate on the price for

that one I want to say that's $55 $60 like $50

because it's not that great I I think it's like $1,000 $11,000 wait let's

let's let's start over $7 million just to give an idea for

that size the average price is 120 unreal really okay what do you think

this one is at would you say it's at 120 lower I think this

one's over I just have this Prejudice thinking

that the more expensive something is the less interesting it's going to be this

is actually the cheapest Cav this is a $72 o tin it is the

petan classic duranki I would argue this is the simplest low EST chillest form

of caviar nice would you say

that this is worth it of my money maybe

if someone bought it for me h no I think that's worth it for

a first time buyer I wouldn't break the bank okay let's move on to

the next round we're on to level two give it a try let me

know what you think oh

that crunch I heard from here oh that's good now

that is good that one tastes a little more salty a little more Briny

it's a little bit more on the creamy side I like flavor on the

brininess it pops better is it better than the last one yes I like

that one a little bit better better than the last one

and by how much this was a standard for

that first one right there I don't know how much more I gave it

so incremental but noticeable yes yeah I think I like the last one better

I could get more Umami from it give me your best guess on the

price for 1 oce of this

if the flavor is salty

or more strong I would assume it's more expensive maybe 90 let's go 65

120 strong guest this is the SAR Nikolai Reserve gold standard caviar you'll see

it in a lot of restaurants three Mission St restaurants

and it comes in at $140 would you say

that $140 ounz tin is worth it it is not worth it I like

the taste of that one better

so that one would be more worth it to me the price is still

it's up there up there for someone who enjoys it isn't just looking for

a bang for their butt

if you want good caviar

and you're willing to pay a solid amount this is I would say the

gold standard let's move on to the next level we're on to level three

give yourself a taste oh oh yeah that's what I was looking for

that one tastes more intense such an interesting flavor to describe besides like salty

I feel like I'm experiencing the sea right now Oceanic almost Oceanic that's the

word one word that comes to mind is sharp like in a crisp way

like champagne good level on brininess a hint of bitterness just a hint I

like it it's a little gritty like Sandy it's like a solid mix between

like a gel and

then yeah kind of like sand it's got a bit of Pop to it

but it also has got a creaminess to it I like

that one that's my favorite

so far do you think this one is better

or worse than the last one I feel like they're kind of even just

as good but not better it's very close to the first one the first

one was was very interesting it had almost like a Herby taste to it

this one is just like pure classic caviar taste what would you say you

think this one is priced at could be higher could be lower H I'm

going to guess 150 based on the last one I would say that's like

a 90 to 100 range I don't think it's one of the more expensive

ones I would give it 90

and this is the petran SAR Imperial hybrid Beluga caviar

and it comes at $315 per ounce oh my goodness jeez it's expensive

because it's considered the cream of the crop also makes the biggest eggs did

you feel like those eggs were bigger it did feel bigger bigger is not

always better so now

that you know the price is it worth it flavor wise I think the

second one I tried had more depth I enjoyed the second one more ooh

that one is worth it

if I had money ready to spend on delicious food that's the one I

would have bought compared to the last one they kind of taste the same

to me so I would say not

as worth it huge statement you just saved

so many people so much money all right we're on to level four oh

oh it's more creamy it doesn't have

that that pop that the previous one had

but it's way more fishy it almost has like a pure taste lean towards

more ikura than caviar

that one tastes more fishy to me like an ooni like Flavor almost Briny

Oceanic I like that it doesn't linger too long like it's just a perfect

amount of funk it will smooth the pearls didn't really necessarily pop more

so melt I like

that would you say this one was better than the last no it's different

I can't say it's better

but I enjoyed it more I think the previous one's my favorite cuz I

love that pop I'm craving

that when I think of caviar

so I'd say this is my second favorite give me your guess on what

this one is price T

then the saltiness makes me think it's more expensive I'll just say like 300

I'd be surprised if it was more than 200

because of the intense flavor I'm going to put this one at 200 this

is almma albino acetra this is the rarest caviar on Earth

because only one albino sturgeon is born out of every 10,000 sturgeon

and it comes in at a $445 per ounce 10 wow jeez out of

all the ones I've tasted I priced

that the most and I I think shows I didn't know it was me

that much but it definitely tasted more expensive than the rest of them this

is extra special because it comes from Maris caviar's affiliate Farm in Florida it's

the only legal American producer of purebred Beluga caviar the most prized style of

caviar in the world

and now for the last round of deliberation is this caviar worth it

as a regular consumer sorry it's not

as a minimum wage worker no

but if it was offered to me like this yes anything is worth it

if it's free yes we

then asked each taste tester to rank each level from best to worst the

second one is my top third first fourth three four 1 2 in order

4 2 3 1

so in a way the white albino was still up there for you I

enjoy The Taste the most

but the second one being almost consistent

and for that price point I would go for

that over and over

and it's the only one I think worth its price tag wow that's a

banger I love it big thank you to everyone who tastes

so what's the result is it worth it to buy caviar

and spending more money does it get you better caviar I think the simple

answer is there's no real correlation it comes down to the individual's preference

so yeah maybe spending a little more gets you a slightly better caviar

but even like Martin said the cheaper one he loved

but you guys rent is

so much more important pay rent first caviar second maybe actually groceries

that fill you maybe

if it's your first time buying caviar

or even if you're a seasoned veteran start small

and work your way up love you

so much subscribe bye y