By Wendy Williams
IT is the latest hot ingredient being used in haute cuisine.
And now a Cadiz-based company is the first in Spain to be producing white caviar.
The luxury product, also known as ‘pearls of Aphrodite’ due to its circular shape and pearly colour, comes from the eggs of a type of snail, native to Latin America.
Now however, the company Blas Hervias in Puerto Real is breeding snails in various parts of northern Spain and France to supply the new product.
According to the company, its scent and flavour “will make you discover new and rich experiences through your palate”.
Apart from the colour, white caviar differs from the better known sturgeon caviar as its eggs are bigger.
A spokesman explained: “If the sturgeon caviar tastes like the sea, the white caviar is a journey through the mountains, autumn leaves”.
The company has high hopes for the gourmet product, expecting to distribute 300 kilos of the caviar abroad in the first year.
But with 50 grams costing a massive 90 euros the delicacy does not come cheap and is for those with a more extravagant taste.
The south of Spain is already famous for a number of extremely high quality ingredients.
As well as its famous Jamon Iberico and goat’s cheeses, some of the world’s best ecological caviar comes from Riofrio, in Granada.
On top of that the olive oil from Andalucia is famous around the world, while saffron is grown in a few regions.
Meanwhile, black truffles can be found in Jimena de la Frontera, while the “world’s best” cruelty-free foie gras comes from Pateria de Sousa, on the Andalucia/Extremadura border, near Zafra.