Santo Amaro - Authentic European Sardines in Olive Oil & Red Piri Piri, Pepper, Hand-Packed Canned Sardines in Spicy Olive Oil, Wild Caught Portuguese Sardines, Lightly Smoked, 21g Protein, Low Mercury, Pack of 12

I cannot get enough of these sardines. They have a pepper taste without being overwhelming. I like to it these on fresh homemade bread, and the taste is outstanding. I have since recommended these fresh sardines to family and friends, and they now make them a part of their monthly grocery list. It is true that the price is higher than most, but the quality is high as well. Top notch well seasoned sardines for a great price. That makes me happy!

Great brand. Quality brand have purchased many times.

Researching sardines and experimenting with many many varieties and types. Anyway, the pinhais company uses a cook then can method, and the difference is there are no juices with the oil surrounding the packed fish. It's a better preserved and mildly better tasting fish, especially after some time spent in the can (say you let them sit a year or so before eating). When cooked in the can, the fish releases juices that mix with the oil. This juice more or less slightly deteriorates the fish over time and reduces the flavor in comparison to those sardines not cooked in the can. Open a can of Nuri with Santo Amaro, and the differences, while subtle are noted. Pinhais also makes Pinhais brand as well as Nuri. Both these are cooked then canned. In order to meet fishery rules, fishing is limited to certain times of the year, and canners must take in extra fish and freeze them to keep active all year long (rather than work 3 months a year at 4x the current production capacity). Writing this to let readers know Pinhais brand are fresh sardines cooked then canned then sterilized in can. Nuri are frozen fish that are cooked then canned then sterilized. Santo Amaro are canned then cooked which also sterilizes. Both Nuri and Pinhais look the same, but there are mild textural differences between them. Nuri seems like the best deal. Pinhais seem very expensive for the additional benefit which is hard to distinguish, but I used several cans of each and opened at same time to get a good comparison. Pinhais can be at times almost twice as costly as Nuri, and Nuri at times can be almost twice as costly as Santo Amaro. I buy all three, but will go primarily with Nuri, and some Santo Amaro due to their lower pricing they can offer due to cooking in the can. Cooking outside the can requires ovens and racks and people to prep and cook then pack into can. So Santo Amaro offers a cheaper production process and less costly can of sardines. Santo Amaro are pretty good in comparison to most other sardines I buy, but I mentioned two brands above that are mildly better but more costly.

Shockingly delicious? I’m not sure if delicious is the right word but I didn’t know what to expect other than yuck. The sardines were there. I say fantastic? It tasted to me like a very rich tuna fish. I added a combination of chili pepper and crushed red peppers and ate them right out of the can. I will order them again and would recommend them to friends.

High quality Sardines not funky in any way shape or form.

I'm in love with this sardines, I first tried them in a trip to Portugal and thought I would not eat them again, but found them. Thanks amazon 😉

I ordered these the same time I ordered some King Oscar Royal Selection sardines with "peppers, garlic, rosemary and hot chili"; the King Oscars were also a premium price, but the reviews led me to believe they would be worth it. Oscar arrived first. They were something of a disappointment: the fish were so cooked they were mushy, and the taste of peppers was *barely* noticeable; I didn't even realize they had garlic until I looked at the package again and saw it listed. Not did I notice rosemary, and it was more like "Not chili". Even the sardine flavor was meh. I haven't opened the other can (it was a two-pack); maybe I just got a bad can, and others are more like what got rave reviews. To me it was as "spicy" as a typical Midwestern hot dish, which is to say, not at all. I guess that kind of makes sense, since King Oscar is a Norwegian brand and much US Midwestern cuisine and tastes were formed by Nordic and Germanic immigrants who settled there (they weren't afraid of bitter winters, I guess). So later, this 3-pack of Santo Amaro comes. I opened a can right away to check it out. As another reviewer said, there is a lot of olive oil in the can and it's hard to remove the pulltop without getting some all over (I managed to keep it just on my hands, but my fingers were *dripping*). But good news: the oil tastes really good. It's quality olive oil with just a hint of fish and pepper, suitable for saving and using in a salad dressing or a quick saute. Then I dig into the fish itself. As I say in the title, these sardines have integrity: I mean, there are actually recognizable tubes of fish body (minus heads and tails) that haven't been processed into mush. Also, they're kosher, sustainably harvested, non-gmo, etc etc. And they taste great! Not a strong fishy odor (I mean, for sardines, which ordinarily do radiate a bit), just good little fishes with a nice savory tang. Still not flamethrower hot, but that's fine; the pepper shouldn't overwhelm the flavor of the fish, but I did want it to be noticeable, and in Santo Amaro's product, it is. That's the Portuguese origin shining through. I also experienced a few fishy burps after on, as another reviewer complained of. But they weren't bad or long-enduring, and the delight of eating these sardines was well worth a couple of brief "reminders". I suspect it might have been on account of how much of the olive oil I consumed, not strictly due to the fish; high-fat foods can trigger acid reflux, which may be what have both me and the other guy "fishy burps". The solution might be to wipe off as much of the oil as possible before eating, and certainly not to add mayonnaise as he did. There's no need to, these fish are plenty oily and not dry like water-packed fish can be sometimes after you drain off the water. I will say that my burps did not include any burning capsicum, though the fruity flavor of the pepper was present. That is more of a problem when very hot chilis are mixed with high-fat foods (one issue I have with very spicy Mexican food is the combination of lard and peppers, which leads to "flame burps" -- far worse, in my opinion, than the fishy kind). Highly recommend. I changed my subscription to monthly from every 2 months after tasting them. Note added months later: I’m taking away 2 of my 5 stars. Tho several cans in my latest subscription were delicious, I opened one that utterly lacked the pepper. But that wasn’t the biggest problem: the fish itself was not enjoyable at all. The flesh texture was weird — not mushy but dry, too flakey, like sardines I’ve had packed in water (despite being surrounded in the can by oil), & there were bones that were, while not hard enough to catch in the throat, seemed a bit undercooked (I like them cooked to an unnoticeable softness). The flavor of the fish itself was unpleasant, with overtones of offal, the skin tasted & felt weirdly thick, almost rubbery; the oil had an off, bitter flavor. They resembled to a great extent much cheaper cans ($1/ea) of Beach Cliff or Bumble Bee sardines in water, poorly cleaned & fileted, that I had once & regretted. Maybe this can was from a different production line but got mixed up before labeling. At the price I pay for Santo Amaro, even with a subscription discount, I’m not very tolerant of errors like that. Reading the label carefully, i saw that though this is a Portuguese brand, the package is a bit unclear about where the fish are caught, processed, or packed, or where the oil is from. Given past scandals about inferior-quality oils falsely labeled “olive oil” or even “extra virgin olive oil”, I’m reluctant to gamble on this brand again. I canceled my subscription in favor of Brunswick sardines in EVOO with jalapeño, which I’ve had several times & been impressed by. The pepper flavor is not as pronounced, but I can add sriracha; they cost less per can, fish texture & flavor of both fish & oil has been very consistently excellent, & for me (in northern west coast US), it’s a lower-carbon shipping footprint (from Canada). Plus the plastic peel-off seal top and round cans without sharp metal edges are safer for a clumsy old man to open and for a dog who likes to lick every molecule of flavor from the can.

Better than Nuri? Pretty close in quality, big shiny and firm. Top quality and half the price of Nuri even harvested same place. Subscribe n save these you wont be sorry.