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Prices and quality of the world's most refined and expensive oysters

Oysters are a food that not everyone can appreciate, but they are certainly among the foods that most represent luxury and class: let's find out what the most expensive oysters are and how much they cost.

Oysters are a food that not everyone can appreciate, due to their very particular flavor and the fact that they should be enjoyed raw, but certainly among the foods that most represent luxury and class: let's find out what the most expensive oysters are and how much they cost, what makes them so unique, and what other luxury foods are the most expensive in the world.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

• All about oysters: types and varieties
  
• Price and quality of the world's most expensive oysters
  
• The world's other most expensive foods

All about oysters: types and varieties

Oysters have always been considered a classy and glamorous food. Not for nothing, they are often associated with champagne - which we discuss specifically in a dedicated article. Even in the most expensive restaurants in the world, in fact, especially those specializing in seafood cuisine, oysters can never be missing among the appetizers or within a seafood crudo. Of course, there are also other much more expensive foods in the world, as we point out in another article, but this time we want to talk about the aphrodisiac food par excellence: oysters. We begin by specifying that there are even more than 200 types of oysters, but we will limit ourselves to presenting the most popular and most expensive ones worldwide and in Italy. First of all, it is possible to make a general distinction of the various types of oysters based on a fairly simple quality: their shape. Thanks to the latter, two types of oysters can be identified: concave ones - the most common and easy to farm - and flat oysters - rarer and more valuable. Generally speaking, farmed oysters are grown for about four years with a refining method that is generally divided into two phases: the firt in the open sea, where the oysters acquire their very saline taste, and the second in refining ponds, also called claires, and usually formed by fresh or mixed water, to give a sweeter and more delicate tone to the oysters themselves. This lengthy and demanding process already partly justifies the high cost of these luxury mollusks.

Turning to the more specific types of oysters on the market, it can be said that the oyster-producing nation par excellence is France - not coincidentally, also the home of champagne - followed by Italy. Starting with the French oysters, these are also divided into two major types according to their shape, namely: the platy (round and with a maximum diameter of 10 cm, with an intense but delicate taste) and the concave (elongated and concave, with a saline taste and a strong flavor). Based on other characteristics, related to the water used during farming, the timing of maturation and geographical origin, French oysters are divided into other subcategories: the bélon and marenne (among the flat ones), the fines, spéciales and pousse (among the concave oysters). Turning to Italian oysters, however, one quality of them is that they are fleshier than French oysters, but they are always divided into two major types, the bélon (flat) and the creuse (concave). In particular, the most renowned oysters among those produced in Italy are those of San Michele (Gargano Park, Apulia), those of San Teodoro (San Teodoro lagoon, Sardinia) and the pink oyster of Scardovari (between the Po River and the Adriatic Sea, Veneto). Finally, it is also worth mentioning the Irish oysters, which are considered very valuable, especially the concave Crassostrea Gigas (the most common), but also the flat ones, called Ostrea Edulis, and especially the Ostra Regal type, considered the best ever. Thanks to the Atlantic Ocean currents, Irish oysters have a very salty taste with slight citrus notes.

Price and quality of the world's most expensive oysters

After this general introduction on the types and qualities of the most valuable oysters, we can move on to the most expensive and valuable type of oysters ever, of the level of those that fall in the ranking of the most expensive foods on the planet. These are the Bluff oysters, the name of a small seaside town in New Zealand where these shellfish are found, which are caught only in the summer season, roughly from March to August. These highly evaluated oysters are a luxury food, more for their cost - similar to that of European oysters - than for their rarity, as about ten million pieces are harvested each year, but their fame means that they are sold at lightning speed.

So, although Bluff oysters are considered one of the most delicious foods in the world, much of their fortune comes precisely from their rarity. In fact, the only place where they can be traced is the seabed between the town of Bluff and Stewart Island, that is, in waters that are very cold and difficult to navigate. Attempts to raise this very rare type of oyster elsewhere have failed, so it is necessary to travel to New Zealand itself to enjoy them. But what to drink to accompany these very expensive oysters? Certainly one of the world's best French champagnes is a good idea, but one of the world's most expensive whiskies or the most exclusive Italian collectible wines might also be a good choice, although, in the town of Bluff, it will certainly not be easy to find one of these luxury drinks.

The world's other most expensive foods

At this point, it is also worth mentioning what are the other most expensive foods in the world, namely foods that require huge expenses to be tasted, but which, due to their unique characteristics and rarity, truly represent a luxury experience. We have already dealt, through two dedicated articles, with the most expensive coffee around and the most expensive caviar on the planet, but here is also a selection of the other most expensive foods in the world.

• Alba White Truffle - Let's start from Italy for this food with a unique taste, characterized by spicy and aromatic notes, a smooth and clear appearance, and a yellow, streaked flesh. The white truffle of Alba is also impossible to cultivate, making its price even higher, which has exceeded as much as 100.000 euros per kilo for a truffle specimen of about 1,5 kg.
• Elvish Honey - This is the most expensive honey in the world, partly because it comes from a hive located in Turkey at a depth of 1.800 meters, where the environment and minerals in the cave give the honey an unmistakable taste. The price? About 40.000 euros per kilo.
• Pule Cheese - As much as 25 liters of donkey milk from the Balkans are needed to make one kilo of this cheese, produced in the area of Serbia and Montenegro, as well as long aging times, which brings its price to about 1.300 euros per kilo.
• Yubari King melon - This melon is grown in the small town of Yubari on the island of Hokkaido (Japan) in very limited quantities and with very expensive processing, including daily massages and washes, which cause the price of more than 17.000 euros for just one of these fruits.
• Swallow nests - Used in Chinese culinary tradition, salangane nests (rather than swallows, these are swifts) are found in hidden areas inside caves and are built with by these birds with saliva in about a month, making this food very expensive, up to a maximum of 7.200 euros per kilo.
• Saffron - Very common in Italy and made famous by risotto alla Milanese, saffron is made from the stigma of Crocus sativus, but it takes about 150.000 flowers and 40 hours of labor to obtain one kilo, which can therefore cost from 700 to 8.000 euros per kilo.
• Densuke watermelons - Let's go back to Japan for the most expensive watermelons in the world, specifically to the north of Hokkaido Island, where these black-colored fruits, famous for their balanced sweetness and... for the price of about 580 euros per kilo or even more in the case of particularly large watermelon specimens.
• Matsutake Mushrooms - Let's stay on Japanese soil for these very rare mushrooms, which grow not only in Japan but also in China, Korea, the United States, Canada, Finland and Sweden, although the most expensive variety is the one called "red pine", which grows precisely in Japanese forests only at certain times and can cost as much as 2.000 euros per kilo.

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