It seemed as though the British retail grocery market was awash with what for Britons were cheap lobsters in the run up to the Christmas just passed. Not that these lobsters were the treat that consumers would be expecting, according to newspaper taste tests.
The Big Four supermarkets were obviously not going to let the discount retail chains dominate the food headlines in the run up to Christmas 2015 with their offers of this much sought after crustacean being on sale at the knockdown price of about GBP 5.00 (USD 7.42, EUR 6.76) as they had done in previous years.
So while the fast growing discounter Lidl was offering its deluxe whole cooked 350 grams (12.35 oz) lobster at GBP 4.99 (USD 7.40, EUR 6.75), Tesco, Asda and Morrisons were also offering whole cooked North American lobsters at GBP 6.00 (USD 8.90, EUR 8.11) or less. Waitrose mirrored Tesco in selling a slightly larger (400 grams/14.11 oz) whole Canadian lobster at GBP 6.00.
Sainsbury’s broke the mould by offering an uncooked (raw) 380 grams (13.40 oz) lobster at GBP 13.00 (USD 19.29, EUR 17.57), while Marks & Spencer offered a cooked whole lobster but this time from the Orkney Islands off the west coast of Scotland. Its lobster was the heaviest at 500 grams (17.64 oz) and by far the most expensive at GBP 22.00 (USD 32.64, EUR 29.74).
Not surprisingly, British newspapers followed up on the Christmas lobster story by carrying out taste tests and here it seems that being “cheap” isn’t such the treat that consumers might be expecting. Of lobsters from the above supermarkets, Xanthe Clay in the Daily Telegraph rated a lobster purchased from Marks & Spencer as the best of the cooked lobsters. “The most tender of all the cooked lobsters, with a rich, sweet flesh,” was how she described it in her 5-star rating.
The taste of the raw lobster from Sainsbury’s obviously depended on the skill of the person cooking it. And here Clay recommended grilling, steaming or lightly boiling. “Aim for medium rather than well done,” she advised, and gave it four stars out of five.
The other three lobsters didn’t fare well at all. Tesco and Morrisons scored just two points each, while Lidl at three stars earned a “best value” tag.
Another review as reported by Martin Jaffa in reLAKSation from the Times was highly critical of the Lidl lobster. “The Times simply said that the budget [Lidl] lobster was rubbish,” he wrote. He did point out that the Times recruited a Michelin starred chef to prepare a frozen lobster from Lidl with a much larger fresh lobster from Cornwall costing GBP 26.00 (USD 38.58, EUR 35.15). “It doesn’t require us to tell you which of the two came out best in this taste test”, Jaffa commented.
Of course the Times chef compared lobsters of two different species. The native British lobster is Homarus gammarus, while the one caught off the east coast of North America is Hommarus americanus. Not surprisingly most British people prefer the taste of their native species, but have often baulked at the cost, which is why Lidl has been so successful in selling its Canadian lobsters in the run up to past Christmases.
Ironically Marks & Spencer has been selling dressed Canadian lobsters for some time. In the delicatessen section of its website it features two halves of dressed Canadian lobster priced at GBP 22.00, which can be ordered and picked up in a Marks and Spencer store in five days. So the Orkney lobster appears to be a Christmas special and that, too, has to be ordered online for collection in five days.
The question is: was it worth spending GBP 4.99 at Lidl on a lobster that has a “briny flavour” and only “reasonably tender flesh”? And that is by far the highest rating of the cheap cooked Christmas lobsters on sale.
Clay said that Lidl has been selling its pre-Christmas lobsters for the past seven years, so presumably executives there do think it is worth stocking. And probably most people buying lobsters from Lidl don’t know what a British lobster tastes like anyway so are unaware of what they are missing.
Will Canadian lobsters become as much a fixture of Christmas fare as smoked salmon or prawns in the UK?
We shall have to wait and see what the reaction will be after the all the hype settles down.
