Ah, the world's great caviars. Beluga from Russia. Osetra from Iran. And, of course, Kelley's Katch -- from Tennessee.

For caviar lovers, there's a new egg in town. With prices reaching $125 an ounce for the imported stuff, American caviar is bursting onto the scene, costing as little as $10 an ounce and selling, for some retailers, at triple the rate of just a few years ago. By some estimates, America will produce 60,000 pounds of it this year, accounting for up to one-third of the caviar consumed here.


But can the land of hot dogs and apple pie really produce a world-class canape cover? To find out, we threw a caviar party. Our guests (funny, we weren't short of volunteers) included four self-described caviar junkies, one neophyte, and the executive chef from The Breakers, a famed resort in Palm Beach, Fla. We laid out unmarked containers, six with mail-order American caviars at prices ranging from $9.95 to $51 an ounce. And we played a trick: We threw in a fine Russian caviar and some faux black caviar (red whitefish eggs, dyed black), passing them off as America's finest.

But before we get to the results, a crash course in caviar: Even with American roe on the rise, caviar with cachet still comes from three fish belonging to the sturgeon family (beluga, osetra and sevruga) that swim in the Caspian Sea. Purists insist that if it's not Caspian, it's just plain old fish eggs. But U.S. outfits, which produce two kinds of caviar -- one from farm-raised sturgeon and another from similar species in the wild -- say theirs is pretty close. How close? One Maryland company recently pleaded guilty to passing off domestic roe as a Caspian import...

...But the other domestic brands were a cut above. Our most expensive choice, at $51 an ounce, was from Tsar Nicoulai Caviar (don't be fooled by the name -- it's from fish raised in California). Praised for its balanced, buttery flavor, the caviar was described as "delicious" and "distinctive" by a couple of panelists. But Chef Radits said there was something fishy about it: 80% of his eggs were crushed. (The company blames that on rough handling during shipping.)


Step aside, sevruga: Clockwise from top, Sterling Premium Caviar from Stolt Sea Farm; paddlefish caviar from Seattle Caviar Co.; Kelley's Katch Caviar's paddlefish roe; spoonfish caviar from Shuckman's; hackleback caviar from Collins Caviar; Tsar Nicoulai
That pushed the balance toward the other favorite, the caviar from Stolt Sea Farm. At $36 an ounce, Stolt's greenish-gray eggs were rich and complex, with a buttery, delicately salty flavor and an ample sense of chew. One panelist was impressed with the size of the eggs, and said they "melted in the mouth." Our tasters named this one Best Overall.

'Sticky and Mushy'

And that fancy imported Russian caviar that we slipped in as a trick? Nobody noticed. In fact, our panel awarded it fourth place. It was "sticky and mushy," said our retired administrative assistant. The problem: Though it tasted perfectly good, it just didn't seem as fresh as the others (chalk that up to a long trip from Russia, we figured).

But in the end, the real talk of the party was Chef Radits's personal favorite. He passed over our other panelists' top choice in favor of a spoonful of plump, evenly gray-colored eggs that held together nicely and yet separated to the touch. Seemingly the freshest of our picks, this caviar had what Mr. Radits called "a little bit of ocean."

Gotcha: That caviar may actually have been from the Tennessee River. It was the $9.95 paddlefish roe from Kelley's Katch, a small producer from Savannah, Tenn., that harvests wild fish in rivers throughout the south. When Mr. Radits found out about the cost, his handlebar mustache nearly came uncurled. "For that price, you can buy five tons," he said of the caviar from Elvis country.

Sure enough, he placed an order the next day.