King Oscar and Port Clyde. Two of the biggest names on Minnesota grocer shelves. This showdown pits the two products, one on one. May the best sardine win!

The loose criteria used to judge will be:

* consistency
* taste
* aftertaste
* aroma
* texture
* color
* burps

Sardines are generally repulsive and only a few people in the world actually enjoy them. I happen to be one of the idiots who not only enjoys sardines, I LOVE sardines and generally most types of potted meats.

I started with King Oscar. The King Oscar packaging was swell and featured King Oscar II of Norway. It also stated extra virgin olive oil. This aroused my curiosity immediately.

The sardines themselves were pretty small. There were double-stacked and were completely covered in olive oil. there were lots of sardines in the can and they were delicious. The texture was firm, but easily chewable with no bones or other crunchy anaomolies detected. The aroma was a sardine aroma and the fine silvery color of each glistening sardine was very pleasing.

A full hour after eating them and I could still detect the dreamy smells on my breath and the sense of a light sheen of oil lining my teeth.

On the Port Clyde!

The Port Clyde sardines were a mustard-based product. The sardines were larger and the mustard oil was a unique change from the olive oil. I have have mustard-based sardines in the past, but the Port Clyde sardines were just not as memorable as other sardines and they definitely did not stack up to King Oscar’s virgins.

The sardines themselves were sort of mushy and you couldn’t really see the fish themselves. It was as though the mustard sauce was being used to mask the quality of the sardines. The mustard sauce did not taste very good, and the aftertaste was not pleasant. Also, the burp factor was more of a Vurp factor (Vomit-Burp). I was able to choke the Vurp down again and I did not go into full reverse peristaltic action, but it was a test of wills.

After this taste test, King Oscar really is King!