The width and depth of an oyster’s flavor. Lean oysters from cold water are usually lower in minerality allowing you to taste multiple flavor notes in each oyster.

Neutral: Cucumber
Complex: Salsa or Beets

Fat Bellies: ~35 ppt (parts salt to every 1000 parts water)

You are what you eat. As filters, oysters assume the salinity of its home. Some oysters grow in a river mouth or estuary reducing the brine you taste. The brine of an oyster can change with the tides, storms, and season. Brine is measured in ppt, the number of parts salt to every 1,000 parts water.

Fresh Water: 0 ppt
Ocean Water: ~35 ppt

Do you prefer sweet or savory? Some oysters have a higher level of oyster “fat” or “butteriness” which masks the brine and causes them to be sweeter than others. Most “sweet” oysters still have a hint of savory like a salty filling of a peanut butter cup.

Sweet: Peanut butter cup
Savory: Potato chips

Oysters range between lean and plump like cuts of steak. Some oyster species naturally grow deeper cups with meat that is plump and fatty (the healthy kind!) comparable to a ribeye cut. Other oysters grow flatter cups with meat that is leaner and crisper similar to a filet mignon.

Lean: Eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica)
Plump: Pacific oyster (Crassostrea giga)