Disclosure: we bought this tin at retail with our own money. The affiliate links below are the only commercial relationship we have with anyone who sells it.

Don Bocarte has cult status among the kind of people who have opinions about anchovies, which is admittedly a small and specific community. The Cantabrian producer hand-fills each tin, cures the fish for eighteen months or more in the traditional Basque way, and sells the result for thirty-two dollars in the American market. That is, almost exactly, twice the price of Conservas Ortiz — the benchmark we use to measure every other anchovy we review. The structural question this review has to answer is whether Don Bocarte is twice as good. It is not. That needs to be said plainly before anything else, because the rest of what follows is genuinely impressive.

The tin itself is beautiful. Don Bocarte packs large, thick fillets — notably wider and longer than Ortiz’s — in a rich, golden olive oil. The presentation rewards the price: you open this tin and understand immediately why it costs what it costs. The craftsmanship is visible before the first bite.

Tasting notes

Appearance
Wide, substantial fillets in a deep amber oil — the color of good honey. The flesh is a rich, burnished copper-brown with no silver-skin and no torn edges. These are anchovy fillets filleted by someone who treats the work as a trade.
Aroma
Richer and more oil-forward than Ortiz — the olive oil is assertive here, more presence than frame. The fish underneath is clean and cured-savory, but the oil announces itself first and does not step aside.
Texture
Supple and meaty, with a thickness you can feel. The fillet holds its structure and has a satisfying resistance before it yields. Ortiz melts; Don Bocarte holds. Both are correct approaches, and which you prefer is a matter of what you are eating the anchovy on.
Flavor
Deep, complex, slightly sweeter than Ortiz at the front, with a pronounced umami that builds long and slow. The oil contributes more to the flavor than in most tins — sometimes this is a virtue, and sometimes it tips toward the oil eclipsing the fish. On this tin, it is roughly half and half depending on the fillet.

Here is where the honest critical work has to happen. Don Bocarte is an excellent anchovy. The fillets are generous, the cure is long, the flavor is layered and complex. Eaten on its own, on a good piece of bread with a thin smear of unsalted butter, it is a genuinely pleasurable thing. The problem is not that it is bad. The problem is that it is sixteen dollars better than Ortiz on most days and sometimes not better at all — and that is a real finding that anyone spending thirty-two dollars deserves to know.

The oil is the variable that most limits Don Bocarte’s ceiling. Ortiz uses a pale, restrained olive oil that disappears behind the fish. Don Bocarte uses a richer, more expressive oil that contributes its own flavor. For some applications — bread, simply dressed — this works. For uses where the anchovy is a seasoning (a pasta, a dressing, a compound butter) the assertive oil can muddy the picture. Ortiz’s restraint makes it more versatile.

Don Bocarte is the right choice in one specific scenario: you are serving anchovies as the centerpiece, plainly, to someone who already knows what a great anchovy tastes like. In that context the large, beautiful fillets and the complex flavor more than justify the price. For everyone else — for everyday eating, for cooking, for buying your first or tenth serious tin — Ortiz at sixteen dollars is the better decision and it is not close.

This is not a criticism of Don Bocarte. It is a statement about value, which is what a guide is for.

The verdict

8.6 / 10

A magnificent anchovy for anchovy collectors and special-occasion eating. For everyone else, Ortiz delivers 90% of the experience at half the price. Read the Ortiz review before you spend thirty-two dollars.

Where to buy

#ad — These are affiliate links. We earn a commission if you buy through them, at no cost to you. We bought this tin with our own money.