I've been on a canned seafood phase lately, so when I saw a new brand on the shelves in Shop-Rite recently, I checked them out. Specifically, the sardine fillets, and the mackerel fillets from the Season Brand LLC company, out of New Jersey. However, both types of these fish were actually caught in Moroccan waters. And there are other Moroccan connections, too, which I'll get into.
The official company website history of Seasons is one of the more terse ones. A Polish man named Isaac Epstein immigrated to the U.S. in an unspecified year. (But presumably in the late 1910's or early 1920's.) He started the Seasons company in 1921, and it was designed to "sell specialty fish to grocers in the Northeast (U.S.)." At some unnoted date the company was acquired by RAB Food. Then in mid 2021 the business was sold to a Moroccan company named Mutandis. Aside from sardines and mackerel Seasons also offers yellowfin tuna, anchovies, kippers (which are herring of a certain age), and mock caviar made from seaweed. (If this last product sounds familiar, it's because I covered "CaviArt" in my post on March 11th, 2023. CaviArt is made by the Jens Moller Products company, based in Denmark, which clearly has a partnership with Seasons to sell the pseudo caviar in addition to their regular fish products.) The Seasons official company website is also proud that their fish are free of GMOs and their packaging lacks BPA. They also use sea creatures that are fished in sustainable ways. But, the focus of Seasons seems to be about how healthy their fish is. The website goes into some detail about how protein-rich their fish is, and how some are low in salt. Plus, most notably, how their products are so high in Omega 3 fatty acids. (Seriously, the Omega 3 notation is on the front of their boxes, even.) Otherwise, the labels on the boxes of their seafood mention the exact species that customers are eating--in my case the Scomber Colias (aka Atlantic chub mackerel) and Sardina Pilchardus (aka European Pilchardus, and more commonly, one of the many species called "sardines"). (As I think I mentioned before, "sardines" aren't an actual individual species of fish--they're a catchall term used for over a dozen small fish commonly used as human food. In this case young Pilchardus are called "sardines," while older members of the species are known as Pilchardus.)
Seasons mackerel fillets, in water: Had a tuna-like odor. The color of the fish itself was light brown. The texture was soft and chewy. The flavor was a little dry and blandish. Not as good as the oily mackerel I've had as sushi or pickled. To be fair, I did eat this plain, not as a sandwich or anything. But, in the past I usually eat canned fish plain, and it tastes better than this. Overall it wasn't bad, but it was disappointing, since I typically enjoy canned fish significantly more.
Seasons sardine fillets, in water: These fillets, like the previous one, filled the can, or were about 3 inches long (about 7.5 cm.), with a brown and off-whitish color, and a fishy odor. The texture was chewy and soft. These tasted like typical sardines, or good. They were blander than sardines packed in oil, or with seasoning or a sauce, but still, they were pretty good. If you like sardines in general, you'll probably like these. In closing then, I would recommend the Seasons sardines, but probably not the mackerel. But I will look for other Seasons offerings--maybe the packed-in-water mackerel are a kind of negative anomaly.
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