Product Review: Tonnino Tuna

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After sampling Tonnino Tuna in various prepared dishes at the International Food Blogger Conference this past August, I was certain it was delicious. A world better than any canned or jarred tuna that I had tasted before. But I left the conference thinking that although Tonnino makes a fine quality tuna product, I must have loved it at least in part because of the way the chefs had finessed  it.

That was until a few weeks ago. Our friends at Tonnino, who were also sponsors at IFBC, sent us a box of a dozen varieties of tuna: Jalapeño, Oregano, Ventresca, Garlic, and their original flavor, all packed in olive oil. The shipment had no strings attached. We weren't even asked to review them or to provide any sort of feedback, private or publicly, about the tastes, the textures, and our thoughts on each jar. Our only direction was to enjoy them, a gift for our taste buds.

Now, we here at the Foodista office are fairly accustomed to receiving packages. Cookbooks, press releases, a few kitchen gadgets. But tuna? That was a first.

You should know that I just love tuna, but I'll be honest when I say that at first, I couldn't really imagine how quickly we would tear through twelve jars of tuna. I assumed months.

The dozen were gone in one week's time.

I kid you not.

The first day we unscrewed the bottle of tuna fillets with oregano and olive oil. We each dug a fork into the jar, drew a bite to our mouths, and we were hooked. The tuna gateway drug.

Every day after, the jars were the centerpieces of our lunches. Each and every variety was unique and boldly flavorful, nothing like the tinned tuna I had grown up loving. My personal favorite, the jalapeño flavor, is spicy and rich. The fillets of yellowfin tuna taste fresh, flaky, and rather moist. They don't require gobs of mayonnaise and in fact, none of us even gave a thought to making traditional tuna salad.

Who knew what a box of tuna could do to us?

If you enjoy tuna, I'd certainly recommend you try Tonnino. It's well worth the cost.

Find out more about Tonnino and how to order products on their website: TonninoTuna.com

Follow them on Twitter: @TonninoTuna

-Andrea Mitchell, Foodista staff and blogger at CanYouStayForDinner.com