Fed up with accompanying your smoked salmon with mere eggs from Russian sturgeon? Then snail caviar could be for you.

It may sound like a challenge to the taste buds, but the salty, pink-white delicacy could be gracing hundreds of French tables this Christmas.

After years of research, which has included creating a reproduction room where 60,000 snails laid eggs to produce 200kg for the world market, De Jaeger has unveiled its delicacy.

Each snail lays its eggs once a year, producing around 100 eggs on average. With this tiny, but precious amount, the people at De Jaeger hand pick the eggs every year and sort through them, retaining the best ones for their tins of caviar. Naturally, it’s all done at a real snail’s pace because 260 layings are needed to produce just 1kg of caviar.

The French company uses the big grey snail – the ‘gros gris’ – which is kept in pens and fed on vegetation and cereal. To finish, the eggs are treated with unrefined salt and ‘a dash of rosemary essence’.

Snail caviar allows you to experience ‘a delicate flavour’ with ‘surprising sensations’, De Jaeger claims.
‘Let your mouth experience the sensation of a walk in the forest after the rain, mushrooms and oak leaf flavours, the scent of humid moss peat,’ it adds.

Available from Harrods in four different sizes ranging from £65/30g to £650/250g