Caviar is a luxury food made from the eggs (called roe) of large fish called sturgeon. These tiny, glistening eggs are carefully harvested, lightly salted, and served as a delicacy that costs hundreds or even thousands of dollars per pound.

Real caviar comes from sturgeon that live in the Caspian Sea and Black Sea, particularly species like beluga, osetra, and sevruga. The eggs range in color from black to gray to golden brown, and each one pops gently in your mouth with a rich, slightly salty, ocean-like flavor. Because sturgeon take many years to mature and produce eggs, and because overfishing has made some species endangered, genuine caviar has become incredibly rare and expensive.

People serve caviar on small crackers or toast points, often with sour cream, at fancy parties and celebrations. The phrase caviar taste describes someone who prefers expensive, luxurious things, like champagne over soda or silk over cotton.

Sometimes people call other fish eggs caviar too, like salmon roe or trout roe, though purists insist only sturgeon roe deserves the name. You might see these less expensive varieties at sushi restaurants, where they add a burst of flavor and a pop of color to sushi rolls.