Depot's raw bar menu now features the Qyster. Photo / Vaimaila Leatinu'u
Depot's raw bar menu now features the Qyster. Photo / Vaimaila Leatinu'u
A new breed of oyster made its entry into the market this week in Tāmaki Makaurau.
The Qyster was unveiled this week at Al Brown’s Depot restaurant in Auckland.
Developed by Aqua Mould Systems (AMS), Qysters are seeded at just 8mm in size and nurtured in pods to protect from predators. Unlike ordinary oysters, there are no razor-sharp edges so they have a smooth shell.
Shaun Gregory, who founded AMS in 2013 to find new ways to perfect oyster farming, said the growing system has some unique advantages.
“A lot of the oyster farmers were trying to achieve a uniformed oyster. And the reason behind that was so they could try to automate the opening,” Gregory said.
“One company, in particular, spent a lot of money trying to create an opening machine, and they failed due to the fact that the oysters weren’t uniformed and they just couldn’t quite get it right. So I thought, why don’t you grow them in moulds and grow them all same shape and size?”
A Qyster show farm in Kerikeri.
As part of his research, Gregory happened on a phenomenon that is now key to the brand.
“I realised that I could form an imprint into the shell by having a mirror image of whatever was in the pod.
“I was cleaning the tray which had some writing on it, and I noticed when I popped one of the oysters off, it had a mirror image of that writing in the shell. And I thought, ‘wow, I’ve got a whole interior of my mould that’s available for anything I want to put on it’.”
So now every unique Qyster is branded with the company’s signature ‘Q’.
Gregory said another pioneering factor is his technology which accommodates more oysters per meter, as well as their floating system which isn’t affected by tides.
“It’s really just making it more user-friendly and having a higher-valued end product.”
Depot’s Brown explained the Qyster is from the family of triploids as they are grown through aquaculture, seafood grown in controlled conditions.
Qyster's trademark 'Q' on the shell. Photo / Supplied
“They’re all perfect,” Brown said.
“Generally out of a dozen that you order, if it’s really good oysters and they’re from a good part of the farm or the best time of the season, maybe up to three-quarters of them are beautiful.”
He said, “There’s always a couple that aren’t as good but you’re paying the same price. So to be able to guarantee that every oyster you open is perfect, it’s nuts.”
Gregory said the technology ensures better profits for oyster farmers throughout the motu.
“A lot of smaller oyster farms grow their product. They send that off to a big company’s processing plant and it all gets packaged under that big company’s name and you sort of lose that providence and you don’t have the ability to have that story on where it was grown: Who was the farmer, who were the people behind it.”
He said the story behind a product is paramount to consumers.
“They’re wanting that story. They’re wanting to know where their food is produced and where it comes from and how it was produced.”
The seeding process begins with Gregory’s patented “pod” technology: a recyclable plastic mould complete with a ‘Q’ to stamp the brand on each individual Qyster.
The pods are housed in trays that are stacked and floated to keep them anchored just beneath water level.
Bruce Young, co-director at AMS, said each tray houses nine dozen pods (or 108 developing Qysters) and are “spat” into each pod in February each year, with a maturing time of eight months.
“The product you see at Depot today is that product that was seeded in February.”
The hardware components used in the growth process are produced in Aotearoa with a focus on sustainability, Young said.
Shaun Gregory, founder and director of Aqua Mould Systems. Photo / Supplied
He approached Al Brown as a fan of Depot and Brown’s work overall, but he said the partnership required some “pestering”.
“I left an information package about Qyster and AMS at Depot and asked Al’s team to pass it on to Al. He contacted me and I introduced him to Shaun in 2019 - the rest is history.”
Young said AMS is looking to license the unique technology internationally and plan to expand the show farm next year to about four times its current size after the success of the Kerikeri show farm proved the viability of the product.
At Depot’s raw oyster bar, the Qyster comes in at $7.50 each. Following closely behind is the Bluff oyster at $7 per oyster, with a range of Pacific oysters in the $5 to $6 range.
Brown explained a Qyster session at Depot includes “a little a business card on what a Qyster is and why it’s called Qyster”.
“Food is not just about flavour and filling people, it’s telling stories. We’re super proud to be able to tell this story and to produce and put Qysters in front of someone … Simply extraordinary.”
