(Not just) A tin of sardines

or “the art of selling the unsellable….”

In this post I wanted to write about the castle of Óbidos, but instead I am writing about a tin of sardines….

When driving to this famous medial castle, I had no intention to buy not one, but in fact three tins of sardines. I don’t particularly like sardines and I certainly had never planned to spending 48 Euros on them.

And yet, here I am standing with my three tins of sardines and I am happy……

How was this possible?….

It all started with an obligatory visit of Óbidos – another “must see” item on Gonçalo’s list.

Óbidos is a beautiful maintained medieval castle, with a whole town with a lot of stunning mediterranian gardens within its walls, with Chinese Hibiscus and Beougainvillia in spectacular bloom.

It also is a pilgimage site for book lovers, famous authors and their readers from all over the world.

Ignoring a number of health and safety warnings and relying entirely on the firm footing of my hiking boots, I survived the nearly 2 km long walk along the unsecured parapet of the castle, featuring sheer drops of 12m and more. However, Gonçalo had been right – the breathtaking views were worth it.

Eventually I ended up on the main street of this world heritage sites, bracing myself for the obilgatory souvenir shops on the way back to my car, when a cat at the entrance of one of the shops caught my sight.

When stepping closer, I noticed that I was standing at the entrance of a beautiful old library, with professionally crafted wrought iron banisters and with rows and rows of historic leather bound volumes stacked up to the ceiling.

A young shop attendant approached me and offered to show me around. It was then, when I became aware of my fundamental misconception: I wasn’t standing in a library – I was standing in a fish shop! To be precise – in a shop that was selling nearly exclusively tins of sardines !….

The thoroughness of the guided tour that then followed, was on par just with the one I had enjoyed some years ago, when I visited a legal cannabis outlet in down town Toronto – but there, despite all efforts made, I left empty handed…..

“Normal” sardines were nicely lined up by the individual year displayed on the lid, starting from 1916 and conmemorating the birth of a famous person on the colourful tins. Then there were special editions, dedicated to different places in Portugal. Each of these with a small painting of a local event or building decorating the tin. Other sorts of sea food, like smoked cod, octopus, smoked mussels or eel in Escabeche – sauce were offered in sardine tins as well, and finally … small gold bars, filled with 140 g of the best sardine filets, sprinkled with small flakes of edible gold – at a price of just below the real thing…. – were displayed in the center of this library of sardines.

Unbeknownst to me, I had just stepped into the world of Comur, a staunchly Portuguese company, that is selling their sardines not only as a highly valued commodity, but even as collector’s items. Who says that only red wine, whiskey or coffee in aluminium capsules, but not the humble sardine, have a right to monopolise this concept ?

This place was just so far removed from Steinbeck’s portrayal of life in Cannery Lane, as a supermarket pizza might be from dinner at a Michelin star restaurant.

As it turned out, Comur has over a douzen other outlets all over mainland Portugal, Madeira and the Azores, which are all individually themed and which surely are all worth a visit.

I don’t know what it was in the end – the lure of the cat at the entrance, the friendly shop attendant, my utter surprise or my appreciation of the marketing concept, or just all of it together: three colourful tins ended up in my bag and I frankly didn’t care how they were going to taste…..

Comur – as I found out after my visit – is just one of fifteen different brands of “O Valor do Tempo” – The Value of Time company , which is limiting its clever marketing ideas not only to tins of sardines, as I found out when I entered the shop next door that was selling freshly made fish cakes.

Well…..you decide, if you might not be tempted to buy a fishcake and a glass of cava for 20 Euros in this place……