Meet Brian Bearu. Brian is our co-founder and chief taster. An Irish-Canadian black bear, he is directly descended from High King of Ireland Brian Boru, who lived around the 11th Century.

Our Brian’s Irish grandparents emigrated to Vancouver Island in British Columbia in the sixties. It was there they were introduced to the Canadian First Nation tradition of candying and smoking salmon to preserve it. One day, fishing by the river, Brian met Niall Carroll, who was holidaying in BC. Their shared passion for salmon (and, it turned out, for curing, brining and smoking stuff) connected them. Together they flew back to Niall’s East London home and founded CAN-D. Together they ate a lot of salmon. Eventually they found the right mix of sea salt, maple syrup and honey and perfected the process of air drying and smoking the fish over old whisky barrel oak. The result was the first commercially-produced candied smoked salmon outside North America.

Our salmon is a uniquely-flavoured, savoury-sweet, satisfyingly-chewy treat, perfect with a glass of cold beer or chilled fizz. We think you’ll never have tasted anything like it.