A Tua Tua is a wild surf clam, Paphies donacina, harvested from the low-tide surf zone off Marlborough at the top of New Zealand’s South Island. It has a smooth, low-profile shell in cream to light moss, a 33% meat-to-shell ratio, and a delicate, sweet aroma of fresh kelp and toasted nori.
It is one of three species in the Cloudy Bay Clams collection, alongside the Storm Shell and the Diamond Shell, and the one chefs reach for when a dish needs a clam that can hold its own against big flavours.
Where Tua Tua Come From
Cloudy Bay Clams has wild harvested surf clams from Marlborough’s pristine, nutrient-rich beaches since 1990. Tua Tua sit in the low-tide zone, and we take them from 2–4 metres of water using a selective winnowing rake that lifts only market-ready mature clams. Undersized clams go back to the seabed undisturbed to replenish stocks, and every catch is hand-sorted by species on board.
From the moment they leave the seabed the clams are held on deck in aerated seawater tanks, regularly refreshed, so they arrive back on shore alive, clean and unstressed. At our Blenheim facility they are laid single-layer in tanks bathed in oxygen-enhanced deep-ocean seawater. That depuration step is what makes them exceptionally clean and grit-free. Our processing facility is USFDA-approved, the clams and the water they come from are tested regularly, and cartons leave under full NZFSA compliance, cooled below 10°C for export.
What a Tua Tua Tastes Like
Raw, the Tua Tua is lightly oceanic with citrus undertones. Cooked, it takes on savoury characteristics reminiscent of lightly smoked fish and Japanese soy. The aroma is the giveaway: delicate and sweet, fresh kelp and toasted nori. It is a clam with presence, which is why it suits full-flavoured cooking rather than the lightest raw-bar treatments.
Sizes, Grades And Formats
Tua Tua run 80–80+ mm and are graded two ways: Standard at roughly 20–22 pieces per kilogram, and Large at roughly 12–14 pieces per kilogram. They ship in three formats:
- Loose Live — live clams straight from our depuration tanks, delivered kitchen-ready for the raw bar and the pan.
- MAP Live 1 kg — a modified-atmosphere pack, retail-ready, with a 6-day shelf life.
- Frozen IQF 1 kg — individually quick frozen, export-ready, with a two-year shelf life.
Full grades, sizes and shelf life sit on the Tua Tua product page.
How Chefs Use It
The Tua Tua is especially suited to full-flavoured dishes and is a natural partner for miso, broths and umami-rich preparations. In our own kitchen we steam live Tua Tua open over an open flame in a rich tomato and red-onion broth, then ladle it into a sourdough bread bowl and eat it straight from the crust: a bold, rustic treatment that is exactly what this clam was built for.
Three Tua Tua recipes are on the site: stir-fried with garlic and ginger, cooked with smoked paprika, tomatoes and basil, and simmered in an Asian coconut broth. You can find all of them on the recipes page.
Getting Tua Tua Into Your Kitchen
We supply restaurants, distributors and export partners across Australia, New Zealand, the UAE, the USA and Asia-Pacific, with weekly availability updates for chefs and buyers. Tell us what you need on the enquiry page and we’ll take it from there.
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