Review time! A while back, the wonderful folks at Crofter’s Organic sent me some jars of their Superfruit Spreads. There are four different flavors — each starts with a base of Morello cherries and red grapes and then adds in various ‘superfruits’. They’re broken into continents: Asia has raspberries and yumberries; Europe has blackcurrants and pomegranate; North America has blueberries and cranberries; South America has maqui berry and passionfruit. Definitely some flavors there that you don’t usually see!
I wanted to have a chance to try at least a couple before I wrote my review, and I started with North America and opened the jar of South America once I’d finished. To me, cherry and grape jams/jellies are quite strong, and I feel like those flavors dominate in both of these varieties. I like them, but I’m not certain I could tell you which was which in a blind taste test. I wish I had opened the Europe flavor, as I find blackcurrants to also be a strong flavor — I’m curious to see if that variety is markedly different. (I don’t want to open them all and wind up wasting a lot of jam when it goes off!)
The biggest thing I look for with jams is the taste of sugar — or rather, I hope for a lack of it. Mountain Fruit Co, my favorite jam brand (forever and ever, amen), uses very little sugar at all and tastes like 100% fruit, to me. Crofter’s Superfruit Spreads use 1/3 less sugar than traditional jams (and the sugar they do use is fair trade, which is great), and they’re definitely an improvement on many brands I’ve tried.
The spreads are super chunky, so they work great as a mix-in for yogurt or oatmeal. With a quick stir before spreading, the jam is thick enough to work on toast (I don’t like super runny stuff that just soaks into the bread), without feeling processed and gelatinous.
AND — not that this should make a difference to jam-buying, but it totally does — the jars are really cute. I keep most jars that come my way, for when I make jam myself or for bulk food items, so it’s fun to have a jar with a slightly different shape. They’d be perfect for an old-time-y cocktail out on the patio. Or some orange juice to go with your jammy toast.
oh I love Crofter’s. And I had some of the superfruit in my hand the other day- but the regular was on sale. Glad you liked it- I too love chunky jam.
Sometimes I eat jam straight from the jar. And by “sometimes,” I mean “pretty much every day.”