Artisan vs the Supermarkets – Raspberry Jam #Artisan vs Supermarket

Briony Wilson
30th January 2017

Now that all the Christmas and New Year celebrations are over, we thought it was time to kick start our Artisan vs Supermarket challenge once again and this week Raspberry Jam from Berry Fresh Bakery was in the hot seat. Berry Fresh have a large selection of Jams, Marmalades, Chutneys and Curds to choose from, but since Raspberry jam is a personal favourite of mine we opted for that (perks of the Job, I guess)!

We put Berry Fresh Bakery’s Raspberry Jam up against, Hartley’s Raspberry, M&S Raspberry Soft Set and Tesco’s Soft Set. At this point I think it is worth mentioning that all jams tested were seeded except for Tesco’s as there was no available seeded option at the time of the tasting.

The tasting was conducted blind as per usual, where the judges marked the products on; Appearance, Texture and Taste. So, let’s start with Appearance, all four contestants were very rich in colour and in the three seeded options they had a good distribution of seeds, whilst the M&S and artisan options were slightly runnier this made it easier to spread and Hartley’s and Tesco’s jams had a more gelatinous appearance. This could also be mentioned in regards to the texture of the two jams as well, because the Tesco’s Jam was seedless some people preferred its texture, whilst others believed it to be rather dense and more of an American style ‘Jelly’ than a jam. Whilst the Hartley’s jam favoured by those less fond of seeds; was praised for the balance of a slightly let gelatinous jam broke up by the seeds, of which there were fewer present than in the Artisan and M&S Alternative. Over time the M&S and Berry fresh jams did soften up making them quite runny but some people liked this about the products and as the jam cracker assembler, I can certainly say I preferred the more spreadable options.

But once again it all comes down to the taste category, which is always influenced by people’s personal preferences. Tesco’s seedless came in last place overall due to its very sugary, sweet almost artificial flavour, suggesting to many people that it was not the surprise artisan produce, because it had very little flavour of the fruit and more so just sweet. In third place was Hartley’s which again was very sweet and lacked the tang of real raspberry’s, in a close second was M&S which people enjoyed for its balance of tartness and sweetness. But in first place came Berry Fresh Bakery, beating M&S to the crown because of the overall great colour, consistency and balance of flavours. Once tasted it was rather obvious which was the home-made product and it was praised for the not messing around with the true flavour of the fruit.

Berry Fresh Bakery products can be bought at various local produce shops such as Cheerbrook Farm Shop, Nantwich. Not to forget local events including the Taste Cheshire Market every 3rd Saturday of the Month in Chester Town Hall square. Plus

• The Yew Tree Inn Bunbury 3^rd Sunday of the month 10-2
• The Barbour Square Tattenhall 3^rd Saturday of the month 9-1
• Whitchurch Town Centre 1^st Saturday of the month 8.30-2