And the winner of the 2010 Haller jam tasting is…
…wait, I’ll make you read the post before I tell you.
Last fall, Terry was traveling in Maine and found some wild blueberry jelly that he loved. You might even say that he went gaga for it. It got him thinking about jams and jellies, and…long story short…he ordered thirty jars of jelly from a handful of award-winning jelly makers so we could all taste them and determine our favorites.
In response, for the last several weeks, my siblings and I have all teased him relentlessly about how ridiculous it is for him to buy thirty jars of jam. However, I’ve retracted my taunts. Today’s jam tasting was a lot of fun.
Alright, I did feel completely ill after forcing down the last eight or so pieces of jam covered toast, but the group taste testing experience was lively and exciting. Even the kids got into it. Andrew tried about eight types and carefully noted his score (always a five) on the score chart. Sylvia’s face and hands were an amazing color of purple when it was all over…
For the jam tasting, each participant (there were seven of us) got a Hallerized score card upon which to grade our impressions of each of the 29 types of jam.
Here Terry demonstrates him jam tasting technique.
There were a lot of jams to taste. And they were all good!
The post-jam tasting counter was a sticky sensation. (The picture below shows half of the jars of jam. Another set wrap around the other side of the counter!)
After we rolled out of the kitchen with our blood sugar levels soaring, we tabulated the results. Yeah, that’s right. The Babler family knows how to have fun. I am all about Saturday afternoons that involves spreadsheets. Ohhhh yeahhhh.
We determined the top rated jams by simple average. Although a part of me did want to run an Analysis of Variance test on that data!
Andrew busied himself with an iPhone.
And Sylvia tried on shoes that used to be Maretta’s.
Now I’m sure that at this point, you’re tense with expectation about what the winner is.
Well, I’ll tell you.
It wasn’t this one, though this one was quite good.
I didn’t actually take a picture of the winning jam jar. So I’ll steal a picture from Amazon…
Harvest Song Apricot Preserve was our winner!
As you can see below, I’ve listed our top favorites and least favorites.
Top 5:
Harvest Song Apricot
Bonne Maman Blackberry
Colorado Mountain Jam Organic Apple Pie
Stonewall Kitchen Black Raspberry
Bonne Maman Four Fruits
Bottom 5:
Harvest Song Sour Cherry
Smuckers Blackberry
Sarabeth’s Kitchen Peach Apricot
Harvest Song Peach
Bonne Maman Wild Blueberry
The results were quite mixed since each tester has favorite flavors and preferences. Some people’s favorite jam was others’ least favorite.
Here are our seven tester’s favorite jams.
Each tester gave a top score (5/5) to a different number of jams, so each tester has a different number of jams listed. Because all jams listed below were all given the same top score (except where indicated), they are listed in random order.
Lisa
Harvest Song Apricot
Colorado Mountain Jam Organic Strawberry
Stonewall Kitchen Wild Maine Blueberry
Stonewall Kitchen Black Cherry
Stonewall Kitchen Blueberry Peach
Joe
Harvest Song Apricot (5)
Colorado Mountain Jam Organic Apple Pie (5)
Colorado Mountain Jam Organic Strawberry (4)
Stonewall Kitchen Black Raspberry (4)
Harvest Song Peach (4)
Terry
Bonne Maman Blackberry
Barefoot Contessa Lemon Curd
Bonne Maman Wild Blueberry
Miranda
Colorado Mountain Jam Organic Apple Pie
Bonne Maman Wild Fruit
Harvest Song Apricot
Althea
Colorado Mountain Jam Organic Strawberry
Bonne Maman Raspberry
Stonewall Kitchen Strawberry Balsamic
Stonewall Kitchen Apricot
Stonewall Kitchen Black Raspberry
Colorado Mountain Jam Organic Apricot
Bonne Maman Four Fruits
William
Stonewall Kitchen Black Raspberry
Bonne Maman Four Fruits
Harvest Song Apricot
Bonne Maman Blackberry
Stonewall Kitchen Black Cherry
Michael
Harvest Song Apricot
Bonne Maman Blackberry
************
So what do you think? Does this sound like fun? Did we miss a jam or jelly or preserve that you love best of all? Does your family do somewhat odd activities like this?
Mmmmm jam. Like sunshine in summer!
In case you’ve never tried this product, I highly, highly recommend it: Bittersweet Herb Farm’s Lemon Garlic Finishing Sauce (http://www.bittersweetherbfarm.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=4). I bake salmon, then put this sauce on top during the last 5 minutes, and it tastes like I really worked hard. Love it. In fact, I love it so much that I’m willing to order it since the store I was buying it from doesn’t seem to have it anymore. I know it’s not a jam or jelly, but the company also makes those too. I feel another tasting coming on … 🙂
did you really say that you wanted to run an ANOVA on the data? you are HI-LA-RIOUS, althea. you really make me laugh. p.s. john still knows how to make blueberry jam, thanks to you. it’s funny how he says “you need TWO cups of sugar!”
i think that sounds like lots of fun and i appreciate the lists of favorites!
I actually think that the Balsamic Vinegar Strawberry jam may be my favorite. As odd as that sounds…We now have a fridge full of jam, if anyone wants to try some…
I actually think that the Balsamic Vinegar Strawberry jam may be my favorite. As odd as that sounds…We now have a fridge full of jam, if anyone wants to try some…