All the supermarkets are geared up with their Christmas goodies, and one of the areas that tends to expand at Christmas is the pickles and chutneys section of the store. It's always nice to have a range of chutneys to accompany cheeses, cold meats and (the inevitable) cold turkey. But I've often found myself disappointed over the festive period, beguiled by an interesting-sounding chutney that turns out to be a bit gloopy and tasteless. So I thought I'd give a few chutneys a test run, to see how they compare, and if they are worthy of a place on the Boxing Day supper table. I'll probably be reviewing a number of these over the coming weeks, but here are my thoughts on the first three chutneys that I've sampled with a nice farmhouse cheddar.
First up is Spiced Peach Chutney from Bromley's Pickle Company - who I've never heard of, but I don't usually let that put me off. Some of the best of my recent food finds have come from small companies I've never heard of! I found this in Asda. It was pretty cheap at £1.50 for 200g. And as soon as I opened the jar I could see why. The mixture is very liquid and quite gloopy. Not one chunk of fruit to be seen - and there's supposed to be 32% peaches. Taste was very bland indeed - the overwhelming taste was actually of vinegar. If there was spice in there, it was undetectable for my palate. So, now for the marks - I'd give it 4/10 for appearance 4/10 for texture and 5/10 for taste. A rather disappointing total of 13/30.
Next up is Chutnee's Handmade Luxury Mango Chutney. I found this in Asda and it cost £2.43 for 210g - which is quite a lot more expensive than the spiced peach chutney. I had reasonable hopes for this one, as it has what looked like mustard seeds in it and seemed to be thicker. And whilst the appearance and texture were definitely better, this definitely isn't what I'd describe as a luxury chutney. Although the label says there's 45% mango, the pieces of fruit were very small, and so it was all a bit sloppy. The flavour was okay, but without much "bite" and the whole experience was a bit slimey. So this won't be a candidate for my Boxing Day supper either. I'd mark it 5/10 for appearance 5/10 for testure and 6/10 for taste. A miserable 16/30.
Finally an Apple, Mango & Chilli luxury chutney from Clippy's apples. This is available at Ocado and is normally £2.50 for 280g. But as I write this it's currently on offer at £2.00.
Now this is in a different league. Nice and thick, with discernible chunks of fruit and a delicious piquancy that worked really well with the cheese. I think it would also go really well with ham and cold turkey. According to the label there's 35% mango and 24% British apples - so that accounts for its superiority. And it's a definite contender for Boxing Day supper! It gets 7/10 for appearance, 7/10 for texture and 8/10 for taste - the winner of this round by a fair margin at 22/30.
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If you're one of the recent converts to "breakfast biscuits" it's worth reading on. The new fad for breakfast biscuits has made this sector one of the most dynamic parts of the biscuit category. Sales of Belvita have increased by 85% in the past year, and new products launched by Kellogg's and McVities have helped drive growth in the biscuit category in the past 12 months.
But despite the positioning of these products as a healthy and wholesome start to the day, it's worth pointing out that breakfast biscuits actually contain more saturated fats than established biscuits such as Hob Nobs and Digestives. And even when it comes to fibre content - which we know is good for us - only Belvita's Fruit & Fibre and Kellogg's breakfast biscuits have more fibre than Hobnobs.
So my advice is to take a look at the nutritional information on your favourite breakfast biscuit to make sure you're not being taken for a ride. To be honest, on the one occasion I actually tried Belvita biscuits I found them quite tasteless and bland. They certainly wouldn't be my preference for a quick breakfast on the go. With so many alternatives now, I can't say I understand the fascination with them.
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I've just come across a really interesting website concept. It's called Virtual Farmers' Market - http://www.vfm.com - and it's a great idea. Basically there are a number of artisan producers featured and you can shop online for a variety of their products - from pies and cheeses to preserves and condiments. I don't know how successful it's been since it set up in 2010, but I think it's a really good way of helping smaller producers reach a wider public with their products. And as a consumer, I like the idea of being able to buy a variety of different quality foods on one consolidated website.
There are also little videos of some of the producers talking about their products, which is a really nice touch. Putting the face behind the food you might say. I haven't shopped there as yet, so I can't give you details of how fast the service or delivery is. If you try it before I do, please let me know what you think.
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To see some of the projects I've worked on as a marketing consultant for food and drinks companies, go to www.sa-marketing.com
As a marketing consultant specialising in food and drink brands, I'm always on the lookout for interesting new food products that might need some marketing help. And I'm really excited about a new discovery I made recently in my local Waitrose. It's a range of chilled, ready prepared meals from a company called David Oliver Fine Foods. There are 7 different meals using interesting meats such as venison, rabbit and guinea fowl as well as recipes with beef and pork.
I've always been partial to guinea fowl and so I decided to try their Guinea Fowl & lentils (£5.99). It was absolutely delicious - really tasty. The meat was tender, the sauce was perfect. And the carrots and lentils added welcome texture and crunch. It really was like a restaurant dish. I can honestly say it was the best ready prepared meal I've ever tasted! Based on this recipe, I'd wholeheartedly recommend this range. The company was set up by a couple of chefs...
"The whole idea of David Oliver Fine Foods was to make fresh, honest,
hearty restaurant standard meals that people could simply prepare in
their own homes at a fraction of the price of going to a restaurant. We
use all the same cooking techniques as we would if we were cooking in a
restaurant or for a banquet. Our meals are ‘complete meals’: great meat,
carbs and vegetables all incorporated with rich, delicious sauce to
create a full, wholesome and complete meal.W e could see no
reason that a fresh ready meal couldn’t be prepared in the same way as
the food that you would find in gastro pubs and restaurants, yet we
couldn’t find any that matched up. So we put our money where our mouth
is and went about putting that right."
Sorry if this post is sounding a bit like an ad for David Oliver Fine Foods, but it's so rare to find ready prepared meals of this quality, and I want to get more people out there to sample them.
The range is available in selected Waitrose stores and from Ocado. For more information on the company, go to their website http://www.davidoliverfood.co.uk
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Great news for those of you who are allergic to cow's milk but can tolerate goat's milk. Those lovely people at St Helen's Farm are launching a vanilla ice cream made from goat's milk and cream to add to their extensive range of products. And at £3.99 for a half litre, it's quite reasonably priced.
So now you can treat yourself to ice cream without any guilt whatsoever. It uses only natural ingredients and is gluten and egg free and suitable for vegetarians .I haven't sampled it yet - let me know your thoughts. Apparently it's going to be available in selected Waitrose stores.
To find out more, visit the St Helen's Farm website http://www.sthelensfarm.co.uk
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To see some of the projects I've worked on for as a marketing consultant for food and drinks companies, go to www.sa-marketing.com
I'm a real fan of Indian food, but I rarely seem to find the time to cook an Indian meal from scratch. All the spice grinding and preparing ginger and garlic pastes is so time consuming. The last time I decided to make an Indian meal I was in the kitchen for 3 hours. And although the results were delicious, how often do you have that amount of time to prepare a meal?
I've always found the Indian cooking sauces available at the supermarkets really disappointing. But I thought I'd take a look at some of the more interesting variants available and put them to the test, to see how they compare. And this is the result of my product review.
First up was a Meena's Jalfrezi sauce that I picked up at Waitrose, priced at £2.19 for a jar. At first, it looks like it's produced by a small manufacturer, and so that's why I decided it should be one of my test sauces. But on closer examination, Meena is one of the Patak family, and so the sauce is actually mass produced. Not surprising then that it turns out to be a rather gloopy mixture with very small pieces of unidentifiable ingredients and the false shine that comes with ambient sauces. It was really not very pleasant at all.
I used chicken breast and even added in a few vegetables, but the result was extremely disappointing. I really wouldn't recommend this sauce at all.
Second was Mangalore Herb Curry Sauce from the Spice Tailor, again purchased at Waitrose at a cost of £2.89. This is an interesting idea - a large sachet of sauce with a selection of spices such as cinnamon, cardamon and chilli that you fry in oil in a pan first before adding the meat, and then the sauce.
I had high hopes for this, partly because the range has been created by Anjum Anand who's a TV chef and cookery writer. But also because I liked the idea of having some real, live spices to start things off. Again I used chicken breast and added in some vegetables. But I found the result a bit insipid - the taste was quite one dimensional and the sauce was really quite thin. Given the packaging suggests this is relatively hot (2 chillis on the label) I thought the sauce was quite bland. I might be tempted to try another of the sauces, but given the version I tried is supposedly the spiciest, I'm wondering how flavoursome the others would actually be.
The third sauce I tried was from Mamajaans - Belsize Bhuna - which I found in my local Budgens and at £3.69 was by far the most expensive of the 3 sauces. But it's a chilled sauce, so it hasn't had to go through the same treatment processes that ambient sauces do. There are a range of sauces - all with names that make a nod to places around North London which appealed to me as a Crouch Ender.
I used this sauce with lamb, again adding vegetables and the result was very tasty. Although not quite spicy enough for my taste. I could definitely see why it had won a Good Taste award. This was definitely my favourite. Head and shoulders above the Meena's offer, and definitely superior to the Spice Tailor version. But then, it's quite a lot more expensive. But in my view, quality is worth paying for. You can learn more about Mamajaan's on their website http://www.mamajaans.co.uk
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I came across a new style of apple juice in the chiller cabinet of my local Waitrose this week. It's called Cold Press, and its point of difference is that (apart from no preservatives, no added sugar and no concentrates) they don't use heat pasteurisation. Which means (according to the label) that the juice retains the pure taste nutrition and antioxidants of fresh fruit.
I quite liked the idea of this, and the packaging is quite attractive - modern and simple - so I decided to try the Pink Lady variant. And it was actually quite delicious. It did taste clean and pure. In my experience it's quite rare that the product actually lives up to the promise of the blurb on the label, but in this case it did! My only gripe is that there just wasn't really enough of it in the 250ml bottle. There are 8 variants, but only 3 were stocked in Waitrose.Braeburn Apple, Valencia Orange, Apple & Raspberry, Apple & Lemon, Apple & Passionfruit, Apple & Strawberry, Granny Smith and Pink Lady apple. And from their website, it looks like they produce 750ml bottles, but I didn't see these in the chiller.
For more information on their range and the benefits of the cold press technique, visit their website http://www.cold-press.co.uk
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I'm a real fan of tapas, and Patatas Bravas in particular. So when I came across a soup version in my local Waitrose, I couldn't resist. I've found the quality of New Covent Garden Soups quite patchy, but the lure of spicy potato and chorizo soup was enough to override my scepticism. Big Mistake.
What a disappointment! This was little more than mediochre tomato soup with a handful of diced potatoes and chorizo thrown in. Not spicy, and definitely nothing like the flavour that Patatas Bravas deliver. It was really, really dull.
New Covent Garden pioneered the chilled soup category, with really interesting recipes and big chunky soups. But there's now quite a bit of competition - own label and smaller brands such as Yorkshire Provender, and New Covent Garden certainly aren't doing themselves any favours with this product. At £2.20 for a pot, I certainly expected more than this.
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As a committed foodie and a marketing consultant specialising in food and drink products, I thought I'd set up this blog - to share interesting and original new products I've found, highlight issues facing the food industry and to discuss industry news and developments. I'm always on the lookout for new brands that could be interested in marketing assistance - it's always a challenge for smaller companies to get themselves noticed when they haven't got the big budgets of the multinationals.
It's a tough old time out there for food producers at the moment - costs of raw materials have soared, and they're talking about an extra 5p on a loaf of bread because of the poor wheat harvest. But I do believe that the entrepreneurial spirit is still alive in the food industry, and there are many small companies out there, coming up with delicious new products to tempt us.
The first new product I'd like to bring to your attention is On The Pulse. This is a great idea, baked beans in pouches, and in 3 different sauces that are bound to titillate the tastebuds - like the tomato and chilli version shown below. Sounds scrummy. Unfortunately I haven't been able to taste them as yet, so I can't vouch for their flavour. But I'm hoping to come across them some time soon!
The company hasn't been established very long and their website doesn't have any stockist details as yet. But if you're interested in learning more about them just click on this link.
Sue Aitken is a Marketing Consultant focusing on food and drink brands. She has worked with a number of companies on a range of marketing projects. To see examples of some of the work she's done, just visit www.sa-marketing.com
