Raspberry Jam Smackdown

Mark this day.  Someday someone will ask you where you were during The Great Raspberry Jam Eat-Off of 2012.  That day was today.

Our baseline, Greaves jam, is made in Niagara on the Lake and only available in Ontario, so we started looking for an alternative.  Greaves lists two ingredients - raspberries and sugar - so we want a jam that is similar.  No fruit juice concentrate, no corn syrup, and raspberries better be listed before sugar!  Finding such jam was remarkably difficult.  Everything in the US seems to be made from corn syrup.

Here are the top 5 contenders (and Schmucker's, which we bought out of desperation earlier):

Greaves	Sugar Raspberries (I assume it has pectin)
365	White grape juice concentrate Raspberries Cranberry concentrate Fruit pectin	We bought this because it's the Whole Foods brand, so it must be natural or free-range or something.
The Snohomish Nut House	Raspberries Sugar Pectin	Bonus: local from a farmer's market
Schmucker's	Fruit syrup Red Raspberries Lemon juice concentrate Fruit pectin Natural flavors	I bought this because it said "simply fruit" without reading the ingredients
Crofter's	Organic Raspberries Organice cane sugar Apple pectin Ascorbic acid (vitamine C) Citric acid	Bonus: organic!
Maury Island	Red Raspberries Sugar Fruit pectin	Bonus: local

From this lineup, only Greaves and the two local brands fit our requirements.  We decided to give the organic one a shot too so we can feel good about ourselves and be snobbish towards people who eat non-organic jam.

Eaten on their own, all jams were too sweet, some more than others.  My wife and I prefer it to be less than sickly sweet.

We judged the jams on a variety of factors, as one would judge fine wine:

• Aroma
• Taste
• Consistency
• Sweetness
• Raspberriness
• Existence of little bits (which make it look less processed)

And here's how it turned out.

Greaves	Light aroma A little sweet Good consistency Rich raspberry taste Has bits	Wife: Good Me: Good
365	Looks weird - dark purple Almost no smell Not sweet, per say No raspberry taste Too smooth No bits	Wife: "Ghar!" Me: Take it back; I won't eat it
The Snohomish Nut House	Slight raspberry smell Quite sweet (Wife: good sweetness) Very(!) red Me: Good consistency Wife: Too mushy Has bits	Wife: Goodish Me: Too sweet
Schmucker's	Stronger smell Fairly sweet Too Gelatinous	Wife: Too Gelatiny, not enough taste Me: Too Gelatinous
Crofter's	Looks fake - too consistent color Quite sweet Jelly-like.  Feels like a puree Firm raspberry taste Faint smell Bits have same color (weird)	Wife: Good, but a little too mushy Me: Ok.  A little sweet, too mushy,  good taste
Maury Island	Good color Good consistency Quite sweet Great(!) tart raspberry taste Sweet aftertaste is strong	Wife: Good, but a little too sweet Me: Good; great taste but too sweet

Wife's ranking: Greaves, Crofter's, Maury Island, Nut House, Schmucker's, 365
My ranking: Greaves / Maury Island (tie), Nut House, Crofter's, Schmucker's, 365

So the sad truth is that Greaves still wins - we're still stuck shipping jam from Ontario.  Also, but not sad, the top three were precisely the ones made from only raspberries, sugar, and pectin.

To celebrate, we also bought a rhubarb raspberry mix.  It wasn't very good.

And now we have six open jars of jam to finish.