We've just launched the best jam you’ll ever find in catering tubs and mini jars!
Let me start by telling you a secret. Did you know most foodservice jams (that’s the jams you find in 3kg tubs used by cafes, restaurants, pubs, hotels etc) are in fact really quite rubbish? They're engineered to meet a low price point, and contain little fruit and extra additives compared to a jam that you'd make at home.
This is precisely why we’ve decided to launch our very own Simply Jam range by Single Variety Co. We use only natural ingredients, like you would at home, and the result is the best foodservice jam in tubs on the market!
Check out the ingredients of this big selling Strawberry Jam, made by one of our competitors and used in hundreds of bakeries across the UK:
Glucose syrup, strawberries, strawberry puree concentrate, gelling agent E440, acidity regulator E330 E331, natural colour E163
You don’t need a Michelin star to know that list doesn’t look like a tasty set of ingredients to make a delicious cake! But you may need a degree in food science to figure out what the heck those things are! I always wonder when I see things like ‘acidity regulator E330’ - what happened with the previous 329 attempts?! For those wondering, E330 is citric acid monohydrate, used to provide acidity into the jam (in place of more expensive lemon juice).
In comparison, in our Simply Jam range we use only natural ingredients that you would find in your cupboard at home. We use as much real fruit as possible, not purées. We aim for a minimum of 35% fruit, and use real fruit (If you're looking for high fruit content jams then we do also make our Single Variety Co high fruit recipes in 3kg tubs- over 60% fruit). I found one foodservice jam out there that had 12% fruit! 12% I hear you scoff whilst choking on your jam doughnut - that’s like eating a Hawaiian pizza and pretending you’re eating a pineapple!
We also use fresh squeezed lemon juice instead of acid, though do tell me if you’d prefer the acid?! We use naturally occurring pectin to achieve our set, not artificial gelling agents. And finally - we don’t need to add colourants because we use real fruit. When you make a jam with an already heat-treated purée, the resulting jam will be a grubby brown colour and therefore look nothing like a ripe and rosy strawberry. This is the reason why most foodservice jams have to add colour back into their recipes.
We developed our foodervice jams with the help of chefs and cake makers and they've been designed to be a firmer set than our Single Variety Co range and perfect for use in cakes, doughnuts and all manner of sweet treats.
So why have we launched our Simply Jam range alongside our higher fruit content Single Variety Co range? Well, good question. Price point and long shelf life primarily. Money talks. We knew our multi award winning Single Variety Co range with its named variety of fruit and high fruit content, typically 60%, was just too expensive to the majority of foodservice customers. We do make and sell lots of these too, to high end cake manufacturers, hotels and independent cafes, aiming to produce the very best products they can. But we wanted to find a happy medium for our Simply Jam range - not too expensive, just way better than the other cheap and nasty jams available in tubs and minis.
A decision and outcome that has exceeded our own expectations. But then it seems obvious really - if you make a Victoria Sponge at home from scratch, which we’ve all done, or attempted similar baking ventures, to very differing levels of quality I will happily admit to. I tried with our little ones over the summer holiday and it was close to disastrous. But at least the jam tasted good! Because at home you do things your own way and to the best of your ability - without restricting yourself to nasty or cheap ingredients. And then it got me thinking - if you’re a professional baker or chef, you probably have a real passion for cooking and baking, so much so that you have pursued a career in it. So why would they use ingredients that they simply wouldn’t use at home. And there it is - our Simply Jam range finding a happy medium for all of those wonderful food whizzes creating beautiful bakes, delicious doughnuts and tantalising tarts whilst keeping the number crunchers happy in the background.
In a small matter of weeks, once we’ve doubled our production kitchen to accommodate the new pieces of kit to enable us to make these tubs and minis, we’ll be rolling these tubs out on a much larger scale. We currently send tubs locally and also on pallets - it’s how they travel most safely but that is a lot of jam! But we’ve now had a box designed to fit four 3kg plastic tubs - meaning if you are an independent cafe wanting great jam to make your treats, then the minimum order quantity is just four tubs.
Our Simply Jam range includes:
Strawberry
Raspberry
Apricot
Blueberry
Blackcurrant
Do get in touch with me if you are interested in trying our Simply Jam range- drop me an email ross@singlevariety.co.uk
Happy baking!
Love Ross
