Well readers, as I’m sure you’re aware, I’ve completely busted up my New Year’s Resolution, and we’ve fallen WAY behind on updating. As usual, ‘life’ has gotten in the way (and this time, by ‘life’ I don’t mean ‘holing up in my living room and watching The Walking Dead nonstop for twelve days’ – sorry friends we didn’t hang out with those two weeks!), but at least a little bit of respite is on the horizon, which should give me a good chance to get caught up.
In the meantime, however, you get two episodes of Jelly of the Month Club crammed into one!
In March, we enjoyed a jelly from Whole Foods (this one was Michael’s selection) called Mackays Scottish Strawberry Preserve with Champagne. Come on now – like you wouldn’t expect my husband to pick the jelly with champagne in it!
This jelly was light and crisp. Probably as a result of the champagne’s presence, the texture felt almost carbonated, as if the bubbles were bringing a different sort of lightness to the jelly.
While it was great on the peanut butter crackers, it really shone as the topping for the English muffin, almost creating a dessert-like experience with the sweetness.
And what did Miss Miss think of this jelly?
She thought it was good enough for her to sit still and behave for!
And that final lick really satisfied!
color: 4
flavor: 5 (champagne and strawberries as a late-night snack? don’t mind if I do!)
jelly-ness: 4.5
bottle presentation: 4
awesomeness: 4.5
I would definitely buy this jelly again. As it was, we went through most of the bottle by the end of the month. You could even use this on pancakes or waffles, if you’re the sort of person who does that (1986-me, I’m looking at you!).
April’s Jelly of the Month was the first jelly from our trip out West. There will be plenty more info (and quite a few posts) from that wild vacation, but there will also be a significant number of food-related posts from our journey. Why’s that?
Oh, because I brought home almost as many jellies, jams, dips, sauces, seasonings, and olive oils as I did bottles of wine. You can mail all that stuff home, so I didn’t have to worry about all the tastes of California imposing on the wine we were bringing as luggage!
This jelly is made by Black Sheep Gourmet Foods. They’re a California-based company that is also famous for their Gourmet Atomic Frog Balls (not making that one up). But I stumbled upon the jar when we were tasting at one of our favorite wineries in Paso Robles, Grey Wolf. I admit, I was initially drawn to the jelly because of the cute little ram on the front, but also because blueberries and honey are my favorite things EVER (and I’m more of a ‘Zin Bitch,’ as they say, but totally willing to try Merlot in my jam too).
This jelly goes on THICK, almost as if the syrupyness of the honey is the prominent texture.
But the flavors are well-balanced. You get the blueberries, the honey, the merlot: it’s all there. And that color! Just look at it!
I loved this on the peanut butter crackers – it reminded me of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with thick grape Welch’s jelly that I used to eat at home as a child. There was a sticky pleasantness to this jelly that made it perfect in both expressions.
And yes, in case you were wondering, Lucy loved this one too.
(She also loved getting to lick the peanut butter spoon after we were done!)
color: 5 (love that purple!)
flavor: 5
jelly-ness: 4.5
bottle presentation: 5 (come on, it’s got a freaking RAM on the bottle!)
awesomeness: 5
If you’re interested in checking out either of these jellies: Mackays can be found at Whole Foods (or ordered online), and outside of California, Black Sheep Gourmet Foods can most easily be purchased online. If you’re local to California, check out their website to see where you can buy it in-store.
Coming up for our next Jelly of the Month Club experience? We’ll tell you what an olallieberry is, and why it should be on your English muffins.
Wine-infused jelly? What could be better? The champagne-infused one sounds particularly intriguing. Great post!