Central Otago Rich Red Plum Sauce product reviews

I was given this sauce in a gift basket so it was not something that I normally would buy at the grocery store but since I am one of the least picky food eaters out there in the world, figured I would give it a try.

Here are a a few of my first impressions from the bottle:
-The sauce is packaged in a glass bottle instead of the horrible single use plastic so obviously I am a fan. You can clean and reuse the bottle for canning or storing other items when it is empty and it can eventually be recycled if you cannot find a use for it or give it away to someone that needs canning bottles.
-It is a New Zealand made product which is great for environmental impact and also great for the local community.
-There are a few suggestions for it's use which is helpful. A couple suggestions are as a pizza sauce (chicken, brie, & plum) or use with savoury pies. You could also use it as a sauce for chips, chicken strips, stir fry, burgers, or other endless possibilities.

As for the actual product:
So far I have only had it with hot chips and it tastes full of quality ingredients and is sweet, but not too sweet (as expected from plums) so I do enjoy it. I could see using this in chicken wraps/burgers, stir frys, and as a topping for a pizza but not a base (a little too sweet for me). I do enjoy it with chips so I looked up the nutrition content and it is very similar to tomato sauce so I can see why Barker's say it is the new tomato sauce! Thus it is a happy alternative for me for when I want to mix it up.

Overall, I would consider actually buying this because although it is pricier than Wattie's Tomato Sauce, it is more environmentally friendly than plastic bottles which helps justify the expense and it seems to have better quality ingredients. Furthermore, there are a lot more ways to use it versus tomato sauce so it is quite versatile!

I love plum sauce I can't say I use it on everything just certain meals it makes it more special. I thought I would give Rich Red Plum Sauce from Barkers a go as I love Barkers products. This sauce when you open it smells really good, very rich smell of plum. I really wanted to give it a go as soon as I got it but I really didn't want it warm, so I put it in the fridge to start with so I could use it for dinner.

First night I cooked up a yummy beef schnitzel meal and used the red plum sauce as a dipping sauce, putting my meat into the sauce and tasting it OMG there is a blast of flavour in there. Very rich red plum sauce and I feel it has a hint of a spice but not overpowering but gives it that extra element to the sauce, I had to put more on my plate as I used it all up and wanted to try it on my potato, gave my potato and extra flavour aswell. I used it with fries instead of tomato sauce and it gave more flavour than my normal sauce. I have decided this is my new tomato sauce and will carry on buying this plum sauce as its by far the best I have tasted as of yet.

The price is good as it will last a little while with only me eating it, as my partner doesn't like plum sauce and the kids weren't going to put down the tomato sauce to try it. My next test will be putting it in a marinate for chicken, lets see if the family notices.

Well what to say except for this has found a permanent place on my shopping list! Big ups as well that it is gluten free as we have a child who has coeliacs so they were over the moon to know they could try this new sauce. I was a little uncertain as to what I was going to use the sauce on, but come dinner time I had found the perfect recipe.

I had got out some chicken and made some stuff chicken breasts and wrapped them in bacon. I popped some of the plum sauce into a cup and added a few table spoons of water (just to thin it down) and I covered the rolled chicken breasts in plum sauce and popped them in the pan to cook. Once they had cooked and I had taken them out of the pan I added more plum sauce. (There is a photo of this creation on KIWIreviews page)

The plum sauce is a nice consistency, smooth and thick but not too thick that it blobs out of the bottle. It slid easily out of the bottle. It has a nice sweet but not overpowering sweet taste but it also has a wee kick of tartness to it which I really like as it helps to balance out the flavours. I am converted, I am not normally a fruity sauce fan but this has really changed my mind. I can't wait to try the other flavours in this range.

I am all for supporting New Zealand made products and had seen some of the Barkers range before but hadn't tried any of their sauces. I was quite excited when this one arrived in my review parcel and straight away I was trying to decide what to have it on. Having already had dinner organised for that night I decided to cook up some chicken tenders from the freezer to use in wraps for lunch the next day. I popped the sauce in the fridge to chill it ready for the next day.

Before work I put my wraps together. I used a mini tortilla with some green salad leaves, dry coleslaw, chicken, cheese and then came the sauce. I opened the bottle and being a little impatient I dipped my finger in the lid just to give it a try. The flavour was certainly very punchy and quite pleasant. I began to try and pour it on the wrap. The sauce isn't too runny, but also isn't too thick. I shook the bottle a little to help it out and suddenly had a big puddle of plum sauce in the middle of my wrap! If you are only want a little bit be patient while shaking the bottle ever so gently! I had to spoon some of the extra off but other than that it was all good. Lunch time came and it was time for my wraps! The plum sauce worked well with the chicken. I did have a little too much on there still - but this is good to know. It does mean that the bottle will last for longer and be even better value for money. The consistency of the sauce is nice - not too thick but also not too runny. It coated the fillings in my wrap well and I wasn't left with any bites without sauce. The flavour certainly is punchy - you don't need a lot to taste it. I think it would work well on pizzas, in burgers, in a stir fry - although I'm not quite sure that it will replace tomato sauce in our house.

I would recommend this sauce to others - in fact one or two of my work mates were keen to find it on their next supermarket trip to give it a go themselves.

I have tried similar "Spiced" or ''Oriental" plum flavoured sauces before, which I very much enjoy. Also working in cafe's I have come across my favourite meal of all time; stuffed chicken breast with plum sauce. So this product did excite me. Don't overlook the packaging of this product. It actually comes with a variety of suggestions of meals that it works well with; and I can verify that it does work well on burgers, hot chips, and pizzas (as a substitute for cranberry sauce).

I found that the aroma of the sauce is very similar to tomato chutney sauces, which explains why it works with so many meals. It is pretty much the result if tomato sauce and cranberry sauce had a baby; so it works as a substitute for both tomato sauce and cranberry. Flavour-wise it tastes sweet but is predominantly savoury, which means I can use a lot without the sweetness overloading my palate.

For my meal with this sauce I used it as it came, as a sauce with no additives. I just slathered it over the top of some crumbed chicken cordon bleu, and used more as a dipping sauce for some hot chips. The sauce itself is quite thin, and works well for dipping, and it soaked reasonably well into the chicken for flavouring.

This product is a bit higher on the calorie count and sugar side, compared to similar products, but the flavour is far superior, and has a wider range of uses. This will be a staple in my sauces now. Good Job Barkers.

Admittedly, it's not a flavour we tend to have in our house. We often stick to what we know and don't stray far from that. But wow, we were pleasantly surprised! We thought we would try it out with chicken, as we've read plum goes yummy with chicken. So chicken wraps were decided and the tester began...definitely not disappointed! The first wrap, we didn't put enough on and you could hardly taste the plum, the second wrap we put too much on and couldn't taste the chicken! We finally got the portions right and the result was...delicious! A nice alternative to our traditional tomato or BBQ sauce.

There are now so many different ideas to try plum sauce with! Dipping sauce, pizza bases or drizzled on top, chicken burgers...the list really is endless and at $3.89, why not?! The consistency means that all these ideas and more are achievable. The sauce isn't watery, yet not gluggy either so is spreadable easily, or dip-able.

The bottle is easy to use, easy to store, able to lie down in the fridge as it doesn't leak out, not heavy but sturdy enough being glass, gluten free which is a bonus as we have family members who are coeliacs...and just purely yum and versatile!

A yearly trip to the Barkers store in Geraldine has always been a family tradition of ours since I was a kid camping in Temuka. Tasting all the samples and buying up the shop. So when I was walking down the aisles of Pak-N-Save these Barkers bottles caught my eye instantly! Their gorgeous design and packaging was eye catching and attractive.

I bought a bottle to try at home. Memories of chutney's, jams and juices come flooding back instantly as soon as I open the bottle. The smell of the plum is strong and the taste is equally delicious! There is a slight spiciness, although not in terms of heat. It's a gorgeous fruity sauce that goes well with pretty much everything. I've personally used it as a glaze on a Christmas Ham for family lunch. I also make fantastic packages of puff pastry with cream cheese, spinach or kale, chicken and this sauce. It tastes divine and my Master 4 absolutely devours it. The sauce is great for him as he doesn't think that its too spicy and will eat straight from the bottle given half the chance.

I definitely would recommend this sauce to try out instead of tomato if you want to funky up your nights dinners. Its a great dipping sauce, glaze, base sauce and super flexible to use with all types of meat.

When I saw the words Central Otago on the label, I was enthusiastic about reviewing this product as I spend a lot of time in that part of the world and their stone fruit is second to none. (The manufacturers are not actually based in Central Otago, but that is irrelevant - it is the origin of the fruit that counts.)

I have purchased items from the Barkers' range in the past, so have come to expect a high quality of product. I was certainly assured on tasting it that this sauce is just as good as the rest of the various items they market. While in Christchurch recently, we had friends around for lunch and prepared a vegetable stack using a combination of roast root vegetables, cheese sauce, and chopped roast walnuts and chestnuts. The sauce was a perfect complement to the slightly bland combination, giving it extra zing and ensuring that there was none left on anybody's plate!

Our friends stayed on for dinner, which featured lamb sausages followed by a cheeseboard with locally produced goats' and ewes' cheeses. Out came the plum sauce once more, and, by the time the meal was finished, the six of us had all but finished the entire bottle. It was perfect with the lamb, but that was nothing compared to the flavour contrast with the cheese and rice crackers. Altogether it was a gourmet treat, and our visitors commented that they would feed us with takeaways when we went to dinner with them as they could not match our menu!

There is a move nationally to more natural products, and this sauce is a good example of this shift in consumer demand. The ingredients are all natural with the plum component being a generous 49%. This explains the vibrant red colour, and the rich, fruity flavour. I do not enjoy the old commercial sauces which are loosely based on tomato but rely heavily on sugar, vinegar and chemical preservatives, so this variety is a welcome addition to the range of food enhancers available.

What I particularly liked about this sauce was that it transformed very simple and quickly prepared dishes into a feast worthy of an upmarket restaurant. It is amazing what a difference the addition of a carefully selected condiment can make. Next time I have cold meat for dinner, I will try it with that too. I am sure the result will be just as delicious.

When I saw this plum sauce, I instantly pictured it as the perfect pizza topping for a smoked chicken and brie pizza, and I set about to create just that, without even realising that this is one of the serving suggestions on the bottle! I swirled the sauce generously over the top and the pizza looked amazing with the bright red colour.

When I served it up, both my husband and I noticed that the flavour was fairly subtle, but it definitely suited the make-up of the pizza well. In fact when we ate the leftovers the next day, the flavour had developed even further and we both decided we liked it even better that way.

The sauce on it's own is absolutely delicious - it's got some reasonable thickness and great plum flavour with a lovely spiciness to it (without any spicy heat). I loved the taste just on it's own, and I love that it advertises itself as being suitable for beef too. This makes it a great addition to the range of sauces and chutneys in my fridge and I'll be definitely putting it out at the next BBQ as it's so nice on it's own, so would be perfect just on top of meat instead of the standard tomato sauce. In fact anywhere you would use a sauce of any kind, you can use this instead - stir fries, something to serve with hot chips, over a meat pie and so on. I can see I'll be needing another bottle really soon!

I was so happy to receive this Central Otago Rich Red Plum sauce by Barkers as part of my review package recently. I use a lot of fruit flavoured sauces in my meals as I have a daughter with an allergy to tomatoes, so this seemed like a perfect sauce for me to review.

The sauce comes in a glass bottle which has an attractive label featuring illustrations of serving suggestion ideas such as on a pizza or a pie, or as a dip for hot chips. The sauce is 49% plums which helps to give it a real fruity taste rather than a sugary artificial taste that some sauces often have. I have used this sauce twice since receiving and both times it has been a hit with my family. This morning I used it as a sauce for some pita pizzas I was making for lunch, the sauce was of a lovely thick, smooth texture and was very easy to spread, I topped the pizzas with baby spinach, chicken breast strips and camembert cheese and they tasted divine, the sauce was strong and fruity, but in saying that I had no problems with it being over bearing. For dinner I used this sauce again, this time on some chicken breasts which I had marinated in lime juice, mustard and honey and cooked in the oven. I warmed some of the sauce in the microwave and then used it to top the chicken with, the flavours were incredible together and the lime and plum seemed to really complement each other. Miss 3 has been sampling this sauce for dipping foods in during the week as well as the Barkers Apricot and Mango Sauce and has said that this is her favourite of the 2.

If you are after a full flavour fruity sauce I would absolutely recommend trying this plum sauce, it is so full of flavour and I can imagine so many dishes that this could work in, the price is a bargain for what you get and buying this means you are supporting a NZ made product, which is always a good thing. This is likely to become a staple in our fridge.