Spreadable Fruit - Seville Orange product reviews

I was very intrigued by this product, mostly because I wasn't quite sure what to expect. Reading their description I figured it would be a product similar to jam as it mentions that once you try this, you will find it hard to go back to normal jam. This lead me to think that this product would be quite sweet, as jams are generally sweet. But then there was the fact that it had no added sugar, no artificial sugars and was sweetened with only pear juice concentrate. This did make it appealing because it would be a healthier choice, but I really was confused as to what to expect.

Receiving the jar in my most recent parcel I knew straight away I had received a Barker's product. Barker's products are very consistent in their branding which makes it very easy to recognise a Barker's product when you see it. There was a printed label on a clear glass jar with a gap at the top and bottom allowing you to see the product inside. The pictures and colours on the jar pointed towards it being a citrus based product which of course fitted what is inside the jar. I have never had trouble opening Barker's jars and this one was just the same - which for me living on my own is important as I don't always have a pair of mans hands available to help with a tough jar!

Having made bacon and egg muffins at home the day before I had a couple of left over muffin splits. I decided these would be perfect to try the spreadable fruit on as I really enjoy having a bit of jam on a muffin split. I spread a little bit of butter first and followed with the spreadable fruit. It was easy to see that the product was made with real fruit and it certainly didn't have an overly sweet smell. I sat down to enjoy it, but wasn't overly happy with the flavour. This product is very bitter. I'm unsure if I have ever had a seville orange, but to me the spreadable fruit was more bitter than any orange I had ever had before. Doing a quick google search it does appear that the seville orange is a bitter citrus fruit, so suddenly I realised I had been expecting something quite different. For me this would never replace jam. It isn't a product I enjoyed much and isn't one I would purchase again.

I'm not really sure what the defining characteristics of spreadable fruit are. I know when comparing marmalade to jams, marmalade will usually only consist of citrus fruits as it is made from the peel, whereas the jams use more of the flesh of the fruit and can therefore include a wider variety of flavours that don't have peels. As this is a Seville Orange flavour, that would make it categorised more as a marmalade.

If feel it is important to categorize it properly beforehand, because I know that I enjoy sweet things. If I was to review this as a jam it would not score well, because of the bitterness of the product. A characteristic that is well-known and common among marmalades.

The product comes in a clean 260g jar. The label is the same style as the rest of the range, with illustrations of the ingredients included on an otherwise white label, with a simple clean font. The product inside the jar is an interesting consistency; is a mix of juices and more textures fruit pieces. With 99% fruit and sweetened with only pear juice concentrate, the product has no refined sugar, and therefore is missing those additives that would give the product a more consistent texture.

The inconsistent texture does create an interesting variety of ways that it was be used, from spreads a baking ingredients, to additions for salad dressings and marinades, or dessert sauces. But it only really works if you are a fan of the bitter and sour flavour of seville orange peel (an orange that is considered inedible in its natural raw state).

I used it as some flavouring for a grilled chicken wrap that I created, A simple dish consisting of lettuce, chicken, and a generous helping of Seville Orange Spreadable Fruit, I definitely found the flavour bitter but manageable, and once I added a little helping of sriracha sauce, the flavour balanced much better.

The flavour is not a huge appeal to me, but I have never been much of a marmalade fan. This hasn't really changed my mind, but it has opened my eyes to the other products in the range which will better appeal to my sweet tooth. The variable consistency will certainly be of great appeal to many in the kitchen that like to dabble and experiment with their food.

So out of the spectrum of spreadable things that go onto toast etc, I have to admit that marmalade isn't at the top of the pile for me. However, my family love it, and I have always loved baking with it. Having been lucky enough to try the Wildberry version of Barker's of Geraldine's new spreadable fruit preserves, I was really keen to try this Seville orange version out. We are a family that loves to eat, but also love to take care of ourselves, and refined sugar is currently at the top of my hit list. I was intrigued as to how a marmalade-style spread would work without the sugar (after all, it's already quite bitter, right), and I knew of a couple of recipes I'd love to give a go using it.

First off, as usual, Barker's haven't spared any expense with the packaging. A great quality glass jar and lovely clear label would definitely make it stand out on the shelves as a product of provenance and quality. I love that the label has on it that the product is refined sugar free, as it really stands it apart from other preserves, and I was really pleased to see that the ingredients list was relatively short. Overall, my interest was peaked and I eagerly popped off the jar cap.

Inside was a preserve which was slightly runnier than a more traditional set marmalade, but still easily able to hold its own slathered onto a piece of toast. Even my toddler who enjoys wandering around the house waving toast around wasn't able to shift the spread- huge tick for a busy Mum. Overall, I was pretty shocked by the taste. I actually loved it, which I really wasn't expecting. The often abrasive bitterness of a marmalade was tamed down, and instead a really zesty orange punch was present, complemented perfectly by the pear juice concentrate used as a sweetener. My family were not disappointed either, commenting that it was much nicer than our usual stuff, and not even noticing the lack of refined sugar.

The next test was to try it out in some baking. The first thing I made was an orange bread and butter pudding where the marmalade is a core component to offsetting the sweetness of the custard. This worked perfectly. The sweetness and slight bitterness combined perfectly with the fruity zest to really lift the bread and butter pudding to something more. I also made a chocolate orange loaf cake, and again, perfect if not better results than if I had used my 'normal' marmalade. And all of this with no refined sugar, making our baking just that little bit healthier.

Overall, I cannot believe how much our family enjoyed this spread. I cannot believe how much I enjoyed this spread. The perfect combination of fruity and a touch of bitter. A perfect accompaniment from anything to a plain piece of toast through baking and beyond, I can see no end to this spread's talents. Congratulations Barker's, once again you have created a masterpiece, and in doing so converted a marmalade hater to a spreadable fruit lover.

I have always loved Orange Marmalade and love it thick with real pieces of orange in it so was looking forward to trying Barkers Seville Orange Spreadable Fruit. The spread comes in a 260g glass jar which is smaller than most jars I buy but at the end of the day, I prefer quality over quantity! I had a good sniff of the spread and could detect a small hint of pear but apart from that it smelt exactly like any other marmalade I've tasted.

I found this really easy to spread over my toast but it wasn't as thick as other brands I've tried. You could see large pieces of rind which I love in a marmalade and I was really impressed with the tart citrusy flavour (it contains Seville oranges, lemon concentrate and grapefruit). The spread has no refined sugar which is evident when you taste it but, without reading the label, I wouldn't have known that it was pear juice concentrate that was the substitute. I really liked the fact that this spread has no artificial sweeteners and no refined sugar as it makes it a much healthier alternative to other sugar laden marmalade's.

I gave some to my youngest who loves oranges and sucking lemons and she loved it and has requested it on her toast for breakfast every morning. I am impressed with the quality of Barkers of Geraldine products in general and found that this spread is a wonderful addition to their collection. I like the fact that Barkers is a New Zealand company and that the spread is made on the original family farm. It was a big hit with our family and we will definitely be using this again.

I am a huge fan of tart citrus fruits and have always enjoyed marmalade I remember growing up in the UK having very tart homemade marmalades with lots of fruit rind so a while ago when I purchased a jar of marmalade in the supermarket I was completely shocked with the sweetness of the spread when I ate it, it was not at all what I expected. I did end up purchasing another jar from another brand which did offer a bit more tartness and more of what I had expected but this Seville orange spreadable fruit from Barkers really brought back that tart fruit memory!

I absolutely loved the bitterness you got from the orange, and grapefruit, as there was enough sweetness for me from the pear juice. My children, however, found it too tart for them as they are more used to sweet jams that have been sweetened with sugar. I did think my son would like it as he will eat oranges and lemons and drink the juice but as a spread for him, it wasn't sweet enough. I used this on pancakes with ice cream though and both children loved it served that way as the ice cream and pancakes had more than enough sweetness to make the Seville orange spreadable fruit a welcome flavour.

I am happy enough to use this on toast as it isn't an issue for me but the consistency of the spreadable fruit is not as thick as traditional jam's so if you spread it too thickly the spread can run off the toast. By spreading it thinner and allowing it to soak into the toast a bit I avoided this mostly and kept my hands from getting messy. For my children who like to spread it out a bit thicker, the consistency is a little too runny to avoid the messy hands!

Wasnt too sure about this when I was first offered some but at the moment I am off work due to injry so with less money in the pocket I decided it was worth trying. Glad I did, because this stuff was a lot tastier than I thought it would be. Never been a big fan of jams because of the texture but I was told this wasnt a jam so figured it might be ok to give it a go.

I tried it first on some crumpets and it worked fairly well. The fruit sat on top and the juices ran down into the little pockets in the crumpet so it stayed mostly tidy while I ate it but it wasnt ideal. A friend suggested I try it as an ingredient in some muffins or something but my baking skills are pretty horrable so instead I tried mixing it through some vanilla ice cream. I topped it with some fresh feijoas and this was amazing because the sweetness of the ice cream balanced out the bitterness of the seville oranges and tartness of the feijoas really well.

Trying this on toast was a big mistake for me because it is a little too liquid for that and kept running off the sides every time I tried to pick the toast up. My mate suggested I try thickening it up a little bit with some of the glucose syrup from my homebrew kit and that helped but not enough to save it for me.

If you enjoy marmalade I guess this would be a bigger hit for you, or if you are a fair baker then this could go well in muffins of cakes. It could be interesting to mix this with some icing sugar to make and icing for a cake, or mix it through thick whipped cream to make a filling for a sponge cake maybe, but for me this was one of those "surprisingly good but not great" things you come across at times. I would be likely to buy it again in future if I had the money and felt like something different, but not as often as I may do for other flavours.

Growing up the only person who ate Marmalade was my Grandad so I always felt really special when I stayed at Nanas house that Grandad would share his special stash with me. Even now I only have Marmalade on a special occasion as I still feel it is very special. Unfortunately my girls do not have the same feeling towards it and like to have whenever or wherever. My husband has the same view as my parents and is not a fan, so when I do buy the orange delight I usually hide it in the fridge for some time before letting the little ones loose on it.

Opening it up I had all these high hopes and images of sitting down and enjoying it while the angles played in the background but unfortunately I could not get past my first bite it was rather strong and a taste I was not expecting. I found it very tart and really not that appealing I did have it rather thick so I threw that one outside to the birds and tried again putting a tiny bit on the toast but again, even with this spread with hardly anything on the knife I could not finish it.

Now my girls on the other hand were a different story. My youngest ate hers and went back for seconds and thirds where as my eldest did finish it but did not want to have anymore after the first slice. We discussed it and they both said it was yummy if a little too strong. Today writing this review I went back to the fridge to try again so it was fresh in my mind as I typed this out but it is gone. I had no idea that my youngest enjoyed it so much that she managed to finish the whole jar basically by herself. When I asked where it was she said she finished it two nights ago and is now requesting more.

Maybe I am just too conditioned to sugar but I am not sure if it is the pear juice concentrate or the fact that it is definitely not as firm as I like but if it was up to me I would not be buying again or that the orange flavour was not as light as I was hoping. As my little one adores it so much I will consider buying if I find it on sale. I guess everyone has different tastes.

Spreadable Fruit - seville orange flavour was something different for the household to try to see if we liked it. My partner really loves jams and homemade marmalades and he was excited to try this spreadable flavoured fruit. He like how the spreadable fruit is gluten free and no added refined sugar. He liked the glass jar and the label on the jar and said it looked simple but good.

He noticed when he spread the spreadable jam that is was runny and he commented he prefers a thicker spread. He took a bite and said he was not that keen on it, he said it was tart and not his kind of flavouring he thought it was going to be. He did however finish his toast but said he would not eat much of it as it is not his cup of tea. He said he prefers a bit more sweetness in his fruit spreads.

I tried it and also thought it was tart and was not keen to have a lot of it on toast. I had a thin layer and that was enough for me. I am not sure what else it would go with, apart from maybe using it for making muffins and add some white chocolate buttons to the muffin mix to even out the flavour a bit. Otherwise I might give it to my dad and his wife and see if they like it, they prefer food with less sugar in it so it may suit their taste buds better.

I'm not really a marmalade kinda gal, I have yet to find one that I like and after trying this spread, that still remains a fact. Orange isn't a big flavour I enjoy but I noticed the pear juice used as a sweetener and the grapefruit as key ingredients next to the orange. Grapefruit is something that I had for almost all my childhood, we have a tree in the back yard which gives us an abundance, but has also taught me that without the right amount of sweet, it can end up very, very, very bitter. In this case, the bitter grapefruit reigned supreme and there just wasn't enough sweet to ease that off or ensure that it didn't overpower all other flavours.

My eldest and my youngest both didn't like it, finding it too tart for their tastes, however my eight year old thought it was delicious and wanted it straight off the spoon, never mind anything else with it... I also got my mum to have some and she thought it was delicious saying that she would happily have more of this. We opted to try this on some toast and in a muffin, on toast I didn't like it at all, nor did two of three of my children, in a muffin was OK as the rest of the flavours mellowed this out a bit more. In the end, I'm no fan of this but my mum and eight year old are more than happy to finish this jar off for me.

I don't usually buy grapefruit products as they cause a reaction with the medication I take, but when I saw that the grapefruit content in this product was very low I decided I would try a little. I actually like marmalade but am usually restricted as to the variety I can choose. This version has Seville oranges as the main ingredient - also something I need to eat in moderation - but it also contains lemon, pear and grapefruit. Unlike traditional jams or marmalades, it is more like a compote - which means you get more of the good fruity stuff and fewer of the extras. Notably missing is sugar, so the result has the sharp bitterness of a marmalade but the smoothness of a conserve.

Four of us tried some on our breakfast toast and I immediately discovered that no two people take their spreads the same way. I like a thin scrape of butter topped with a thin layer of the topping. The second person spread the butter so thickly that you could barely see the surface of the toast. She then proceeded to top it with nearly a quarter of the jar of fruit! The third person does not like butter; he just took some of the fruit and spread it directly on to his toast. And the last person said she did not want any toast so would try a teaspoon of the fruit on its own.

As you might expect, our reactions were as diverse as our eating arrangements. One thought the flavour was stunning: he liked the bitterness and the strong citrus taste, and said he could imagine it on scones or as a topping on a barbecued lamb chop instead of pickle. One liked the texture, describing it as rich and authentic tasting (by which I assumed she meant that she could not discern any additives). A third said it was slightly too bitter for her so she put a couple of teaspoons on to a saucer and stirred in a little icing sugar - defeating the purpose of the "no added sugar" label, but as she said, it meant we did not have to buy a different jar just for her. For me, I enjoyed the small amount I had and would have it again on occasion.

What did appeal to all (apart from that one with the sweet tooth!) was the lack of sugar and the fact that all the ingredients were natural products. We made the toast with some artisan Island bread; this has a slightly sweet flavour anyway so was a great choice to have with the fruit as it offset some of the bitterness. The package size means that it is small enough to take away for a weekend when there are three or four people to share it as the whole jar can be used up and there are no sticky leftovers to transport back home!