Barker's New Zealand Wildberry Sauce product reviews

Picture the scene - you have a delicious dessert sat in front of you, you go to taste it, and there is something missing. Something to moisten, freshen and give that extra little lift, taking your dessert from everyday to exceptional. Well, Barker's have your back with their new range of dessert sauces. When I saw these I new I had to try at least one. For starters, they are made by Barker's in New Zealand, so you know that the quality will be amazing. Secondly, they use New Zealand grown fruit (where possible), so you know they are helping to support the local fruit industry. And finally, who doesn't love a bit of decadence on their pudding? I was so excited to request this wildberry variety, as some of our favourite fruits are contained within it, and even more excited to receive it in my review package.

I have to admit to opening the sauce nearly as soon as I opened the review package. The sauce looks amazing in the bottle- bright purple and just the right thickness to know it is full of fruit, but not so thick it is like a jam. I was really excited to see the 40% fruit content in the relatively short ingredients list, almost like I would make myself if I didn't have two children and 'mount washing-ton' to deal with in my living room. I was also really interested to see the ideas for use which they had incorporated into their label- these gave me a few ideas, and then I had a few more of my own (like eating it with a spoon straight from the packet).

The sauce itself is perfectly balanced. It is fruity, sharp and yet sweet at the same time. It doesn't overpower, yet holds its own against other flavours. I tried it over ice cream, chocolate brownie and on top of waffles, all of which were enhanced by the delicious berry flavour. In particular, the boysenberries really shone through which was great, as we really love those. I also added it as a swirl through vanilla yoghurt in our naked lunchboxes which was very well received by the whole family, and the tablespoon I popped into caramelised onion relish was genius - a little fruity kick balanced off by the sweetness of the onions. In terms of value for money, I don't think you could get much more universal a product, and you are sure to use it in all sorts of situations.

Overall, once again, Barkers have come up with a pretty neat product here. I'm not sure what I was doing before this was in my life, but I know that from now on it will always be in my fridge. You will not regret the decision to try this.

Anyone that knows me would know I have a weakness for sweet treats so desserts for me is a great way to satisfy that sweet tooth. I was excited to see the new range of dessert sauces from Barkers and the Wildberry sauce stood out to me straight away as I do love berries. Fresh berry season always seems far too short for my liking so I love to find berry products that will carry me over the winter seasons. A Wildberry sauce sounded right up my alley!

I couldn't wait to taste this when the bottle arrived so opened it and had a taste on a teaspoon straight from the bottle. The berry taste was definitely there and was accompanied by real pieces of the berry and the seeds giving it that authentic berry sauce taste and texture. This is one of my favourite things about Barkers products is that they use real quality ingredients you can actually see and taste with far less added ingredients and no nasty preservatives. This Wildberry Sauce gives you a real feeling of homemade and you know that it is packed full of the goodness of real berries.

One of my favourite desserts is fruit and yoghurt as it is quick and easy to make, but I do find a lot of flavoured yoghurts have high sugar levels so I tend to buy natural yoghurt and add my own fruit. Barkers Wildberry Sauce worked beautifully with natural greek yoghurt giving a decadent yoghurt dessert with lots of flavour and just the right amount of sweetness against the plain yoghurt. As it worked so well with the yoghurt I decided to add it with banana and milk to make a smoothie, normally I would use fresh or frozen berries but as I found this sauce had the same flavour as having the actual berries it worked just as well.

Barkers Wildberry Sauce was a great addition to my fridge items and I have found myself reaching to it quite often because it tastes great and has such a wide range of uses beyond a sauce. I can't wait to use it in other ways and my children have their eye on using it to make berry muffins for their lunches.

Since joining KIWIreviews I have become a huge fan of Barker's of Geraldine products, these include dessert sauces, fruit for cheese, soda syrups, fruit spritzers, dressings, fruit compotes, fruit syrups, chutneys and jellies, fruit preserves, curds and marmalade, and savoury sauces. When I saw that there were some new flavours of dessert sauce available, I quickly put a request in to try some. When my review products arrived I was thrilled to see that I had received a wildberry one, and couldn't wait to try it after dinner.

When it came time to try the wildberry sauce, I first looked at the bottle and was mesmerized by the bottles label. There are some delicious looking berries, and serving suggestions for how to use the sauce, including over ice cream. The Barker's logo stands out, and there is no doubting what the product is as the label quite clearly shows it. The glass bottle is a generous 335g size, the ingredient list states that there are blackberries, boysenberries, blackcurrants, and raspberries in the sauce. This dessert sauce is gluten free and has no added preservatives.
When I took the lid off I was met by the undeniably fruity scent that wafted up to my nostrils, I immediately started to crave it, so got some French Vanilla ice cream in a bowl, and poured a rather generous serving of the sauce on top.

I was pleasantly surprised at the deep colour of the sauce, I took a mouthful and instantly I wanted more. The texture wasn't smooth, there were some lumps of delicious berry, I couldn't exactly pinpoint a single berry flavour, but I thought the balance of flavours was just right. The only negative aspect for me personally was the amount of berry seeds in the sauce, especially when they got stuck in my teeth. The bottle label states that there is approximately 11 servings in the bottle.

I personally enjoyed this but think from now on I will have a lesser amount on my ice cream, as after a few mouthfuls I found it was starting to get overpowering. I am looking forward to making a cheesecake and drizzling the sauce over as a flavour. I recommend this product to anyone wanting a delicious, fruity topping for desserts, an added bonus is this is made by a NZ company. I look forward to seeing which new products are released by Barker's in the future.

Having already tried a few of the Barker's range of sauces, I was keen to try this one, even though I have an intense dislike for seeds or pips in anything fruity that I eat or drink. The label drew me in and my eight year old, who cannot read yet, was very pleased that she could tell me what was in the bottle just by looking at the label. There are also a few illustrations giving you an idea or two about what you can use this for. I love the colour of this sauce and when we popped it open, we all agreed that it tasted rather lovely and started to think of ways to use this.

I needed to make my daughter a birthday cake and was stuck with what to put in between the layers, but then I remembered that I had this sauce and some cream in the fridge. I whipped up the cream and then added almost half the bottle of wildberry sauce to the cream. It gave a lovely, light purple colour to it. I then slathered it between the layers and decorated the cake. The cream tasted delicious! It was a great addition to the cake and I found that I didn't detect any of the seeds which was a big plus for me. My kids all enjoyed it and thought that I should make the cream mix again and just hand them a spoon, rather than add an unnecessary cake to it.

The kids cannot wait to use up the rest of the bottle, the flavours were a hit and I can many, many uses for this, we may well be buying another bottle.

One thing I really like with the label is it has ideas on how to use the sauce and the drawings just pull you in. The next thing you notice is how vibrant the colour is and it just screams use me! The next thing is the word 'Barkers' being carved into the bottle just looks so classy. Then there is the highlighted Gluten Free and No added Preservatives - the bottle itself just oozes charm.

We had a whole lot of bananas that had to be used in baking or thrown away so my husband came up with the idea of banana bread and muffins and I suggested adding a bit of this to the muffins. So making the muffins the normal way and putting into the muffin tray was nice and easy. The hard part was figuring how to inject the sauce into the center of the muffin with out it protruding out the top or the sides. Looking thru the baking drawer found a container with squirty lid - easy. Poured the liquid in and it worked like a charm. My only mistake was not adding enough as when we ate the muffins they were very banana heavy and if it wasn't for the 'red' colour would not of noticed the suttle flavour - my fault didn't want the sauce to over power.

The next night I saw some of Jamie Olivers cooking show and he had made a dessert with meringues and fresh blue berries and boysenberries so working along side his idea I just modified some. I smashed up the merringues and put into a parfait glass topped with some vanilla ice cream followed by this sauce and repeated the procedure till got to top of glass. Then gave another swirl of the sauce topped with cream and a grated flake bar. One word Yummy. Oh my it was fantastic the sauce combined with the meringue pieces and the ice cream worked perfectly and complimented each other perfectly. Both girls decleared it their favourite dessert of all time.

My eldest daughter has already announced she will be making piklets in the weekend just so can use this topping with cream and honestly I have no objections. As we get closer to winter the comfort foods start making a reappearance and I am sure this sauce will be in a few of the dishes. The price is great and I can easily see it being added to the trolley in the future.

This is now one of my favourite Barker's products. I was in the Geraldine shop a couple of weeks ago and was impressed to see the range of items on offer - and this one, being a new product, was part of the display near the front window. I even love the packaging: it features a bold, stylised font with a decorative border of fruit graphics and suggestions for use, but the design does not sacrifice legibility as can often be the case with products where the important information is hard to see. This label is right out there: you can tell immediately what the contents are, and it is sufficiently eye-catching to be clearly visible across a supermarket aisle.

I tried it first on a teaspoon and had to restrain myself from just finishing the entire bottle. The flavour is authentic; it captures perfectly the effect of very ripe, sweet berries eaten on a warm day so that the full taste is experienced. Fruit eaten straight from the fridge is never quite so flavoursome, so although this product has to be kept chilled once it is open, I would recommend taking it out to return to room temperature before using it.

Of course, I had to try it with home-made pikelets. As I had expected, this was a classic treat which delivered a perfect combination of texture and taste. It would also be good with other similar foods - pancakes, waffles or even scones. It is quite runny so a plate is necessary, but after all it is a sauce rather than a jam so that is to be expected. Nevertheless, it is reasonably thick when compared to other sauces, due no doubt to the high fruit content.

I had managed to stop myself from finishing the rest of the bottle as I wanted some of my friends to try it as well. I served it to top a steamed pudding instead of my usual golden syrup. Originally I thought of making an upside down pudding where the sauce is cooked along with the batter, but I did not want to risk losing the texture so I cooked the pudding on its own, turned it upside down on to a serving dish, then poured some sauce on top. The heat of the pudding warmed the sauce anyway and it proved so popular that there was not a speck left over.

Because there was a small amount of sauce left, I thought it would be a good idea to share it with the same group of friends. We had an outside brazier going as it was quite a cold autumn night, so I speared some marshmallows and gave everyone a couple. The remaining sauce was transferred to a small bowl so people could dip their toasted marshmallows in it. The result was a lot of fun and quite a lot of mess, but the taste combination was a new experience and one we all enjoyed very much. The dipped confectionery was very sweet, but it is not something you would eat very much of anyway - and as we were outside the odd drips did not matter. I have done this before with melted chocolate, but it was the first time for all of us using a fruit sauce. Great fun and something we just might do another time.