Central Otago Apricot and Mustard Dressing product reviews

I love Barkers products as a rule and this arrived looking lovely. As they have branched out I have had some successes and some failures as often they seem to be a bit strong for me. I was apprehensive as mustard is not a taste I would usually seek out. I am also keeping the bottle as it looks just lovely to reuse which was an added bonus.

I liked the fresh bright look of the bottle and the wide opening. I thought the illustrations were clean and clear and helped make it seem a perfect summer taste accompaniment. I was keen to try this on a boring old salad just to see what happened first. The result was positive. It was quite a thick texture and I was surprised it wasn't smoother but I actually think "the bits" add a little something and give it a lovely homestyle vibe.

The smell of the apricots hit me first, lots of fruitiness. In fact, before I added it to the salad I did a bit of a taste - wow! very intense. I went a bit lighter on the application because of this and I think this is where I succeeded in finding a lovely new dressing for my collection. I loved the sweetness and the mustard added a good tang that wasn't vinegary as I sometimes get a bit tired of the constant vinegar tang. Next, I want to try it with something a bit cheesy (maybe crackers and cheese?)

As I am not a fan of sweet dressings I went quite light on the application of this dressing and it worked a treat. In fact, I next added it to my ham but the best find was having it with some boiled potatoes - great taste!

I absolutely love barkers products and have used a lot of their products both past and present. I actually discovered some of the new range of dressings in a supermarket tasting recently and bought a couple the coconut and lime was so good so I was excited to receive this to review mustard and apricot are both flavours I enjoy and think work really well together.

Being xmas this dressing was absolutely perfect for salad with our glazed ham as it added the mustard flavour to complement the ham and the sweetness of the apricot and added honey made it very fresh and summery in taste. When I glazed my ham I was missing a couple of ingredients from the recipe including wholegrain mustard and orange juice so not wanting to brave the crazy xmas eve shopping I adjusted my recipe and used some of this dressing in the glaze and I am glad I did it worked perfectly and added such a great flavour and stickyness to the ham.

I love that the dressings use natural ingredients including NZ fruit and NZ honey using local products is great and lets me know that the ingredients used were fresh and of good quality I find it easy to trust being a NZ brand and NZ ingredients. As with other barkers products you can actually see the ingredients that just give you the true idea of the ingredients used so you without a doubt know that they are made with real ingredients and not over processed like other products on the market.

We have a lot of salads over summer so like to jazz them up with different dressings and this one along with others in the barkers range are perfect so many great options to choose from that go with different ingredients I don't think I could pick a favourite because they are all so good but I am a huge fan of this mustard and apricot version as I love the tang of the apricot and the slight heat from the mustard definitely a very tasty addition to a summer salad.

Barker's have made quite a range of products now, and they are certainly a brand I trust. Everything I have tried of theirs has been full of flavour and many of them are regular items in my kitchen pantry or fridge. When I saw this and another dressing variety come up for review I quickly requested them, hoping that I would be lucky enough to try one or both of them. I was excited to receive this dressing and couldn't wait to try it.

Heading to a friends for dinner I was taking along some Christmas ham to share, and he was providing the salad. I suggested that I bring along the apricot and mustard Barker's dressing for us both to try. Interested in seeing how it tasted he agreed so it came along with me too!

I am definitely more of a salad fan over cooked vegetables, so having a variety of salad dressings is important to me as you can change the way your salad tastes each day by using a different dressing. On this particular occasion we prepared a salad with some lettuce, capsicum, carrot, broccoli stalks, cabbage and pickled cucumber and served it on the plate with the ham. I put a generous drizzle of the dressing over my salad and a little bit over the ham - after all, mustard and apricot are both good matches with ham.

The dressing certainly isn't too thick, but neither is it too runny. Sometimes dressings that are too thick are hard to spread and you end up eating more of them, but this one spread nicely so I was able to coat all of the salad without being too heavy handed. The smell was a little confusing initially - I could definitely smell vinegar (of which cider vinegar is an ingredient) but there was a little faint smell of mustard, and a tinge of apricot sweetness. Upon trying it I realised just how full of flavour this dressing was! I didn't need a lot on the salad to be able to taste it (which is great, especially when trying not to eat too much sugar and unnecessary extras). The first taste was the sweet of the apricot, then I was left with the slight bitterness of the mustard. This dressing was perfect, and was a great match with the ham too. My friend also enjoyed it, stating that it was rather tasty! I look forward to enjoying this on more salads over summer time.

Barkers, you have made a wonderful choice on this flavour. Love this product and so useful. Great details on the bottle with pretty pictures to show uses for it. Easy to read, and easy to point out when recommending this product. Very interested in seeing what other flavours there is in this range as something different to add to our meals.

This is one product our kids wanted lots of. We opened bottle upon opening review box and all had a wee taste and were blown away by the flavours of Central Otago Apricots and zing of mustard. Growing up in Central Otago I love apricots so was excited when I saw this. We added this to a plain salad and actually added this as a glaze for our ham over Christmas to add that little bit extra. This seriously made our plain salad amazing, our kids can be fussy with dressings even boring ones but this they loved and asked if we can buy it. So mega thumbs up for us.

Tomorrow kids and I might try this with some fancy cheese and crackers because it has that yummy taste that we think might work together. We are looking forward to going and seeing other flavours and seeing what else Barkers has to offer us. I know a couple of their other products that are good too. This bottle is a great price for the uses you get out of it, just not enough in the bottle for our big family. Highly recommend and will be buying again. Well done Barker's.

Barker's products have become a staple in our house after first trying them out through KIWIreviews a few years back, we have been hooked ever since and I don't think there's been one product yet which we haven't loved. When I saw Barker's had released a new range of dressings just in time for Summer I was over-joyed as in Summer my family tends to eat a lot more salads and fresher foods and so we are always looking for ways in which to incorporate a bit more flavour to them, and dressings are an ideal of doing just that.

The combination of this Apricot and Mustard dressing sounded like heaven, I always look forward to Summer when all the yummy stone fruits are in season and apricots are one of my favourites, so seeing as this dressing was in fact apricot based I was pretty sure I was going to love it, which I do!!! As i've now come to expect the dressing comes in a nicely shaped glass bottle with an attractive label which has pictures and suggestions of ways in which this item can be used such as in various different salads but also as a yummy variation on bread and haloumi cheese. Being a clear glass bottle means that you can see the product you are buying and also how much of it you have remaining which is something that I always look for when buying products.

The taste of the dressing is amazing and after my first initial smell of it I couldn't help but put a little on a teaspoon for me to taste, it was delicious a yummy tangy flavour of fresh ripe apricots, and a tarty mustard kind of taste, with a very subtle hint of honey, it was a combination that was perfect and certainly didn't need any tweaking in my mind, I loved the texture with the little mustard seeds in it and the fact it wasn't overly thick and so easy to pour.

I decided to try it out for the first time on a salad, which actually proved to be my most prefered way to use it. I chopped up some lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes and carrots and popped then into a bowl to which I added some cashew nuts, camembert cheese, mango and chicken strips before drizzling over the dressing. The flavour was amazing and added so much yumminess to the salad, one which was fruity and tangy but worked so well with the flavours used. My partner and daughter, who was worried to start with about the "little black dots" both enjoyed it and said they wanted it on their salads next time aswell.

Next up I used it as a dressing on a pasta salad which also contained some diced bacon, pineapple and capsicum, I found that in this particular dish that the dressing seemed to be a little too runny for my liking and that it didn't really complement the flavours of the pineapple which was a shame, my partner did tend to agree with me here, but Miss 4 scoffed it down and had the leftovers the next night aswell, anything with pasta in it is amazing in her books.

Last of all I combined some of the dressing with a bit of greek yoghurt to make a dip as part of a snack platter with some chicken nibbles, wedges, onion rings and toasted pitas, this actually worked remarkably well and added a real nice flavour to a dip and it seemed to work with all the nibbles that were served and the adults and children both really enjoyed this. I have almost run out of this so it's going to be on my shopping list next week, along with any other yummy variants of Barker's dressing that I like the sound of!

I am a sucker for anything with apricots in - they are one of my favourite fruits, especially when I am in Central Otago and they are in season. The last time I was there and the season was in full swing we bought a case and travelled around with them in the chilly bin. They lasted a week! Combine the apricot idea with a Barker's product and I am pre-programmed to enjoy it.

We decided to try it first with some American hot dogs. All of us like hot dogs served this way (in a bun with onion and mustard) but often the mustard is too - well - mustardy! If it is hot, it masks the flavour of the meat and onion, and if it is mild it tends to have a sour aftertaste. Fruity flavours go well with sausage too, so it seemed that this dressing would be a good alternative. The results were interesting. The flavour, as we had suspected it might be, was superb, but the consistency was a little too runny to work. So it was a mixed reception with full marks for flavour but reservations about the suitability for this particular combination.

Next we tried it on a plain green salad and that was absolutely perfect. The dressing pooled on the lettuce rather than soaking in as it had with the hot dog buns, so we were able to enjoy the full effect. It looked good and it tasted even better, and this time we could also see the little mustard seeds dotted through the liquid. Even the youngest child enjoyed it as the flavour was quite mild. This was her first introduction to anything with mustard in, and was probably a good way for her to encounter it.

We tried a little as a marinade for pork strips prior to putting them on the barbecue. The result was an aromatic, slightly singed offering which was speedily devoured by an appreciative family. The apricot and mustard flavour was quite subtle but still recognisable and also helped to tenderise the meat. I think we will leave it to marinade overnight next time so that it can permeate the meat fully; on this occasion we gave it only 20 minutes and thought it could have done with longer.

Finally, we added it to some plain mayonnaise and used it to enhance a potato salad. Again, the extra burst of flavour transformed a plain dish into something special. The mayonnaise was quite thick so the dressing did not just disappear into the potato; it coated each piece with a glaze that tasted as good as it looked. I can see many more uses for this product and look forward to trying out some new combinations.