At the moment I’m buying Beerenberg Australian Strawberry Jam . Please feel free to add Conserves and Marmalade’s too .
Keep it to purchased off the shelf products for the time being .
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Cottees - that’s what is usually on special. Mostly used on home made jam drops. Would use a jar a year, maybe 2 years. Raspberry or Plum.
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I have a German friend that makes jars and jars of jam each year and uses fruit which are cheap (in peak supply). We often have mango, strawberry, apricot, tomato and other jams provided to us regularly.
As a result and since we are not huge consumers of jams, we haven’t bought any for a number of years.
My favourite jam would have to be rosella jam. We used to make rosella jam years ago when we grew the plants.
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Home-made is the only brand for me! Cherry, apricot, plum, mulberry, blackberry, strawberry and various types of marmalade, I make them all from home-grown fruit 
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Jam - flavoured sugary syrup or jelly with a close or distant relationship to fruits?
It is so tempting to note that genuine traditional jam has only two ingredients - a fruit or fruits and a sugar. Add some water perhaps and lots and lots of time and labour.
Rule one - There should be no pectin or jam setter or jellying agents.
Rule two - repeat rule one three more times.
Rule six - cheating is permitted, just don’t tell anyone?
Of the brands of commercial jam like products then:
Rose’s branded marmalade’s and jams are a staple.
Rarely, a treat of the petite jars of conserve of any brand that looks cute but usually have lots of flavour and fruit like contents. Any added food numbers are in print so small on the labels of these jars it is not worth the worry, if they appear at all?
Cottees jams for anything else.
What is missing here is variety in the retail product. We grew up on homemade products such as kumquat marmalade, rosella jam and cherry guava jelly. The local markets and fetes are worth a look, however the time and effort to do these products justice is not one for the faint hearted?
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My late mother loved State Marmalade Jam which was produced by the former State Cannery in Brisbane. She did not like any other brand of marmalade.
http://queenslandplaces.com.au/exhibit/book/qaj108
My wife loves home made roselle jam made with only rosellas. We grew some rosella bushes after we bought our current home in 2015, and made a large batch of rosella jam, which she loved.
We now have our shade house where we grew them and the ones that I planted outside our back fence did not produce any fruit.
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Currently prefer Rose’s marmalades, and Bonne Maman conserves.
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Home made. Bonne Maman. Baxters. Buderim Ginger
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We LOVE rosella jam. Last time we were in Qld we went to a farm shop at Woolooga near Gympie and bought a lot of rosellas which we brought home and made into jam. This place sells jams etc too if you’re interested. https://www.ccskitchen.com.au/
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We make all our own jams, fruit pastes, pickles, chutneys etc, either from home-grown fruit or fruit bought when it’s on special or in season, where seville orange marmalade is concerned, for example.
We haven’t bought any jams for many years.
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We tried a couple of times to grow rosellas in the ACT, but it seems our weather is both too cold and too hot for them. I bought some last time we were in Qld and made lots when we got home.
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Any recommendations for best (off-the-shelf) marmalade? I see Rose’s has some supporters. Any other suggestions?
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I like the IXL Breakfast Marmalade it is really nice. So is Roses marmalade, and Beerenberg. ALso any of the Barkers jams are great. I try to get ones with the highest percentage of actual fruit and the fruit percentage greater than that of sugar.
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Frank Cooper’s Vintage if you can find it. Very dark thick cut style. I’ve seen it occasionally in David Jones and IGA and delicatessens.
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Yes I’m with you there entirely. Bon Maman Conserves preferably or anything where I can actually see pieces of fruit. Whenever I can, I like to buy from the Farmer’s Market locally as I can taste and view individual jams and preserves. I do love Rose’s Marmalades also.
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We buy only St Dalfour because of its visible fruit content and because it has fruit juice instead of sugar. Great on toast and in yogurt! I think it’s not technically ‘jam’ but a ‘spread’…it has ‘fruit pectin’.
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Totally agree with your choices. My Mother (98) won’t go past Bundaberg Ginger Marmalade. We both long for Auntie’s home grown and made damson plum jam.
I think though that Cottees jams re not as good as they once were.
Anathoth Apricot and their berry jams are very good/
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You people who make your own jams, you know who you are, you **** me to tears - I am very envious I have very fond memories of grandmas jams and marmalades, not to mention (off topic) dads preserved fruit from the peach, pear, apricot, plum trees - the big Fowlers Vacola? jars … mmmm … tasting a home made jam is almost a spiritual experience, especially if it is accompanied with good bread, which means different things to different people - sour dough for me from the local bakery, fresh, whole loaf gone faster than it should no doubt …
In terms of buying jam - I try to look for the fruit content, but ultimately Beerenberg Farm from near where I grew up is more often than not the winner. Someone (names occluded to protect the innocent) mentioned Ginger Marmalade, which I never knew existed. I hope the local super stocks it …
Something I only experienced recently was putting a good cheese on the bread/toast with the jam - the bitier the better. Maybe a European thing? A very vintage cheddar or Jarlsberg, Tilsit, Red Leicester, Stilton - even an aggressive blue, they all bring something unique … ‘Heaven’ must surely be a place where jam, marmalade, bread and cheese are abundant …
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A while ago Coles had some IXL jams made with stevia instead of sugar. I liked those, especially the apricot and maybe kidded myself that they were a healthier option. My Coles no longer stocks them. I find that most commercial jams are too sweet; some with over 60% sugar. An apricot jam almost as good as my granny used to make is the Hermes from Serbia. I use the no-added-sugar Helios brand from Spain. It’s not chewy with real fruit and it’s a bit jelly-like And again maybe I’m kidding myself that it’s a healthier option but it’s good on a croissant.
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Not familiar with many of the brands mentioned, but there’s a jar of Cottes Raspberry jam in my pantry at the moment.
With 65.5g of sugar per 100g
it is used only seldom, and sparingly, on a slice of buttered toast.
By the way, the label says: made in New Zealand from imported ingredients.
Hopefully from Australia?
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