Couture Jams from Confiture Parisienne

I read this week that marmalade – which I love- is in decline, mostly because it’s only being bought by older people. In a recent research project, it was discovered that six out of ten marmalade buyers are over 65. What the preserve needs is a make-over. Looks whats happened to jam. I am a big fan of The London Borough of Jam which makes beautiful and delicious pots, which it sells at Columbia Road Market. But for something a tad more chic, I think the stylish Confiture Parisienne range of preserves looks very interesting. Carotte Passion contains passion fruit, vanilla and carrot and Chataigne Poire is all about chestnuts, pears and tonka beans. Aphrodisiaque is grapefruit, pomegranate, honey and spices, definitely not your Women’s Institute flavours.

It’s the idea of a couple of cool French girls, who worked in the restaurant business and wanted to revolutionize the jam world with couture-level jams, featuring unusual ingredients and aspirational packaging. It’s now sold in the uber-cool French boutique Colette, so I guess they succeeded. I’m certainly buying some next time I’m in Paris, until then, it is supposed to be available at Harrods, although I don’t see it on their listings. Maybe in store?

So come on marmalade, lose the Paddington Bear image and get yourself a smart make over. There’s a business opportunity if I ever saw one.

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3 Comments

  • Jan says:

    I’d encourage all of you to have a go at making your own conserves, including marmalade. It is far less complicated than you might think and you can be as adventurous as you like with ingredients and added flavours. You can also make preserves with a fraction of the sugar recommended in most recipes. The set will be less firm, more like French conserve and you will need to keep in the fridge, but it’ll be so delicious that it’ll soon be eaten up anyway. No need to pay Harrods’ prices either.

  • Amanda says:

    Thanks Jan and since sugar is the Devil’s food currently, it must be a good idea to reduce the amount you use. We could set up a TWR conserve brand!

  • Jan says:

    Sounds like a plan! It really does work. Most preserve recipes suggest equal sugar to fruit but you can reduce the sugar by at least a quarter and still produce delicious preserves. It makes a much lighter mixture but all the better for that. Works equally well for marmalade or citrus curds (e.g. lemon curd). You do need to store it in the fridge though.

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