My breakfast is not complete without a tablespoon of my favorite jam. I love to pat it on my toast and mix it with cottage cheese or other kinds of cheese. There is something about the sweetness of the jam and the saltiness of cheese that appeal to my palate. However, I am so particular about the jams I buy. I don’t like it loaded with refined sugar. So I look for sugar-free jams or jams cooked with honey.
Sometimes, I cook my own jam. I learned how to make jams from a French lady who personally made them to give as her Christmas presents. But we all like to simplify our lives and buy what is available in the stores.
Recently, I received some bottles of homemade jams from my friends Pierre and Andrea Marmonier who started a jam business called The Fruit Garden two years ago. The scope of their business was then limited to supplying our local hotels and selling their products in Christmas bazaars. But after receiving positive feedback from their friends, they decided to expand their business this year and sell to the supermarkets and specialty stores like Bacchus in Rockwell.
Because I was curious about this, I solicited an invitation from Pierre Marmonier to watch him cook his jams. I went to his new factory on Haig Street, Mandaluyong. The factory was spic and span, not a speck of dust on the counters. I took mental note of that and gave him an A for hygiene and cleanliness, which is very important in my standards when inspecting food premises. Before entering his kitchen, Pierre Marmonier tactfully handed me shoe gloves or shoe covers (like when one enters the operating room) which I readily put on without any hesitation. I believe in not bringing street germs through my shoes to his kitchen, which he likes to keep squeaky clean.
My visit was timely because he was experimenting on a new flavor of jam, which was an order from the chef of Shangri-La Makati. The chef wanted banana jams using maple syrup as sweetener instead of sugar. I was so thrilled to be the official jam taster for this particular concoction and my taste buds rated it very highly. It was delicious and healthy. No un natural ingredient or preservatives there just fresh bananas and maple syrup.
Marmonier explains that he customizes his jams according to the requests of his clients. There is a certain minimum requirement that he requires from them when it is a special order. He also makes sugar-free jams, perfect for weight watchers and diabetics. The fructose from the fruits serves as the sweetener for the jams. No added aspartame or artificial sweeteners. He believes in using only natural sugars and honey or maple syrup in his jams.
The Fruit Garden only uses fruits that are found in the local market. The Marmoniers believe in using fresh fruits that are in season. At the moment, they have the following flavors: mango, pineapple, strawberry, citrus. These flavors have variants, too like his mango jams have lavender, ginger, chocolate, lime, and vanilla spices in them, if the client prefers them that way. The mango/lavender that he made me taste was unique and tasty.
The strawberry flavors have variants that include strawberry/mint, strawberry/ginger, and strawberry/banana.
Other seasonal flavors are guava, mangosteen, chestnut, mulberry. They also sell chutney, fruit puree coulis, and 100-percent pure honey from the northern part of Abra. All his fruit puree and coulis flavors are delivered frozen except the strawberry.
The Fruit Garden has attractive gift packages for the holidays the perfect gifts for friends and corporate clients. Jam lovers will surely love receiving these tasty healthy jams.
Interested parties may call 0920 9453565; e-mail pierre@thefruitgarden.net; visit www. thefruitgarden.net.