Can You Taste the Price? Cheap vs Expensive Jam & Honey
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- Опубліковано 27 тра 2024
- This is an idea that sprang out of one of my cooking challenges (where I am often scouring the supermarket shelves for the cheap stuff) - how much difference is there, between cheap and expensive versions of the same kind of thing?
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Links to discussed regulatory documents:
Jam and Similar Products: www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2...
Honey: www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2...
Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
1:00 What is jam?
4:29 Compared products
6:17 Methodology
7:20 Tasting
12:08 Jam reveal
13:12 Is it worth it?
15:37 The Toast Tax
15:55 Honey
17:50 Fake honey?
21:53 Fairness of comparison
23:13 Tasting
27:20 Honey reveal
28:02 Is it worth it?
30:49 Closing thoughts - Навчання та стиль
This has nothing to do with this specific video, and it may be the strangest comment you've had in a while, but I want to say thank you. I've wanted to say it for a while but didn't know how to put it, so to hell with it, here it goes. We lost my dad last year to cancer, and before the end he wasn't doing much. I had introduced him to your channel, and while he wasn't spending much time out of bed, when he did get up, your channel was pretty much the only thing he would watch, and it relaxed him ever so much. Thank you for making my dad happy in his final days :) Thank You!
I’m so sorry you lost your dad… I am glad to hear that this brought him joy… or at least gave him a reason to get up each day… ❤️
That's a sad backstory bro.
My condolences.
Plant a tree in his honor.
If you find it hard to move on hard alcohol (40%+) helps.
I live near Tiptree and I have done the factory store and checked out the fields with the Wilkins and son's jams etc. it is worth the money and they pay their workers well. It is a good family owned company and the money gets reinvested in the workers and the farms and environment. Many jam factory workers live in homes owned by the company in Tiptree and nearby villages built since 1904.
They have 75 properties, which have subsidised rents, and they recently built 10 retirement homes and gave them to long service retired workers.
That's interesting, thanks for sharing.
I also live nearby, only 20 mins away. it’s good to see the jam in places like hotels and tea rooms all over the country. Their tea room is worth a detour.
I’d be happy to pay extra money knowing it goes to things like that not just a shareholders pockets
Have you ever thought of beekeeping?
How lovely, that such places still exist!
I don't know how you do it. Weird stuff in a can, jam reviews, scam baiting, foraging, cooking random things... somehow, despite me having little to no interest in any of that I'm hooked. you have a secret sauce or something. I've been watching for years and I just can't see how I can be addicted to watching jam reviews at my age. well done sir! I don't know how you do it, but it works!
I know, right! Oddly pleasurable.
Exactly! Now he has me thinking about my local honey.😂😂😂
For me it was all about him really. He comes across as such a nice person, and I mean that in the best way possible. I don’t mean inoffensive although he is, I mean he’s the kind of person I’d be glad to see after dealing with life, knowing that he’d be sympathetic without being patronizing, thoughtful without being pedantic, that sort of thing. The fact that he has such a wide range of topics he’s interested in but claims no expertise in mirrors my attitude about life despite our ranges of interest not completely overlapping. I feel that we could talk for hours without being bored which to me is very valuable.
Love to just sit and have a beer or two and talk about nothing in particular with him.
I've come to the conclusion that "eccentric British man" is it's own genre of content. A lot of people will mostly intersect with another genre, for example Lindybeige represents the intersection of being an eccentric Brit and history UA-cam, Laurie from LMM does mostly historic vehicle stuff, and The Spiffing Brit does videogame exploits, but a good chunk of their appeal is that they have that eccentric British man vibe, and some creators like Atomic Shrimp can get away with not having any other theme for their channel because they just have that vibe that makes whatever they are interested in seem interesting to everyone else, even if we normally wouldn't be at all interested if it were anyone else talking about it.
But then again, it might just be that I'm also that sort of eccentric person who has diverse and unusual interests. :P
Don't forget designing and building things
Can you do dried pasta next in this series? There is a huge price differential between the budget stuff and the name brand. Does bronze die-cut make a difference?
I always buy the cheapest spaghetti 50p per KG and it’s always tastes ok to me.
I think the only real difference is going to be the type of flour used in it. Semolina is usually considered the best.
Pasta is strange. I’ve bought some expensive pasta and cheap, along with pasta in between. Will not buy cheap stuff. Do not like taste of expensive stuff. I buy in the middle.
Eggs are the same, I do know that expensive eggs do seem to make a better sponge cake
I think all the dies are made of bronze. Easily workable, and doesn't corrode.
Marketing fluff, to relieve you of an extra pound/dollar.
An Atomic Shrimp food video is a treat unparalleled on UA-cam.
A sweet treat 😉
An *extra*treat, one might say 😉
Yes! He respects us a lot; we don't feel like we're just drudgeons to him. No - if drudgeons were a thing, that's definitely not what we'd be to him. It's not like while we're watching he's all pally-wally and then as soon as the video's done he would toss us away like yesterday's jam!
@@BeheadedKamikaze yesterday's jam? that's not really a thing cause jam lasts for ages.
😊
I love that there is no real judgement or prejudice on your part for the reasons why someone may choose or indeed prefer the cheaper product. So many channels that involve elements of cooking and of course celebrity chefs on TV have an exclusivity and an insistence that anything but the most expensive is inherently inferior. Of course there are products which do meet that criteria, sausages and bacon perhaps, but it's still entirely possible to make tasty meals from the cheaper end of the market.
It's refreshing to hear someone admitting their preferences are subjective and encouraging an ethos of buy what is best for you within your budget.
Yeah, liking fancy stuff is fine, but it doesn't make you a better person. Honestly even with the cheap sausages (as long as there's nothing actually toxic in them) there are people who prefer that softer and smoother texture, and they're not wrong to prefer whatever they happen to prefer.
@@AtomicShrimpDefinitely agree on the sausages. For example I find the "Heck 97%" ones to be "too meaty", even though that large meat content sounds like it should be a good thing.
@@simonstroud2555 personally, I think people who insist on 'all meat' in sausages are missing out (it's their right to do that of course). A little bit of rusk in a sausage allows it to hang on to the fats and juices that cook out of the meat, making it more succulent to eat.
I'm not a fan of the sausages where the rusk content is taken to its logical extreme, but again, that's nothing more than a preference.
He has always been respectful, mindful of other people's circumstances and preferences, and Dow to earth.
It's quite sweet imagining a hive owner telling the bees that the weather is too bad and they'll have to stay inside, eat sugar water instead of nectar, and read books / knit / etc. instead of going outside :3
You do know 90% of Bees never leave the hive anyway
:3
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My partner will be fed up of me recalling all of this legislation next time we go to Tesco!
Cute 😂
The minimum sugar content isn't because of the expe se of sugar, but because of the osmotic pressure exerted. It has to be enough to inhibit mould growth at room temperature. When you get mould growing, it's because some liquid with a lower sugar content separates on the top. If you make your own, turning the jars upside down after filling and capping helps prevent this.
Right, in other words the sugar is reducing the water activity of the product, which I think is effectively the same thing.
I don't know about that. I make home canned foods all the time and the only thing that causes spoilage after canning (in fruit) is an appropriate acidity level. As long as the fruit is acidic enough it won't spoil. Sugar is just for flavour. You can safely can purees of pure fruit, no added sugar, and it's safe (I always follow usda recipes). The sugar does help preserve it after the can is opened however.
@@oliverg6864 My mother (who did a chemistry study) told that it's both the acidity and the sugar level. And she told us never to lick our knife and then use it for the jam, because the enzymes in saliva will spoil the jam
This explains why scraping mould off the top of jam leaves the rest of it still perfectly edible.
I've been wondering since I'm happy to defer to NHS doctors but a Dr Karan video about avoiding mouldy food, (that didn't mention jam), was sort of in conflict with what I thought I'd learned from other legit sources such like science teachers & the sensible grandparent.
@@rohanharridge5579 Yes, another thing my mother said: the mould is not growing on the jam, but on bread crumbs and other things that don't belong in there (so don't use your butter knife for the jam!)
I can hear Jenny silently chuckling to herself while serving you jammy toast while you have a knit cap over your face.
😂😂😂
The amount of love she has for you must be more than the amount of eye rolls given toward some of your antics. Or maybe your good humour amuses her more than anything. 😅
Maybe she respects his interests and projects. I'm ADHD, and I'm always drawn to neurodiverse creators. His channel is perfect for me, as I love cooking, foraging, trying new (weird things in a can/ bag/ package), exploring, travelling, gardening, arts and crafts, and I have a strong sense of justice, so I love him scambaiting scambaiters 😂 His channel has it all ❤❤❤
@AlissaSss23 I'm sure she does!! I'm also neuro-spicy. I love that he has such varied interests on his channel. It's a treat to watch what he gets into...☺️☺️☺️
I live in China and there are many small bee farms with natural honey. Even in a huge city like Shenzhen you can find small places with beehives that sell their honey directly.
Not likely in the industrial grocery supply chain, though, and even ethical small producers likely have little control over the pesticides and pollution used or released around them.
Growing up in the United States, I remember there was a pretty decent chunk of time when a large amount of honey was honey flavored corn syrup. Not as in fraud but as in the ingredients list on the back was different types of syrup and "honey flavor". I always assumed that what people meant when they would say honey was fake.
I'm not sure when this changed as I've found our local honey varieties to be worth the cost for many years.
Some producers would use corn syrup and sneakily write "honey" on the label. But the ones that fake it write honey on the label and don't state corn syrup as an ingredients. Especially non EU producers, like Chinese ones.
I never knew that. I grew up here, but honey has always been one of the most distinctive flavors and I thought impossible to mimic
@@animula6908 Which honey flavour? There is no single honey flavour.
Jenny's the pinnicle of patient, and we are the benefactors.
I've always loved the turn of phrase around counterfeit product that is 'honey laundering' 🐝🍯
There's gotta bee a honey mafia then. 🐝
😂😂😂
This is a genre of content that deserves a continuous series
Excellent video! I worked on a crop farm for several years and we tried to keep bees. It's quite difficult to keep western domestic bees in cold climates because during winter the bees have to stay inside a perform a sort of group vibration to maintain warmth around the queen. This renders them inactive and thus susceptible to termites, and you can't open the hive to treat them because you'll freeze them. The first batch of bees died in their first winter, but this is apparently expected for new beekeepers and the bee distributors gave us another set (they have bee survival rates so I do think they disallow people from hosting more bees if the bees die too many times, I know they visited occasionally the check on the bees and were generally satsfied with our care). The second batch of bees survived through one winter but died during their second. The owner decided against taking in bees again because the winter that the bees survived was unusually fair, and he felt he would be wasting queens if he continued taking bees and not keeping them alive. These bees lived on a farm and had about a two mile flight radius to nearby home gardens and wild fields, so they ate nectar until winter (when sugar water was injected into the hive somehow, I didn't help with that part so I'm uncertain what they were given). That honey was unmatched by any I had eaten before, and to this day I've found nothing better. It was sweet, crisp, and just a touch syrupy. I've never been one for a spoonful of honey but I could happily eat a spoonful of that any day. That has to be one of the products I miss most from working on the farm.
An aside: I absolutely love hearing about genuine small farms. They can be such wonderful places; I was treated very well as an employee (allowed to take home ugly produce, gifted honey and hot sauce from the owners so that I could taste the results of my labor, and generally treated with respect and dignity despite working a menial job). I was also very impressed with their genuine commitment to organic produce grown without "organic" herbicides, especially because they could not afford an organic certification, meaning they weren't making more money from it but were doing it because they thought it was right. They also took community requests and ended up growing a number of Indian herbs and vegetables that were otherwise unavailable in our region upon the request of a nearby Indian community. I'll always be proud of the time that I spent working for such upstanding people, and while I'm sad that their farm is gone now, I deeply hope that someone new will work that land soon.
Ooof like there was a very simple solution to save the bees. I live in Pennsylvania(USA) and one of the orchards near me has the most brilliant set up- its a basic idea that I've seen other places but they have upgraded it to be a marketing point in their store.
In the bees actually live in the store, they made a custom hive that is thick double walled acrylic. So next to where they sell honey you can see the bees milling around in their hive while being completely contained from the store(and its far away from the door/no draft). There is an opening on the side of the building for the bees to go in and out during the rest of the year- but in winter its sealed off and they are left to live off their honey at a very controlled temperature. This set up is actually much more natural for the bees because in the wild bees build their hives in like dead trees and stuff which gives the hive much better insulation then bee keeper boxes so they are less stressed/waste less energy trying to keep alive over winter.
@@thornback5641 That's very interesting! Sadly we were a bit further north than Pennsylvania and the farm had no heated buildings (we did a famer's market nearby but never had a shop) so I'm not sure it would've worked for them. However, it makes me very happy that this is doable in the right circumstances, thank you for mentioning it.
@@kinseylise8595 While farmers here absolutely make use of markets, at least in PA its super common for farms/orchards to have a small adjoining store fronts selling their goods. The shop I'm talking about you walk 30 feet from the building and you are in the orchard 😆. Location wise its on a well traveled road about 20-30 min from an urban area with around 200k people and several colleges. For places that don't get as much traffic they network with other local farms/orchards to get in other products.
For better or worse making small 'general stores' is how alot of smaller farmers are surviving. There are 4 of these places not 20 minutes from me and easily 2 dozen of these kinds places 45 min or under away- and I dont even live in Amish County(thats 2 hours out) - I live about an hour out from Philadelphia, so not in the backwoods for sure.
Simply Living Alaska folks keep bees which is extraordinarily difficult! Check their channel out.
The organic thing is quite funny. Some of the "organic" pesticides include things like copper sulphate, which has a devastating effect on the environment. But because it's natural/pre-industrial, it's classed as acceptable for organic farming.
I often watch your videos but never comment. I just thought i would say that you come across as very intelligent and well spoken, you clearly know your stuff about things and your videos have a warm feeling to them. you’re like a grandpa who has a lot of knowledge and interesting things to share.
Best advice I’ve heard is, “Buy the best you can afford.” Keeping the application in mind is also key as you said.
If the ingredient is the main feature or what’s meant to be highlighted, then spend the money there.
If the dish as a whole is the stand out, then don’t go overboard on one or two ingredients. Instead raise the quality across the board as a whole to the best you can afford.
Exactly. I love it myself, but definitely not buying the expensive jam for a 4yo's pb&j
2 things. 1) I didn’t know there was legislation regulating the use of the word Jam. 2) I never thought I’d sit and watch a guy taste test Jam and Honey but I’m glad I did.
I couldn't stop chuckling every time you reached for the glass of water :-0)
The legal text implies the existence of Cucumber Jelly. I've never seen this on sale, but with 15 cucumber seeds having gone into germinate today... I think the summer's project might be a cucumber (maybe cucumber and tomato) jelly.
I sometimes consider the same with watermelon jam, but I would think an issue to overcome would be the water content (with jam or jelly not setting until it's less than 40% water to sugar unless you use additional stabilisers/additives). It should concentrate the flavour, but I have concerns it would just burn off most of the aromatics.
Well, cucumber is a fruit, so 🤷
Cucumber jelly sounds delicious...
I have had a great cucumber lime jelly... It was wonderfully refreshing.
Cucumber ice cream used to be popular in Victorian England.
The English Heritage channel has a recipe video in their 'Mrs Crocombe' series.
I have never tried it, but supposedly it's tasty and very refreshing.
I, a Canadian, would love to see this test with maple syrup.
That would just be expensive, expensive, expensive.
We don't get cheap, or even mid-range Maple Syrup here lol
I've had homemade maple syrup, and while it was far thinner and the lid crusted onto it eventually, it was really good.
my grandfather used to keep bees back in his village in southern china. The bees made honey from rambutans and lychee. The resulting honey was sweet, fruity and delicious! Its one of my fondest childhood memories when I get to have the delicious honey (usually drank it with a bit of water) He didn't sell any of it btw, it was really only a hobby.
My wife walked in at exactly @7:46. I've some explaining to do
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I came for the taste test and was rewarded by witnessing the toast tax.🐕
Pump up the jam
Pump it up
While your feet are stomping
And the jam is pumping
Look ahead, the crowd is jumpin'
Pump it up a little more
Get the party goin' on the dance floor
See, 'cause that's where the party's at
And you'd find out if you do that
I'd like to see you do a video around shrink flation, you've got such a great back catalog of videos. It would be interesting to see items from a few years ago compared to todays. Also Great vids!
This is my personal bugbear. I may be wrong but I think that when the Government (UK) get the maths totted up for the monthly inflation figures they are just working on how much the item cost at the checkout. The fact the packet of teabags now only contains 80 teabags when it used to be 100 surely should be counted into some figure somewhere. The end result is the same, I'm getting less product for my money
@@gillianmeehan3206 Also it is in the government's interest to underestimate inflation.
I have seen some "honey" in the US referred to as "Honey Sauce" and the ingredients list is primarily some form of corn syrup and it blended with pure honey.
KFC used to putvreal honey in those little packets for the biscuits well a fee years ago we noticed a change in flavor and sure enough its mixed with sugar now not real straight honey
@@Emeraldwitch30 Yes It was KFC that I specifically remember used that term.
About the only place I've seen that outside of the packets you get from KFC or Popeye's are dollar stores. Even the cheapest honey from regular grocery stores is still all honey (though the quality of the honey itself might vary).
The funny thing is, corn syrup has almost an identical glucose-fructose content to honey. So it's odd how differently they get treated by people, who seem to thing HFCS is the devil whilst honey is a panacea.
@drunkenhobo8020 isnt it because high fructose vs normal corn syrup?
I used to buy the cheapest jams, until one day my dad stayed overnight and went out in the morning to buy us breakfast. He purchased one of the expensive ones, and from that day i could no longer go back to the cheap brands. They taste like pure sugar, while the expensive ones actually taste like they should
I once made mead with the cheapest possible honey (Sainsbury's basics) and while it was drinkable, it tasted more like "dull" white wine with not much floral honeyness to it. I didn't think it would make too much of a difference but it did. I made the next batch with more expensive honey and it was much better. I'm going to leave it to age somewhere in a cupboard and hope to drink it this Christmas!
Asking for nuance from the Internet is like screaming into the abyss; It hears you, but it never changes.
I think that the "Blindfolded With Hat To Taste Test Jams, Jellies and Honeys" test should be industry standard in quality control. I'd like to be the first to volunteer my services for such a task.
respect and salute to the fallen window-toaster. it did many years of service. you shall be missed.
thats a nice new toaster though. that puppy doubles your slice handling capabilities. but can any of us really handle the power and possibilities of a quad-slice toaster? i think not. its going to lead to the Kit-Kat dash line dissapearing and the berenstæin bears problem.
I think this video was just an excuse to really stretch the legs on that new bad boy
*slaps roof of toaster*
Defintely an interesting series to make. It would be interesting to do this with a wide range of things including fresh goods.
One piece of feedback regarding the Honey testing though is that technically the test was partially void since you knew there was a honey which would have strong floral/herby notes from the heather so it's not really a blind test in that sense. The Jam didn't have this problem since there was no other key notes to look for except raspberry whereas for the Honey you would naturally be hunting for the floral/herby notes as you know the more expensive jam is the floral/herby one.
I discussed that in the video - that's the only comparison that can be made - all of the honey at the top end of the price scale has something distinctive about it.
It *would* be possible to normalize for this by having someone else do the purchasing and provide you with taste samples, so long as you don't see the jars...
However if you're aware that these flowery notes are prevalent in the expensive honeys and not the cheap ones, it's going to be easy to pick them out - could be interesting to blind test a few friends and ask what they prefer.
oh damn this exchange is from 10 days ago and the video is under an hour old. its the illuminati at it again confirmed.
Probably the best bet is finding the most expensive wildflower honey. But then often you’re looking at really different textures. I think that was the best you could do. Anyway heather flowers are wildflowers. It depends on what the bees are situated near.
In my area there are places where they park bees next to blueberry orchards in full flower and harvest blueberry honey. It’s delicious. But my favorite is Italian chestnut honey.
Honey, these videos are my fricking jam!
I love that jenny gets involved in experiences.
Me, too. She seems to be willing to pitch in, which makes for a good partner for Shrimp, I am guessing. I get the feeling she is a patient and kind person, and obviously a talented seamstress. A very likeable team!!!
From afar, I adore Eva. Enthusiastic and food-oriented. My kind of girl! I love to see a rescue dog land in a fantastically dog-loving home. Warms the cockles of my grinchy heart.
It's a while since we've enjoyed Jenny's input and so lovely to have her even spreading jam. 😊
I know we're not talking about cost of living, but I still think it's crazy that you can buy a jar of honey for less than a dollar.
And yes, that is after the conversion.
I can't find a jar half that size for less than 4 usd.
I have similar thoughts! I lived in the UK in the early 2000's, and I thought food was quite cheap there generally, and also in comparison to prices in my hometown near San Francisco (California, USA). I was amazed at the quality I could get when buying mostly mid-range items. I shopped mostly at Tesco. I rarely bought the cheapest of anything because I found the quality lacking in those products, while paying a bit more got me very decent products. (I was a postgrad, so I didn't have a lot of money, but I likely spent more on food than my counterparts. I like to cook and eat good food!!!)
As you said above, I am also amazed that you can buy ANYTHING, much less honey, for under a pound. How can this be done????
We are experiencing rising (sky rocketing?) food costs in the US since the pandemic, so this wonder is even more intense for me in early 2024!!!!
Why is food so expensive in the USA? Tariffs maybe?
I find cheap honey all the time in the US. But it’s going to depend largely on where you are.
I get a pouch of 100% clover honey for $8 and it’s twice the size of the little bear with fake honey
Farmers market. I got a 5 pound jar for like 15 bucks
I suspect the cost of fueling our cars to get to the supermarket would horrify you though.
4:15 Oh what rabbit hole I found 😀 I always thought it was because of preservation reasons that there is a minimum sugar content. After opening a glass of these fruit products, the ones with less than 50% sugar tend to get moldy very fast.
In German wikipedia the article says that the law (a law of the EEC, the predecessor of the EU) for this is from 1979 and the amounts of sugar and fruit for each product is the same as you mentioned. In German all the products were called "Marmelade" no matter what fruit was used, but due to this EEC regulation (which Britain was part of) they banned the name "Marmelade" (instead the term "Konfitüre" should be used) to avoid confusions because in UK marmelade is always made from citrus fruits. Still in common language "Konfitüre" is called "Marmelade" but you never will find one in the store. Even the British version of marmelade (from citrus fruits) is very rare here in Germany.
In Austria they kind of got mad about the name "Konfitüre" because the word on itself is very uncommon, so they were allowed to call it "Marmelade", but only on local markets.
They've also got high-fruit options that fail the criteria, usually called Fruchtaufstrich ("fruit spread"). We always had the 55% jam in hexagonal glasses from aldi, but they've axed that a few years ago in favor of going up to 75%, for a smaller variety of fruits. (Also, the opening of the new glasses is too narrow for my silicone scraper, so once a month I go to lidl where they've got the same 75% stuff in a wider jar.)
I didn't even know that! I've never called it anything but Marmelade.
But yes, I remember from making Marmelade as a child, that the sugar content is necessary for preservation. I think, it's because sugar is hygroscopic? It attracts water to a degree, that makes for an inhospitable environment for tiny living creatures. Sucks the water out of their cells via osmosis.
I would absolutely love to see you revisit this, with even more basic ingredients. Is there a difference between cheap flour and pricey flour? Butter? Pasta?
As a diabetic I had strawberry jam/butter on toast for the first time in an age the other day and instantly regretted it. So I'm living vicariously through this video 😂.
I found a pectin that uses less to no sugar and make fruit spreads for my hubby as hes diabetic too.
Suregel and opoma (spelling) both can be used to make lower sugar jelly/jam.
You can make a decent substitute by gently boiling frozen berries of your choice, adding a bit of thickener and a sweetener.
For this (sour/fruity taste), Erithritol or Xylitol work white well, unless sugar alcohol causes you digestive issues. This will not last longer than other fresh food, of course, but you can easily freeze it on large ice cube forms.
Same problem here in Australia. When I *do* buy jam, it's usually the Bonne Maman with the writing directly printed on the glass rather than on a label, or the St Dalfour fruit spreads. They're both lower sugar than regular jams. Lotus Biscoff rather than Nutella (keep me away from it!) is another option. All as a treat, not daily consumption. Most jams here are 64-66% sugar.
@raraavis7782 I do this, I use pectin or agar, and a mix of stevia, monkfruit and erithrytol.
@@angelawossnamestevia causes not so fun kidney issues...its not good for you.
I'm not really a fan of how some people have an almost "mystical" belief about certain types of honey - especially when they suggest the antibacterial properties are mysterious and say things like "natural antibiotics! no nasty chemicals!" Even normal white sugar has antiseptic properties so long as its concentrated enough - like it is in jams and marmalades.
I don't know what it was but I found you reaching for that glass and missing absolutely hilarious
We have a some bee keepers in our neighborhood, because of this I am lucky to reap the benefits of their bees in my garden, they live 1 block from me. I have not had the opportunity to buy their honey yet, but, i will this year. I'm excited to taste the honey, because I know at least a little bit of that honey came from the things I plant. I make sure to plant nice bee attracting flowers and herbs and I don't use pesticides in my garden. I liked your explanation of the differences between jelly, jam, and etc..I've always wondered about it in competions. I make my own jellies and jams, I've only made one conserve last season. But, i purchased all the ingredients at a local organic market, Because the recipe needed called for things I cant grow. Our state fair is held in the city I live in, I always go and look at the canned goods, jellies,jams etc..but, I've never understood how they are judged. Your information cleared that up for me. Nice video!
I'm super ill with a chest infection and haven't been able to enjoy food. This video has not only been extremely interesting and cheered me up massively, but I've been able to taste vicariously through you! Thank you Mike, videos are always a pleasure
Viscosity of honey depends on so many factors! My colleague used to keep bees, and she had two hives next to each other. I had a glass each once, and they were really different. Taste, viscosity (one was almost solid).
My suggestion would be to find a beekeeper in the neighbourhood and get their honey. Many just do it as a hobby and have no reason to cheat.
Another "Can you taste the price?" on sauces like Ketchup, brown sauce or pickles/chutney would be a cool idea!
Your careful wording, where you outline things that are factually true without telling people what to think, continues to impress and delight. Thank you, again, for your videos
I love the legality of jam conversation it is both very interesting and entertaining
Spot on with saying that one might as well buy golden syrup if they aren’t trying to taste honey. I even like to push that further and say that if someone can’t buy traceable/local honey, they probably shouldn’t be buying honey. It’s important to support people who are honest and ethical in their beekeeping and cheap imported honey is never going to be that. There is a reason a cheap product is cheap, and that reason is usually that some person, animal, or ecosystem is paying the price.
Yeah, ideally in an honest world, there would still be somewhat reasonably-priced honey as a byproduct of keeping bees primarily as pollinators (wild pollinators exist, but in agriculture there's a greater than natural level of stuff that needs pollinating), but we don't live in that world and so the reasonably-priced version of any product is likely to be competing against fakes of various kinds.
I have an interesting observation for you, all the way from Detroit. The honey you determined to be tastiest is also kosher, showing the mark of supervision from the London Beit Din (Rabbinical Council), the KLBD, on back. This tells me that the honey has been thoroughly filtered - probably quite a few times - to remove any annoying, small bits of bees (a little lost leg, for example) that might have come with the product. Insects are not kosher, and so food must be carefully checked before it is certified. And thank you for another great video!
I love the idea of people from Detroit watching this. I only ever hear bad things about it, but I'm sure it's not so bad. Especially people with deep knowledge of kosher food 👍🏻
@@capitalb5889I've not been to Detroit but my daughter stayed there for a month and she loved it. One of her favourite places in the US, and she's lived there for a while!
@@capitalb5889 Thanks so much for your nice, nice comment! And life is great here in Detroit. Hope all is well with you, wherever you may be!
@@elizabethapplebaum9245London, so not more than about 100 miles from Mr Shrimp. But that's a very long way in Britain.
I do like hartleys jam. Mainly because it's the only supermarket brand I know of that has damson as one of its variations. Damsons always been my fave jam ever since my grandfather used to make it.
bonne maman do damson in sainsbury's. and if you can think of a flavour, tiptree do it. they've got like 8 pages of jam on their website - some really strange ones
Tiptree do a damson jam - they have so many varieties of jam/marmalade/curd it’s unreal - but not all varieties are available in supermarkets, only their most popular, so unless you order online/travel down to the factory store you might not be able to get it
A hat really gives gravitas to a man. Don't you think?
Regarding the honey thing, I can definitely taste the difference between them. It's been my favorite "condiment" since I was a small child in West Germany. As an adult, I keep about 20 varieties in my home for different reasons. But again, I can tell a massive difference between cheap generic honey, and something that came straight from an apiary with specific flowers nearby.
I don't think I'm unique in that respect honestly, I just think too many people are jaded to actual flavor vs. boxes and processed junk. Make your own food and grow what you can folks.
20 varieties?!
@@Lin612 Yes.
Most supermarket honeys that come as "clear" or "set" are generic blends that don't have much personality. But then there are monofloral honeys, which are very different depending on what type of flower the bees used. They range from pale and delicate like acacia or linden, to very dark and deep, almost like molasses - for example honeydew or buckwheat. There is a big taste difference between orange blossom and eucalyptus or heather, etc. Spring wildflower is different than summer wildflower, and so on.
The Trappist Monks who live in a monastery near me must call their fruit jams "conserves" in order to sell them legally. They're some of the best I've ever eaten in my life, though, made from fruit the brothers grew, tended, and harvested themselves. They also make the most wonderful beer.
Because I regularly visit them to buy conserves, they once invited me to see their process. It was really wonderful to watch, and reminded me of your own jam making videos. (They sent me home with some fresh fruit that day along with my jams! Very lovely people.)
I feel like preserves are much better quality than jams. Tastier and healthier both
"Would you like some passion fruit in your passion fruit jam?"
"Oh sure, but just a splash please"
I plan to recreate this test just so I can eat some toast with jam and honey 🙂
I'm not particularly fond of honey, but a friend brought me some made on a little Welsh island that was as thick as butter and just as opaque that tastes like a warm summer day smells like, that I really like. My wife likes honey but didn't like the Welsh stuff. Just goes to show, you can't please everyone.
Thick opaque honey with a special taste? To me that sounds like 'koolzaadhoning' (tried translating this in English, it says 'rapeseed honey'). It's such a taste some people love and others find disgusting ...
Oh what wonderful description
I bought that Bonne Maman Intense Strawberry by mistake. It's actually their reduced sugar offering! - it's very good, a bit undersweet (which I like) but also quite liquid because of the missing sugar, and gets more so over time.
Those bonne mamam conserves are nice, the orange marmalade one is delicious, but I’m sure you’ve tried them
Bonne Maman also has a jam advent calendar where you can end up with 24 tiny jars of different flavors -- I've never gotten it but hope to one year or another!
Ooh, I like the sound of that, assuming there are no repeats (I nearly bought a cheese advent calendar last year but when I checked the pack it only had 6 varieties in it
My daughter persuaded me to buy it. Lots of very interesting flavours. No repeats that I saw.
Fun! I will be looking out for that next December.
Yes they are good. They have a high quantity of fruit.
13:25 - Funnily enough, when making empire biscuits I did actually deliberately select a high-quality jam. The rationale is that if I'm already spending hours making the dough, baking the biscuits, assembling them and icing them, I may as well use a good-quality jam too. What's the point in going to all of that effort and cheaping out on a prominent ingredient?
I'm a thrifty shopper, but for me it's worth a little extra to get raw unfiltered honey. It just tastes more like honey.
Comb honey is yummy on hot bread fresh from the oven!
Because it has more of the non-sugar stuff in it.
Depending on where in the world you are, try finding Polish honey.
@YaaLFH I'm very lucky to have a great international market near me that has many imported products from Poland, including a few brands of honey! I buy that along with the fruit jams.
@@momkatmax Nice! Have you tried buckwheat honey?
@@YaaLFH No, I will look for it!
Shrimp pulling the ski-mask-esque hat over his face gave me a good chortle
Obviously cost of living is affecting everybody differently. But if you aren't struggling and having to scrape together every penny, what is £3 every, say, 2 weeks? Or however long a jar of jam lasts. A jar of honey lasts even longer from experience. Life's short, pay the extra for the better enjoyment, in my opinion.
My brother-in-law is a beekeeper here in Western Pennsylvania. Around here, people grow corn, wheat, soy and apples. I get my honey from him (obviously), and the spring batch from last year was quite apple-y, whereas the batch I just bought from him was from the fall, and it was darker and much richer. Amazing stuff. As you said, many people take it for medicinal purposes, even though there is no hard-and-fast evidence that it works, but I can say that my allergies have abated since using his honey in my tea for the past2 years (his honey is unfiltered). I used to cough horribly after I moved here from Florida (trust me, if you aren't fabulously rich, Florida is not a nice place to live).
I wonder who skips the waffle? I ordered the waffle when I clicked the vid. And it was delicious.
Barry Lewis does a steep Vs cheap cooking comparison for ingredients in home made foods. That's also very informative and quite surprising!
I love the amount of preparation you put into these videos, it shows in the final vlog…..very informative 👍👌🇮🇲
Let's also throw in the mix that wing clipping of queen bees is a thing to prevent the hive from swarming away from the hive. I know not all bee keepers do this but dose make me question the ethical standpoint on cheap honey.
I was always a big fan of the cheap jam you got in those little individual serving plastic packages in B&B's... with B&B toast, it just tastes unique.
My family think this very odd since I live in the middle of Scottish soft fruit growing territory and there's some very good quality jam up here... it's fine but there's something about cheap jam and cheap white bread!
Could it just be associated for you with vacation time, leisure etc.? For me, a city boy, I realised that dairy farm scents give me a strong sense of "vacation" as a B&B we used to stay in wasn't too far from the cow sheds...
Enjoy your videos very much. Never thought your videos could be suspenseful, but here we are... Cheers!
Thank you for looking over the different products. I like that you point out that this is subjective so many people online do taste tests and rankings without pointing out taste is subjective. I live in NZ where Manuka honey originated and it's not cheap here either. I know another price point is the different with honey that is infused with flavour such as uses an essence during production vs the hives being placed out to collect pollen from the plants directly and essence is cheaper.
I don't eat a lot of jam, but I do really like TipTree lemon marmalade. It's become very expensive and I've been debating if I should give it up, but maybe I won't cut back on that. I'll put something else on the chopping block.
Try making your own. I made my own marmalade from my grapefruit tree and it was pretty easy and delicious.
it would be interesting to see you do a comparison video like this with something much more difficult to distinguish, for example "tesco value" potatoes vs the expensive ones, you could do roast potatoes, chips, and mash! then like someone already said, pasta! then tilda basmati vs the cheapest... the possibilities are endless
The 3rd time in your videos I've seen something present in USA and UK markets (I like the brand's products): Bonne Maman reserves/preserves/etc. They make a great blueberry one and the 4 fruit is excellent.
Great idea! Would love to see more of this about any product you’d like to!
Wow thanks for all the interesting information! Never thought a video about jam an honey could be so informative AND entertaining. Thanks!
It's always worth making it yourself! Cheap and gourmet.
In my experience buying the better (more expensive brand) it has more flavour so I use less, which messes with price comparison.
On the how much you can trust the supermarkets, I once worked for an abattoir that had one of the major supermarkets as its main customer, it was the supermarket that set the standards. Their standards were much higher than defra. So I feel I can trust them on this. But I Still prefer to buy locally produced where I can.
I did a blind taste test with my family of the cheapest and most expensive bottled water I could buy. We expected that there would be basically no difference.
But what no one expected was the we all preferred the cheap water...
Our local beekeeper says that anything labeled "wildflower honey" means the bees are making do with whatever is in bloom, and the honey will have a relatively generic taste. Like a cheap blended whiskey, maybe. The same brand's clover honey or orange blossom honey is going to be much more distinctive. (Posting from the US fwiw.)
This exactly.
We kept bees for years, not loads of hives, about 15 or 20 at the most sited on a couple of farms and fruit farms. After taking off the honey we would always feed them with sugar syrup to sustain them over winter. Perhaps that's due to the climate in Wales. Any sign of rain and they wouldn't come out! Not like the more robust bumble bees. We found that all clear honey sets, just depends on the initial water content and the storage (temperature, size of container) how quickly it set. We'd suggest putting in a bain Marie to dissolve the crystals. Rapeseed honey would set super fast and stay really pale and creamy. One time in a particularly dry and hot summer, the bees sucked liquid from raspberry fruits on the fruit farm. That made unique honey!
Please do more of these - really informative and entertaining!
The hexagonal design of one of the honey jars is quite nice. Like a piece of a honeycomb.
My Mum is a beekeeper and the honey she gets tastes far superior to shop bought honey to me. Perhaps you could revisit this in the summer with some locally produced honey too? :D
the quality is linear, the price is exponential
Indeed at a certain point quality would start to plateau
Quality is more like 1/(x+1) It starts off close to linear but approaches one as it approaches infinity.
@@misterhat5823😢😢😢😢😢😢
More of these series please! This is fantastic. I have always been an advocate for buying and eating what you like, not based on the price. The most expensive is not always the best for sure and the price difference in items is not merited based on the taste differences in many cases (e.g. double the price does not equal double the pleasure when eating).
Here in Canada, and very likely elsewhere, there is an ingredients dodge wherein inexpensive, sweet, and (relatively) neutral-flavoured fruit juice is used to add sugar to drinks and preserves without officially "adding sugar". Typically apple, pear, and grape juices are used for this. Although these each have distinctive flavours, these are easily swamped by stronger flavours like raspberry, cranberry, etc.
A lot of whether the more expensive product is worth the price depends on one's means.
As for pricing comparisons, it is not only the prices of the items you select to buy, but also the shelf tags for other items visible in the background, that often seem cheap compared to other markets. I'm sure other items would seem more expensive, but one is less likely to notice this unless there is an astronomical price difference.
That's done for jams too (at least: my mother always told us). Cheap jams have more apple in it, so the fruit content is still the same, but it is not all 'raspberry' or 'strawberry' ...
OH! This comment was a lightbulb moment for me
I love your vids, not only because I used to have the same patterned china!
I learn stuff and it brings back memories of using the plates and bowls.
Thank you ❤
This is the kind of Shrimp I enjoy. It's about you, Shrimp, Mike, trying something new. Trying to mix it up. For content. I much prefer this than the scam-bait stuff. The world is full of scams. And grifters. Not just on the internet...Anyway, Shrimp, it's you as a content provider I stick around for. From the Christmas shirt with emulsion paint to things not working out. Essential Shrimp!
I love how you do things. Great video!
Interesting and just plain made m smile. Enjoy your perspective and style, always.
Long time watcher and it's great to see you're only 46k subs away from 1mill! Very hype for that 😄!
Your comment near the start of this video "If this is too much waffle you could skip to 6.17" made me smile. I'm here for the waffle, so you carry on!
A very measured response. I'm not using the expensive honey or jam on my peanut butter sandwiches, but they sound great as a special treat on their own.
Never encountered "fake" honey as we usually got our honey locally or bought varietal flavors. Our favorite local bee keeper had very limited production that people begged to get a quart of. Cheaper, too, as you returned your empty quart jars, and picked up the honey from his farm....
In the US you should always try the store brand. They are made by the major brands, some are as good as the national brands, some are actually better, rare but not unknown and some are terrible but the winners are worth the try!
I've found that with the meijer brand, it is often better than named brand. Meijer is a big box store like target and walmart in the us-Midwest area. Founded in Greenville michigan.
Some of brand is just okay.
Now their frozen foods are really nice. Their solid tuna in oil is outstanding compared to name brand too.
I dont buy honey or jams at the store. A neigbor has hives and sells her seasonal honey out of her home. (I save a small jar of her honey every year to compare to other years lol we have 5 years worth and its fascinating yo see the color and flavor differences.
I normally buy a half gallon at a time, but lately we have been buying 2 of the either pints or quarts and she lets me have late spring and middle summer honey. It does taste different.
I have raspberry plants taking over my yard and so I make my own jam. We pick strawberries locally and make strawberry jam too.
I grow strawberries, but I have to fight the grandkiddos and birds and bugs to taste them - let alone have enough for jam lol.
30:00 when I was at high school 30 years ago my science teacher was also a beekeeper (from Norfolk) and the honey he use to be able to give out was outstanding 100% natural and not processed
I really like this kind of video. I think the information is super helpful
Another top tier Tommy Shrimp video! Great work there!!
average friday night for a 21 year old girl: drinking yourself silly, spending too much money, etc
my friday night: watching a man rate jam 🥰