Wilkin and Sons Tiptree Little Scarlet Conserve & Christmas Preserve

This was Little Scarlet Conserve on classic white sandwich bread that I baked a day before.

I am a big fan of Poirot. Yes, Agatha Christie's famous private detective. I love the British TV series. Those are clues of this breakfast setting. I couldn't help but play it because I got a new jam from J as a part of Christmas gifts. It was Little Scarlet Conserve, a 'Tiptree' product by Wilkin and Sons. Triptee, a village and civil parish in the English county of Essex, is the home of the Wilkin family. According to the old British jam maker, "Little Scarlet is a very special strawberry, an anachronism (lovely word!) in today’s world. Today, strawberries are quite unlike the tiny, intensely flavoured fruit of two hundred years ago, whereas Little Scarlet strawberry never changed. Grown only at Tiptree, the fruit is difficult to grow, an unpredictable cropper that dislikes extremes of weather and won’t keep once picked." At the same time when I knew such a special jam exists in the world a few months ago, I learned the jam was 007's favorite jam. Yes, I am talking about James, James Bond. This curious fact was introduced in From Russia With Love by Ian Fleming. So, this jam was absolutely special. I wished Santa J would bring it to me. Santa J listened to my wish! How sweet!

Little Scarlet was really really good. The jar was packed with a lot of small strawberry fruits still kept in shape with a stunning strawberry flavor! My favorite strawberry jam has been American Spoon's early grow strawberry preserves. I didn't taste both side by side, but I would love both equally. Little Scarlet might be a little sweeter than American Spoon's, but the level of sweetness was acceptable. Santa J also surprised me with another Tiptree jam from Wilkin and Sons - Christmas preserve.

It was made with red currants, victoria plums and damsons (a kind of plum), sultanus and spices along with sugar and citrus pectin. What a lovely addition to the holiday season breakfast it was! 

Actually Santa J generously brought me more jams with British flavors, which will become a future post on this blog! Thank you sweet Santa J!