Every year, Bonne Maman releases a (coveted) advent calendar of specialized jams/spreads.
The thing is that it’s not just 24 jars of their standard jams: it’s special edition stuff that you can only get as part of their advent calendar. It can be really fun to use a few at a time and try to get your breakfast companions to guess which is which, or just leave half the jar of a favorite in the fridge for your significant other to taste, etc.
So there are lots of moments of “huh, I thought I didn’t like marmalade, but I really like the orange with this guava lime,” but the most exciting revelation for me has been I really like the ones that are __________ + maple syrup. On pancakes I can see how someone might make the discovery on their own in a moment of indecision. But these folks just went ahead and mixed their jam together with maple syrup, and it’s delicious. A bunch of the collection are too exotic for the random person to recreate at home, but I’ve been mixing maple syrup all over the place and I’m perfectly content to wait until next December to see what other brilliant ideas Bonne Maman has to offer.
So give it a try!
P.S. I get my advent calendars at World Market (free shipping until stock runs low, but they also carry them in-store).
P.P.S. I’m pretty nomadic, so I recently made a travel squeeze bottle of maple syrup and it has made me realize that regular maple syrup containers are awful — they glug a ton out all at once, they drip, the lids stick shut, they often have awkward handles (what is up with the tiny loop?), so I’m now a convert: squeeze bottles are perfect for evenly applying maple syrup and even more perfect for combining jam with maple syrup on toast or waffles or whatever, without overdoing it. (I’m using the 3oz squeeze jars from Ikea: Vagn, but they might be phasing them out)