Fruit Jelly Mix

Fruit Jelly Mix from Berger Confiserie, soft and tangy

Berger Confiserie's Fruit Jelly Mix is a colorful selection of soft fruit jellies, set with pectin and colored with plant extracts. The flavors range from mandarin and lemon through strawberry and raspberry to pear, each with its own bright tartness.

Fruit Jelly Mix is the name of the soft candy from Berger Confiserie in Lofer, in Salzburg's Saalach Valley. In the 100-gram pack, the jellies lie individually side by side, each in its own shade, set with pectin and colored with extracts of apple, hibiscus, carrot and safflower.

Soft to the bite, bright and tart

A cube yields gently in the mouth and quickly dissolves again, without sticking and without much chewing.

First comes the sweetness, then shortly afterwards the citric acid sets its bright edge against it, and this back-and-forth usually means that the first reach into the pack is quickly followed by a second. Each color has its own tone, from sharp lemon through round mandarin to mild pear, and you only find out which flavor you've picked when you bite into it.

Because the surface is finely sugared, your fingers stay clean, and snacking remains something you do in passing.

Pectin binds, plants color

Pectin is found in apple peel and citrus peel and is the same binding agent that makes every pot of homemade jam set.

A jelly made on this basis needs no animal gelling agent, because the network of plant fibers binds the mass. Anyone who has ever made apricot jam knows the moment when the mixture on the spoon suddenly starts to gel: it is exactly this point that decides the bite here, too.

Berger draws the colors from plants. Hibiscus gives the red, safflower the yellow, the dyer's thistle whose flowers were already used to make dye thousands of years ago. Spinach and nettle stand for the green, carrot and pumpkin for the orange. Plant extracts turn out calmer than synthetic colors, which is why the pack looks more like watercolor than neon.

Confections from the candy workshop

Alongside the chocolatiers, candy makers also work at the confectionery, and the Fruit Jelly Mix comes from their workshop.

A clear mass of sugar, glucose syrup and water is cooked, and only at the end are pectin and acid stirred in, before it runs into flat molds and cools overnight. The glucose syrup keeps the candy supple and prevents it from crystallizing again in the pack and turning grainy. Everything else Berger Confiserie sends from Lofer can be found in the Berger range.

Into a shallow bowl when guests come

With coffee, at teatime or in a shallow bowl on the table, the colorful cubes are quickly discovered, and children reach for them first anyway.

On a cake buffet they add dabs of color between the plates, and as a small gift for a children's birthday party they are quicker to choose than any toy. Next to the espresso after a meal, too, the little sweet does its job when nobody can manage a whole dessert anymore.

Store the pack cool and dry and close it tightly again after opening, otherwise the candy draws moisture and the cubes stick together. If you'd rather snack on chocolate, you'll find Berger Confiserie's bars among the chocolate bars.