"It's the most important meal of the day" says my mum as she rummages through the cupboards retrieving all the jam, butter, cereal, porridge and toast. Lots of mums probably say the same thing.
If you do opt for a toast breakfast, chances are you're going to pair it with jam - no two things are as well paired except perhaps cereal and milk.
The biggest question for the toast eating 'breakfestier' is what flavour jam you choose to pair it with. It no doubt says a lot about your character - are you a plain Jane strawberry? Maybe you're venturing out into the blackberry? Perhaps you want a burst of life and opt for something more exotic in apricot. You can get more shopping news and other story updates by subscribing to our newsletters here.
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To help you decide, we compared a number of fruity jam options from your favourite supermarkets to truly discover who does the breakfast accompaniment best, using a strict criteria of jam and toast - the lack of butter was to emphasise how well the jam's taste came across.
Tesco - Strawberry Jam - £1
Likely to be the 'healthy' option on the list of jams - with a number of jams having added sugar to bring out the sweet taste of the fruit - supermarket giant Tesco opted against that.
I don't know or want to know any person who uses a jam jar serving suggestion as their portion size, as long as there's a slab of jam covering my toast, a knife should be the only measurement you need.
Tesco strawberry jam comes with a slight disclaimer, despite not having added sugar - it does have sweetener added, with a caution on the side of the label advising people not to consume more than 2 tablespoons in a day otherwise you may suffer from laxative effects - not entirely what you want to see first thing in the morning.
The jam is on the thicker side and easily spreadable on the toast but that is sadly where the success stops. The jam has a real artificial taste to it, likely to be the sweetener, one I would suggest steering well away from as it doesn't help start your day when you can't even eat your toast. It certainly didn't taste like any strawberry I have ever had.
For £1 it seems quite steep, especially when you consider there is no added sugar involved, but strawberries are commonly more expensive as a fruit so perhaps that plays a part. We bought the same shopping list from Aldi, Tesco and the other big five supermarkets for two months and were stunned to find where prices had actually dropped - read more here.
Rating: 2/5
Aldi - Grandessa Fruity Strawberry Jam - £0.67
Can't fault the advertising, every jam should in theory be fruity but as I found out from the last supermarket item - that isn't always the case.
The sugar content within this jar is 8g of sugar per tablespoon - I would estimate around 4g was likely to be spread on my toast. It tastes how I expect strawberry jam to taste - sweet but not overpowering, you can definitely taste the sugar so it may be one to keep an eye on if you're letting your children dish up their own toast.
Value for money is superb, by far one of the biggest jars of jam for the least amount of price, the supermarket really does make a case for itself for a weekly shop. Spreadability was the only downside, it was quite a thick jam but that isn't necessarily a bad thing.
Rating: 4/5
Morrisons - Bramble Jam - £0.89
Morrisons' blackberry jelly was again one of the largest jars, coming in at 454g, the only jar of jam that was less - was Tesco. Sugar content was again around the 9g mark per tablespoon and likely to be similar to others when using a knife as your measuring tool.
But the taste really wasn't there, sadly, it didn't really taste of anything and likely warranted a larger serving for the toast and really lacked on sweetness. A poor attempt but when using more, the spreadability also suffered.
Rating: 2/5
Sainsbury's - Apricot Jam - £0.90
The exotic choice as I would describe it when it comes to the morning jam, apricot shouldn't be an everyday option but perhaps a mid-week offering to get you through the week.
Reasonable value for money, certainly not the cheapest but neither the most expensive, the option is however slightly higher in sugar content at 11.3g per tablespoon. Spreadability was nothing to complain about and the taste was a sweet delight - the perfect way to start your day and set you in the right frame of mind.
Rating:4/5
