Wajos Blueberry Crema. White wine vinegar, blueberries, and plenty of sweetness; deep blue and viscous – the crema that works for both salad and dessert.
Wajos Blueberry Crema is a thick vinegar preparation based on white wine vinegar with 5 percent blueberry juice from concentrate, sugar, and glucose syrup, with 3 percent acidity, 250 ml, from Dohr on the Moselle. It’s not a balsamic, not a fruit vinegar for pickling, and not a pure syrup, but a sweet crema for drizzling over salad, cheese, and fruit. Vegan.
Blueberry Crema by Wajos is the bottle on the table that causes confusion: it is blue, almost violet, and most guests guess it’s syrup. Then it ends up on the lamb’s lettuce, and the blue turns into a dressing. This very contradiction is why it’s so popular with us – only the Fig-Date Crema and the Mango Crema rank ahead of it. It is the crema for anyone who usually finds vinegar too sour – and it is the only one on the shelf that goes straight from the salad to vanilla ice cream.
Blueberry and sweetness up front, white wine vinegar as a quiet acidity behind it
The crema is dark blue, thick, and runs slowly from the spoon. The start is all sweetness: sugar and glucose syrup are the first ingredients, and you notice the 67 grams of sugar per 100 milliliters immediately. Then comes the blueberry, fruity and slightly tart, like a handful of berries that have already been lying in the sun. The white wine vinegar holds back – 3 percent acidity is enough to make it a dressing rather than a topping for pancakes.
To be honest: there is 5 percent blueberry juice in the bottle, the color additionally comes from aronia juice concentrate, and a natural aroma provides the flavor. Potassium metabisulfite is included as an antioxidant, so the crema contains sulfites. This is common for fruit cremas of this type, but we prefer to tell you before you read it on the label.
Unlike Wajos’ dark cremas, this one starts with a light white wine vinegar instead of balsamic from Modena. This makes it milder and less woody – the fruit stands alone in the room. Anyone expecting a tart, acidic vinegar would be better served by the Raspberry Balsam and its 5.3 percent acidity. And anyone on a low-sugar diet should take it for what it is: a sweet dressing, one tablespoon per salad.
Over lamb's lettuce, goat cheese, pancakes, and sparkling wine
Our standard dish is a salad with lamb’s lettuce or arugula, a neutral oil, salt, and the crema drizzled over it. You can leave out the vinegar and honey – the sweetness and acidity are already in there. With goat cheese, walnuts, and a few fresh blueberries in the summer, it becomes a dinner that looks like more work on the plate than it actually was.
With cheese, it’s a fruit chutney in a bottle: a few drops on cream cheese, Camembert, or a mild blue cheese. Children who find marmalade boring eat it on bread with cream cheese for breakfast. And on a cheese board in the evening, it’s the blue alternative to fig mustard.
For dessert, it shows what a white wine vinegar base can do: over vanilla ice cream, pancakes, yogurt, or quark, it tastes like a berry sauce with a little kick. A spoonful over a bowl of fruit salad, and the fruits taste like more. Wajos itself also recommends it as an addition to sparkling wine or cocktails – a teaspoon in the glass colors and sweetens it; a second one is too much.
A trick from our kitchen: Stir two teaspoons of crema with cream cheese and a splash of milk until smooth, and you have a dip for crackers or a filling for crêpes. And game dishes with red cabbage or a duck breast can handle a tablespoon in the sauce at the end – the berry pairs well with the dark meat.
The crema is not suitable for pickling vegetables, for cucumber salad, or for anything where a clear vinegar is required. It doesn’t handle long cooking well: the sugar caramelizes, and the fruit disappears. Always add it just before serving.
Our tip: Lamb's lettuce, goat cheese, walnuts, plus three tablespoons of Lemon Olive Oil and two tablespoons of Blueberry Crema – the dressing where the blueberry tastes like summer and the lemon keeps the sweetness in check.
From a winemaking family on the Moselle that treats vinegar as a craft
The crema comes from Dohr near Cochem on the Moselle, where Wajos manufactures around 900 items – most of them on-site. The name stands for the initials of Walter Josef Oster, the founder of a winemaking family from Ediger-Eller that has been making wine for 15 generations. Anyone who has worked with wine for so long also knows the vinegar that it becomes – and from this, a range of cremas emerged that now forms the core of the brand.
The company itself began in the 1980s as a liqueur manufactory next to the vineyard. Peter Oster, the founder’s son, and his business partner Ulf Schwichtenberg developed it into the Wajos brand from the 2000s onwards, with the first store in Trier in 2008 and today with stores all over Germany. Over 80 people work in Dohr, and an in-house laboratory monitors what goes into the bottles.
The blue bottle is one of the cremas based on white wine vinegar, which are lighter and milder than the balsamic varieties. At Wajos, it is listed as a sweet, vegan crema, and it has been one of the three most-ordered bottles in our shop for years.
The crema for berry fans, for summer, and for people who avoid vinegar
The Blueberry Crema is the right bottle for anyone who likes salad but avoids vinegar, and for anyone looking for a dressing that can also go over dessert. If you prefer something more classic and darker, opt for the Fig-Date Crema; if you prefer something lighter and more exotic, the Mango Crema. You can find the entire range on our Wajos page.
It works well as a gift because of the color: a deep blue bottle on the kitchen shelf stands out, and the first salad served with it is a conversation starter. In the pantry, it keeps for a long time if stored in a dry place away from light; once opened, it should be refrigerated. 250 milliliters will last for months with one tablespoon per salad. It is not suitable for anyone who needs to avoid sulfites, and for anyone expecting a sugar-free dressing.
Blueberry, white wine vinegar, and plenty of sweetness, deep blue and thick – the crema from the Moselle that, for us, ranges from salad to vanilla ice cream.
