Wajos Fig-Date Crema. Date syrup and balsamic vinegar from Modena, thick and sweet – the crema that turns any salad into a gourmet dish.
Wajos Fig-Date Crema is a thick vinegar preparation made from 50 percent date syrup, 17 percent Aceto Balsamico di Modena P.G.I., and fig juice, with 3 percent acidity, 250 ml from Dohr on the Moselle. Not a vinegar for pickling, not a balsamic for cooking, but a crema for drizzling – sweet, fruity, with a subtle note of acidity at the end. Vegan.
Fig-Date Crema from Wajos is the bottle that has been our top seller for years—ordered more frequently than any other Wajos product. The reason is simple: it turns a salad with oil and salt into a proper dish, a cheese board into a dinner, and a roast gravy into one that people ask about. One spoonful is enough, and you will taste date, fig, and balsamic in that order.
Sweet as a date, fruity as a fig, acidic only at the end
The crema is dark brown, almost black, and so thick that it flows in ribbons from the bottle. First comes the date: the deep, caramel sweetness of date syrup, which makes up half the bottle. Then the fig, fruity and slightly lighter. And only at the end does the balsamic from Modena arrive with its acidity – three percent, just enough to ensure it passes as a dressing rather than a syrup.
This is the difference from a classic balsamic: the crema is a preparation, something different from an aged vinegar. Anyone looking for the tart, woody tone of a true Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale needs a different bottle—this one was made for something else. It is the sweet, uncomplicated version that even people who usually avoid vinegar will enjoy.
And it is sweet: 57 grams of sugar per 100 milliliters, from date syrup, beet syrup, and sugar. One tablespoon over a salad is the right dose; half the bottle would be too much. For anyone looking for a low-sugar dressing, this crema is not suitable—a classic wine vinegar would be a better choice. The crema also contains flavoring, like almost all fruit cremas of this type.
For salad, cheese, goat cheese, and dark sauces
The classic application is salad: arugula, lamb's lettuce, or leaf lettuce, a good olive oil, salt, and the crema drizzled over it in ribbons. You can skip the vinegar, mustard, and honey – the crema provides sweetness and acidity at the same time. With walnuts, pear, and goat cheese, it becomes a salad that stands as a main course.
With cheese, it acts as a chutney in a bottle: a few drops on goat cheese, Camembert, Brie, or a robust mountain cheese. On baked goat cheese with honey, it replaces the honey. And on a cheese platter served with wine, it takes the place of what would otherwise be fig mustard.
When warm, it fits perfectly in dark sauces: a tablespoon in the gravy for beef, venison, or duck—the date provides depth, the fig adds fruit, and the balsamic rounds it all off. Added to a pan with Brussels sprouts, carrots, or beets shortly before serving, it glazes the vegetables. And over vanilla ice cream or strawberries, it is the perfect dessert for people who know about balsamic on strawberries and want more sweetness.
A trick for those in a hurry: shake the crema with a little olive oil in a screw-top jar; the dressing will emulsify and coat the leaves as a film instead of running in ribbons. For children, it is often the reason they eat their salad at all—the sweetness wins them over where vinegar would deter them. And on a Caprese with tomato and mozzarella, it replaces balsamic, with significantly more fruitiness.
The crema is not suitable for pickling, deglazing in large quantities, or anywhere a clear, acid-forward vinegar is required—such as cucumber salad. It does not handle long cooking well: the sugar caramelizes, and the fruit notes are lost. Always add it at the very end.
Our tip: Two tablespoons of crema, three tablespoons of lemon olive oil, and salt – the dressing we recommend most often for salads with goat cheese and nuts.
From Dohr on the Moselle, from a family of winemakers
Wajos is a specialty gourmet producer in Dohr near Cochem on the Moselle, which grew out of the Oster family winery in Ediger-Eller. The name stands for Walter Josef Oster, the founder of the winemaking dynasty that has been producing wine for 15 generations. In the 1980s, Walter Oster founded a liqueur distillery, and from the 2000s onwards, his son Peter Oster and Ulf Schwichtenberg turned it into the Wajos brand—with its own production facility in Dohr, over 80 employees, and its own stores.
The cremas are the core of the Wajos range: fruit vinegar preparations based on Aceto Balsamico di Modena, thick and sweet, in over a dozen varieties. The Fig-Date Crema is their best-seller—listed as a top product at Wajos itself. It is manufactured in Dohr, where the products are tested in their own laboratory before they go into the bottle.
It makes sense that a winemaking family knows how to handle vinegar: vinegar is wine that has continued to evolve. At Wajos, every crema starts with a balsamic, and the fruit is added in the form of syrup or juice, supplemented with flavorings.
The crema to start with and keep in stock
The Fig-Date Crema is the bottle you should start with at Wajos if you are not yet familiar with their cremas: the round, sweet, uncomplicated variety that works equally well on salad and cheese. If you want more after that, you will find a fruity, bright variety in the Mango Crema and a savory option in the Date-Bacon Crema. All cremas can be found on our Wajos page.
Unopened, the bottle keeps for a long time in your pantry, and once opened, it lasts for months in the refrigerator—250 ml lasts about a quarter of a year at one tablespoon per salad. As a gift, it is the perfect souvenir for people who enjoy eating salad but always use the same vinegar: a bottle that stands out on the kitchen shelf and stays within reach after the first salad.
Date, fig, balsamic from Modena – drizzled in ribbons over salad and cheese, the crema from the Moselle that has surpassed all the others for us.
