Wajos Peach-Passion Fruit Crema. Peach juice and passion fruit on white wine vinegar, mild with 3 percent acidity – the summer crema for leaf salad, chicken, and a glass of mineral water.

Wajos Peach-Passion Fruit Crema is a sweet vinegar preparation based on white wine vinegar with 21.5 percent peach juice and 4.4 percent passion fruit juice from concentrate, 3 percent acidity, 250 ml, from Dohr on the Moselle. Not a balsamic, not a clear fruit vinegar for pickling, not a crema for dark sauces – but a sweet, light fruit crema for drizzling. Vegan.

Peach-Passion Fruit Crema by Wajos is the answer to a question we are often asked: Which crema should I use besides the Fig-Date one? The Fig-Date Crema is dark, thick, and caramelly, made for cheese and roasted sauces. The Peach-Passion Fruit Crema is its counterpart: based on white wine vinegar instead of balsamic, with peach instead of date, lighter and brighter in taste. It is ordered from us often – mostly by people who are looking for something fresh in the summer for salad with chicken or goat cheese. If you have both bottles on the shelf, you have one crema for winter and one for summer.

First peach, then passion fruit, the acidity remains subtle

The first impression is peach: ripe, juicy, sweet, like canned fruit from a jar. Good a fifth of the bottle is peach juice from concentrate, and that is what you taste first. The passion fruit comes afterward, with 4.4 percent significantly less, but it gives the crema that acidic-exotic note that would make pure peach boring. Only at the very end does the white wine vinegar with 3 percent acidity make itself felt. This is mild enough that children will accept the crema on salad, yet enough that it becomes a dressing rather than a fruit syrup.

It is sweet, that is part of it: sugar is at the top of the ingredients list, followed by glucose syrup, together 45 grams of sugar per 100 milliliters. That is why you should dose it like a dessert topping, a tablespoon per salad bowl rather than like vinegar. The fruit note is supported by natural flavorings, and it contains potassium metabisulfite as an antioxidant – the crema therefore contains sulfites. For those looking for a dry, acidity-focused dressing, this crema is not suitable. In that case, the Mango Crema with 4 percent acidity is the bolder choice, or a clear wine vinegar.

On salad with chicken, over fruit, and in mineral water

Summer salad is its home: leaf salad, fried chicken breast strips, a few tomatoes, good olive oil, salt, and the crema drizzled over the top. Honey and mustard stay in the cupboard – sweetness and acidity come from the bottle. It works just as well with feta or fresh goat cheese, with melon and arugula, or with a pasta salad that would otherwise just taste like mayonnaise. Two tablespoons of crema, three tablespoons of oil, a pinch of salt, shaken in a jar – and the dressing for four portions is ready.

Over fruit, it is what a spoonful of sugar used to be: over strawberries, melon, fruit salad, or yogurt with muesli on Sunday morning. Over vanilla ice cream or panna cotta, it provides a fruit sauce with a hint of acidity that makes the dessert less heavy. And in mineral water – a teaspoon in a large glass, with ice and a mint leaf – it becomes a fruit spritzer that is non-alcoholic and makes juice unnecessary.

It also goes well with chicken and fish when warm, but only at the end: a tablespoon in the pan drippings, briefly brought to a boil, then poured over the meat. The same applies to pork tenderloin and shrimp. It is less suitable for marinating for hours, as the sugar quickly turns black when grilling. And with robust meat – beef, game, lamb – it cannot compete; the fruit is too delicate for that.

Our tip: Peach-Passion Fruit Crema with the Garden Herb Oil from Wajos, two to three, plus salt – the summer dressing we recommend for salad with grilled chicken breast.

A crema based on white wine vinegar from a family that comes from wine

The fact that white wine vinegar is the base for the fruit fits the origin of the bottle. Wajos is located in Dohr near Cochem on the Moselle, and the family behind it has been making wine in Ediger-Eller for 15 generations. The name is an acronym: Walter Josef Oster, the winemaker who opened a liqueur manufactory next to the winery in the 1980s. His son Peter Oster and Ulf Schwichtenberg built the Wajos brand from this starting in the 2000s – the first store of their own in Trier in 2008, today stores throughout Germany and over 80 employees in Dohr.

The cremas are among the products that Wajos produces there itself, and every batch goes through their own laboratory before being bottled. The assortment ranges from dark balsamic cremas to the light varieties based on white wine vinegar, to which this one belongs. Anyone who knows what a Riesling tastes like understands why a winery prefers a light wine vinegar for its fruit crema over a dark one: The fruit remains visible, and the acidity comes from the wine rather than the barrel.

The crema for summer and for people who find balsamic too heavy

If someone says that balsamic is too heavy for them, this is the bottle we recommend. Light, fruity, sweet, free from the dark tone. It is the second crema after the Fig-Date one that we place alongside it when someone is looking for something for the summer. Those who want it even fruitier will find the berry version in the Strawberry Rhubarb Crema; all varieties are on our Wajos page.

As a gift, it is suitable for people who like to eat salad and have never changed their vinegar – together with a flavored oil, it makes a dressing package. Unopened and stored in a cool, dark place, it lasts a long time; once opened, it belongs in the refrigerator and, at one tablespoon per salad, is a few months' supply. The crema is not suitable for pickling vegetables or for cucumber salad, which requires a clear vinegar – there, the fruit becomes a distraction.

Peach, passion fruit, white wine vinegar – the light crema from the Moselle for summer salads, fruit, and a glass of water with ice.