Wajos Black Elderberry Balsamic. White wine vinegar with elderberry juice, 5 percent acidity – the fruity vinegar that remains liquid and belongs in a vinaigrette.
Wajos Black Elderberry Balsamic is a vinegar preparation made from white wine vinegar, sugar, and 10 percent black elderberry juice from concentrate, with 5 percent acidity, 250 ml from Dohr on the Moselle. Not a thick crema, not a balsamic from Modena, not elderberry syrup, but a liquid fruit vinegar with real acidity. Vegan.
Black Elderberry Balsamic by Wajos is the bottle for those who find cremas too thick and too sweet. Cremas run in ribbons; this balsamic flows like vinegar – liquid, dark red, with 5 percent acidity that you can smell as soon as you open the bottle. The elderberry gives it the dark berry note you know from elderberry juice: tart, deep, a little like late summer. This is a vinegar for vinaigrettes and deglazing, rather than for drizzling over dessert.
Elderberry up front, white wine vinegar behind it, sweet and sour in balance
The balsamic tastes of black elderberry first. Berry-like, dark, with the slightly tart finish that distinguishes the berry from raspberry or strawberry. Then the acidity of the white wine vinegar, clear and fresh, with 5 percent, significantly more than in a crema. Sugar is listed second in the ingredients, and 50 grams per 100 milliliters is a lot – the balsamic is sweet, but the acidity counters it. It contains natural flavorings and potassium metabisulfite, i.e., sulfites. The balsamic is not suitable for those expecting a thick vinegar for drizzling – in that case, the Blueberry Crema with 3 percent acidity is a better fit.
In a vinaigrette, with red cabbage, in game sauce, and in a glass of water
The vinaigrette is its place. One part elderberry balsamic, three parts olive oil, salt, pepper, and the dressing is ready. It goes well over lamb's lettuce, beetroot, radicchio, or a salad with goat cheese and nuts, and it keeps in a screw-top jar in the fridge for a few days. With red cabbage, it replaces regular vinegar and adds fruitiness; in a sauce for game or duck, a splash used to deglaze adds a dark berry note. Diluted with mineral water, one tablespoon per glass, it becomes a fruity vinegar spritzer in the summer. A spoonful over fruit salad or strawberries works too. It is not suitable for pickling cucumbers or vegetables: it is too sweet and too fruity for that.
Our tip: Oven-roasted beetroot, served warm and drizzled with elderberry balsamic and Lemon Olive Oil, with feta on top – the winter dish for which we buy the bottle.
Vinegar from the house of a Moselle wine-growing family
Wajos comes from Dohr near Cochem on the Moselle. The name stands for Walter Josef Oster, the founder of a winemaking family in Ediger-Eller with 15 generations of viticulture. Those who have been making wine for so long know wine vinegar – and white wine vinegar is the base of this balsamic. From the liqueur manufactory of the 1980s, Peter Oster and Ulf Schwichtenberg built the Wajos brand from the 2000s onwards, today with over 80 employees in Dohr, their own stores, and a laboratory that tests the products.
The vinegar for salad eaters who prefer vinegar over crema
The elderberry balsamic is the bottle for anyone who likes fruit vinegar in their dressing but wants a real vinegar with acidity instead of syrup. Anyone starting with Wajos who prefers their salad sour rather than sweet is better off starting here than with the cremas. As a gift, it suits people who eat a lot of salad, paired with the Raspberry Balsamic from the same range. Both, along with all the cremas, can be found on our Wajos page. Stored in a dry place away from light, the bottle lasts a long time; once opened, it keeps for months in the fridge. The balsamic is not suitable for anyone looking for a low-sugar vinegar – 50 grams of sugar per 100 milliliters is on the label; we are that honest.
White wine vinegar and black elderberry, liquid and with 5 percent acidity – the fruit vinegar from the Moselle for those who want to taste vinegar in their dressing.
