Blueberry & Vinegar by Fruchtwerker. Fruit vinegar from hand-picked wild blueberries – deep blue and wild.
Blueberry & Vinegar by Fruchtwerker is a blueberry vinegar from Talkau in Schleswig-Holstein: 22 percent wild, hand-picked blueberries from Northern and Eastern Europe, cold-macerated in brandy and wine vinegar, sweetened with sugar, only 3 percent acidity. No added flavorings, no concentrates, no colorants. 250 ml, deep blue, spicy – made from wild berries rather than cultivated blueberries, and far from being a sweet syrup.
Blueberry vinegar is Fruchtwerker's latest berry variety and its wildest. Cultivated blueberries from the supermarket are large, light, and mild – wild blueberries are small, dark inside, and taste of the forest. Fruchtwerker takes them wild, hand-picked in Northern and Eastern Europe, and macerates them cold in vinegar. The result is a bottle whose color you have to see twice and whose flavor is just as suitable for braised roasts as it is for sparkling wine.
Forest, spice, and a blue that comes from the berry
The blueberry vinegar tastes first of wild blueberry – spicy, slightly tart, with a depth that cultivated berries lack. Then the acidity arrives, soft and dark, and the sweetness rounds it off. With 44 grams of sugar per 100 grams, it is one of the less sweet varieties and seems dry rather than mellow. The finish is long, with a hint of tannin from the skins.
The color is a deep blue-violet, almost black in the glass, and a vibrant violet in a dressing. It comes solely from the berries – wild blueberries stain so intensely that a tablespoon will color an entire dressing. The aroma is reminiscent of blueberry jam with a tart edge.
Those who like light, fruity vinegars will find this one too spicy and too dark. And for light-colored dishes, the color is a problem: a blueberry vinegar on mozzarella looks like an accident. It belongs with dark dishes and robust greens.
Wild herb salad, sheep's milk cheese, braised roasts
In a salad, the vinegar pairs well with sharp and bitter leaves: wild herbs with dandelion and arugula, radicchio, chicory. Pair with goat's or sheep's milk cheese, whose saltiness balances the dark berry. The dressing: one tablespoon of vinegar, three tablespoons of olive oil, salt, pepper; the sweetness is already in there. The violet color is part of the dish.
In warm cooking, it is the vinegar for beef and game. A splash in a braised roast, in the sauce for a venison ragout or beef pot roast, just before serving – the wild berry brings the fruitiness usually provided by lingonberries, and the acidity lifts the sauce. Fruchtwerker recommends exactly this: a splash of vinegar in a braised roast.
As an aperitif: a dash in sparkling wine or Prosecco that turns the glass blue – Fruchtwerker calls this the blue aperitif. Use sparingly for dessert: half a teaspoon over vanilla ice cream or in a berry salad. Its darker neighbors are the tarter Redcurrant & Vinegar and the milder Blackberry & Vinegar.
Good to know: Stains heavily – wash hands, cutting boards, and textiles immediately. Store in a cool place after opening. Add to sauces only at the end so the forest aroma remains.
A recipe for autumn: Prepare beef pot roast as usual, adding two tablespoons of vinegar to the sauce in the last ten minutes, along with a teaspoon of lingonberries. The sauce becomes darker, fruitier, and gains an acidity that cuts through the fat of the roast. Serve with bread dumplings and red cabbage, into which a spoonful of vinegar also belongs.
For summer: Blueberries, fresh goat cheese, and arugula on toasted bread, with a few drops of vinegar on top. This is the quickest use and one that shows how strong the color is and how restrained the acidity remains. Despite this, the variety remains unsuitable for light-colored dishes – the color always dominates.
Wild berries from the East, macerated in the North
Wild blueberries only come from the forest; they are picked – by hand, in the forests of Northern and Eastern Europe. Fruchtwerker strictly avoids fruit from overseas because its origin cannot be verified there. After picking, the berries are flash-frozen and then lie cold in vinegar for several days until the color and aroma have been extracted.
The fruit remains cold during this process. Heat would accelerate the procedure but destroy the forest aromas that make the difference compared to cultivated blueberries. Only after pressing is the liquid boiled down with sugar and bottled. The fruit content is 22 percent – slightly below the average for the range, because wild blueberries are so intense.
The method dates back to the raspberry recipe of the farmer Emma near Ratzeburg, which Matthias Hüttmann took over in 2008. The vinegar is one of the younger varieties from Talkau, where Fruchtwerker now produces around 300,000 bottles a year – and it is the only one that relies on berries from the forest rather than the field.
The darkest bottle on the shelf
This vinegar is the variety for people who seek the wild: the taste of the forest, the color, the spice. It is not for every day, but for those dishes where a raspberry vinegar would be too tame.
As a gift, it suits hunters, game chefs, and anyone who goes picking blueberries in the forest. In a package with redcurrant and blackberry, it is the wildest of the three – the dark trio from Fruchtwerker.
A fruit vinegar made from wild blueberries, hand-picked and cold-macerated in vinegar – for the braised roast, the sheep's milk cheese, and the blue aperitif.
