The Bonne Maman 2024 Advent Calendar, Reviewed
A complete review of the entire selection from Bonne Maman's Advent Calendar
Okay, so, after years of drooling after it, I was lucky enough that my Mom gifted me Bonne Maman’s Advent Calendar for 2024.
As I shared the daily flavors on Instagram, I got a lot of requests and reactions to the flavors, especially from the many Bonne Maman fans that didn’t get their own calendars. So I’m going to tell you the best and worst of the entire collection.
The massive box features 24 windows that each open to a 1oz jar of a unique spread. Many are inspired or based on Bonne Maman’s iconic recipes, but the majority are created just for the holidays and the results are far outside what Bonne Maman usually offers.
As an adventurous consumer, and a lover of jams and jellies, flavors like Mirabelle Plum - Linden Blossom, and Apple - Quince - Honey, and Cherry - Pink Peppercorn offer absolute dreams. From Bonne Maman’s perspective, it’s got to be some of the most exciting R&D: they can make a relatively small amount of a more ambitious flavor and watch for reactions.
So here are the reactions!
Every morning, I cracked open the Spread of the Day and slathered it on a toasted, buttered, and salted Oroweat Extra Crisp English Muffin. Each 1oz jar covered the two halves of the muffin perfectly. Here are the highlights and lowlights:
The Best and Worst:
I have four spread tied for top place: Guava Spread (delightfully fruity and sour), 4 Fruits Spread (Strawberries, Raspberries, Cherries, Red Currants)(rich berries and depth of flavor), Mixed Berries Spread (Blackberries, Raspberries, and Blueberries)(the wild blueberry flavor really sets this off), and Coffee - Caramel Spread (the subtlety of coffee really enriches this caramel).
My biggest disappointments were flavors that weren’t bad, just too subtle. Cherry - Pink Peppercorn Spread, Rhubarb - Spice Spread, and Pear - Cocoa Nibs Spread all could have been something truly special, but the secondary flavors were almost entirely missing which really hurt those experiences. Imagine a cherry preserve with the subtle spice and floralness of a pink peppercorn, maybe even a little crunch. Imagine the complete rounded depth of Masala chai spices playing off the stringy bitter sourness of rhubarb… They really could have been something special, but I fear they missed.
There were two that I just couldn’t enjoy: Orange - Yuzu - Grapefruit Spread and Lemon - Elderflower Spread. Yuzu and I are not friends (it always tastes artificial, but I know that’s just how yuzu tastes), and elderflower is far too perfumy for me. I think both of these were successful at what they were doing, it was just a miss when it comes to personal taste.
For full reviews of every flavor in chronological order, scroll down a bit.
Most of my criticism is rooted in the flavors’ subtlety. In almost every situation in life I prefer intensity. I love to argue, I love Greek tragedy, I love a blistering hot beach, a trek over a glacier. And when it comes to food, I want intense flavors. French food is subtle.
The markers of French cuisine are cream, butter, eggs, good bread, and arguably onions. In French cooking, the basis of much of fine dining (and “most” until relatively recently), it’s about letting those foundational flavors come through. Pineapple, yuzu, rose, mango, guava… these are not French ingredients.
Bonne Maman’s products have always been graceful and rooted in the purity of simple ingredients. They will continue to do this advent calendar, and create a phenomenal experience, but I’d love if they went a little harder into their own boundary-breaking and drilled into more flavor intensity.
The full ratings of all spreads, chronologically:
Note: Unless it’s below a 3, I’d happily have any of these again. They’re still yummy even if they’re not a favorite. But I’d rather eat what I loved: our time on this earth is limited - eat delicious things whenever you can.
12/1 - Quince Spread - This is fine! It was a good start. But this quince spread, as many are, was mostly just sweet and a little fruity. I didn’t get a lot of quince.
Rating: ★★★12/2 - Guava Spread - Delicious. Strong flavor, very guava. LOVE this one.
Rating: ★★★★½12/3 - Apple - Quince - Honey Spread - Was really pleasantly surprised here. The dominant flavors were the quince and honey. I tasted the fruit forward and then the real honey flavor came through at the end. A little apple brunoise added some texture but really wasn’t the star, thank god. How special to have something that tastes like quince and honey.
Rating: ★★★★12/4 - Orange - Yuzu - Grapefruit Spread - Hated this one. I don’t like yuzu. It’s such a concentrated flavor, always, that it drills into my tongue. The whole thing tasted like an artificially flavored citrus concentrate that needed much, much more balance. Not for me at all.
Rating: ★★12/5 - Purple Fig - Cinnamon Spread - LOVED this. I don’t like cinnamon much (unless it’s on rice pudding), and I really didn’t taste cinnamon in this spread, it really was all about the fig. Delicious. Maybe the cinnamon was in there, warming in the background, but it wasn’t forward and that was a huge plus.
Rating: ★★★★12/6 - Rhubarb - Strawberry Spread - Disappointed. It’s delicious but in a very sweet and fruity neutral way, it doesn’t taste like the fruit it advertises. My expectations for rhubarb are so high because of that incredible sourness and bitterness. This spread is missing that.
Rating: ★★★12/7 - Wild Blueberry - Maple Syrup - The maple syrup was undetectable, which is probably a good thing - maple syrup can be overwhelming and I like it only very sparingly. But the blueberry flavor was also muted. So it tasted like a lite wild blueberry. The little blueberries were present and yummy, but I would have appreciated a lot more intensity.
Rating: ★★★12/8 - Lemon - Elderflower Spread - Didn’t eat this on the day. I saved this for when my Mom visits for Christmas. Going to eat with her, since she loves elderflower. UPDATE, 12/24: Yeah I don’t like this. The lemon is very sharp and the elderflower is subtler than it could be but not my taste at all.
Rating: ★★½12/9 - Rhubarb - Spice Spread - Definitely more sour than the Rhubarb - Strawberry, which is an improvement. I could also see the strings of the rhubarb in the spread, which was really nice. I could not, for the life of me, tell you what spices were in there, though. Like the Purple Fig - Cinnamon Spread I thought I maybe detected some warming, but no spices that were identifiable. Another situation where the name of it oversold the flavor and it was all about subtlety. Maybe would have been a 4 with a different name. (I looked it up: cinnamon, coriander, anise, cumin, ginger. GOT NONE OF THAT!)
Rating: ★★★12/10 - Raspberry - Rose Spread - The raspberry here is great and lovely. But the rose is entirely, or almost entirely, undetectable. I think there MAY have been some floral notes in the background, but I cannot be sure. Again, this suffers by the description. If this was just named as Raspberry, I would have loved loved it.
Rating: ★★★12/11 - Pineapple - Yuzu Spread - I was dreading this because I don’t like these individual flavors. Pineapple has its place and yuzu doesn’t. But both the flavors were subtle enough that it was basically just a sweet fruity flavor. There was some very faint pineappleness in the background, but it was barely perceptible.
Rating: ★★★12/12 - Apricot Peach Spread - Predominately apricot, which was tasty enough. I LOVE PEACH, so to have the peach be barely there was disappointing. It popped up every once in a while, a ghost in the background. But despite missing the peach, the apricot itself was delicious.
Rating: ★★★½12/13 - 4 Fruits Spread - I CHEATED. I had a full-size version of this already so I ate today out of my full jar. I think the product may be a little different, and in ways that affect this review. I LOVE this spread, partially because I frequently have cravings for “red juice” which for me means cherry juice or pomegranate juice - something deep red, that would stain, almost dry and richly fruity. That’s EXACTLY what this is. Plus it’s full of full-sized cherries which are almost like glacé cherries after going through the preserving process. Really delicious and satisfies that red craving.
Rating: ★★★★½12/14 - Mango - Raspberry - Lime Spread - Meh. Surprise! The flavors aren’t strong here. It basically tastes like a vaguely more tropical apricot spread? The texture of the mango is present - I’m pulling mango fibers from my teeth. But I cannot taste any of these named fruits. It’s tasty! But not doing a whole lot.
Rating: ★★★12/15 - Cherry - Pink Peppercorn Spread - The cherry in this was awesome, and like all the other spices and secondary flavors, the pink peppercorns were hard to find. I think I started to sense them towards the end of my English muffin, the sharpness and the floralness, but I would have loved a stronger punch. Overall, building off such a strong base worked in its favor, but I would have loved more peppercorn.
Rating: ★★★½12/16 - Mixed Berries Spread - I was unsure how this was going to be different from 4 Fruits, but it’s blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries. The MVP here is the blueberries. It doesn’t say they’re wild blueberries, but they taste like wild blueberries rather than farm-raised. You can really taste how the blueberries round out the flavors of the blackberries and raspberries. Basically a perfectly executed mix of berry flavors. HUGE recommend.
Rating: ★★★★½12/17 - Strawberry - Wild Strawberry Spread - Really impressed here. I’m not a strawberry jam/jelly person at all, but this combination of conventional and wild strawberries created the perfect mix. It’s a strong strawberry flavor without tasting like strawberry candy. It’s a stronger flavor than an actual strawberry but doesn’t taste artificial or over-enhanced. Just concentrated and real. Big fan of this, intelligently made.
Rating: ★★★★12/18 - Caramel - Coffee Spread - REALLY impressed here. This is Bonne Maman’s subtlety at its best. When caramel is cooked dark it creates a lot of coffee adjacent flavors. The coffee here is subtle enough that it reads as notes of caramel. But the caramel isn’t too sweet. It’s really just that rich depth with notes of coffee. And I don’t like coffee. But this is wonderful.
Rating: ★★★★½12/19 - Cherry - Honey Spread - This is yummy but it doesn’t taste like cherries or honey, which is wild because Bonne Maman is usually great with cherry and honey flavors. But this one is just sort of basic red jelly flavor. It’s delicious but just not identifiable as cherry or honey.
Rating: ★★★12/20 - White Nectarine - Peach Spread - This is DELICIOUS but boy howdy I can’t find nectarine or peach. But it’s DELICIOUS.
Rating: ★★★★12/21 - Pineapple - Passion Fruit Spread - This tastes almost exclusively of pineapple. There’s maybe some sharp sourness from the passionfruit, but I’m mostly getting pineapple. Not exactly what you want from a spread.
Rating: ★★★12/22 - Mirabelle Plum - Linden Blossom Spread - It’s really nice, perfect for spring. Floral but not perfumy. Maybe it’s because I’m not familiar with these flavors separately but this blend is really something lovely.
Rating: ★★★★12/23 - Apricot - Orange Blossom Spread - Don’t get much, if any, orange blossom but the apricot is delicious.
Rating: ★★★½12/24 - Pear - Cocoa Nibs Spread - Meh. Even the pear doesn’t taste much like pear. The nibs are visible but too small to even be texture, let alone flavor.
Rating: ★★★