The wait is over. The first Advent Calendar is available at long last. Christmas seems to come earlier every year. This year, it has come in August. Nothing gives you that Christmassy feeling than a heatwave, and Bonne Maman’s 2025 Advent Calendar is going on sale thanks to Andros.
Based in a former lollipop factory in Biars-sur-Cere in the Lot department of France, near the Dordogne, Andros has factories worldwide. Including one in Virginia. Jean Gervoson started his jam business in 1971. Andros bought the factory in 1976, making jam, marmalade, compotes, desserts, cakes, and biscuits.
But jam and preserves are not just for spreading on toast, waffles, brioches, and pancakes, and dolloping on scones, or using to make mousses, bread (tried peanut chocolate banana bread?), lemon curd shortcake biscuits, bacon, Brie and fig sandwiches, ricotta beignets, tarts, buns, pavlovas, stuffing (try Bonne Maman apricot jam )and glazing your Christmas or Thanksgiving turkey (try grape concord). Jams also make great cocktail ingredients using seasonal ingredients all year round.
The 23 30g jars, which comprise the calendar, should give you a few ideas. Salivate at the thought of what you could do with:
- Apple with caramel and cinnamon, Pineapple with rum and vanilla
- Apricot with orange blossom, White nectarine with peach and lemon verbena
- Raspberry with lychee, Yuzu, orange, and grapefruit
- Rhubarb and strawberry Madagascar vanilla caramel
- Cherry with violet leaf, Mango, and ginger
- Fig and cardamom, Damson plum, pear, and star anise.
Not just in a Mason Jar Fizz with Prosecco!
All you really need is your favorite spirit (vodka, tequila, rum, bourbon, or gin), some fresh lemon juice, ice, and a shaker. Try your hand at:
Jamtini Cocktail
2 tbsp Bonne Maman strawberry jam
Diced strawberries
10 large mint leaves
Ice cubes
50ml grenadine
200ml vodka
500ml lemonade
Mix, shake, stir, pour, and garnish. Nothing could be easier, simpler, or more refreshing.
Marmalade and Gin Cocktail
2oz gin
1 half oz freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 tbs Bonne Maman Orange Marmalade
Fill the Martini shaker half full with ice. Add ice cubes to 8 8-oz glasses. Combine all the ingredients and shake before straining the contents into a glass.
Mango Peach Splash Cocktail
Almost empty jar of Bonne Maman Mango-Peach Preserves
1.5 oz orange juice
1.5 white rum
Juice of half a lime
Sparkling Water
Ice
Fruit slices for garnish. Mix in the jar, close the lid and shake vigorously, open the lid and top up wth sparkling water. Garnish to taste.
Spicy Guavarita Cocktail
I tbsp Bonne Maman Guava Jam
1oz vodka
1oz Triple Sec
1oz lime juice
2-3 ice cubes
1 jalapeno slice
Lime wheel
Tajine spices
Sparkling water
Rub the rim of the glass with a lime slice. Dip the rim into the tajine. Crush a jalapeno at the bottom of your shaker with a muddler or the back of a spoon. Add liquids. Fill with ice cubes, close the shaker, and shake until well-chilled and the jam is dissolved. Strained into a prepared glass. Add soda and garnish.
Figgy Bourbon Cocktail
2oz Bourbon
I tbsp fig jam
I dried figs
Vanilla bean paste to taste
Muddle and pour over rocks.
Raspberry and Rum Cocktail
1 tbsp Bonne Maman Confiture Raspberry
2 oz dark rum
1 tbsp lemon juice
Strain into a chilled tulip glass and garnish with a fresh raspberry
Cherry Negroni Cocktail
1 oz Dry Gin
1 oz Campari
1 tsp Bonne Maman Cherry Conserve
Demerara sugar
Fresh cherry
Fill a rock glass with ice. Add gin, Campari, and stir in jam. Sprinkle the cherry with sugar and garnish.
Blueberry Jam Basil Fizz Mocktail
2 tbsp Bonne Maman Wild Blueberry Preserves
1 can of lime sparkling water
1 Thai Basil sprig and two leaves
1 lime (one half juiced and the other half for garnish)
Add all to the shaker and crush with a muddler. Fill with ice and a generous splash of sparkling water. Cover and shake. Pour into a highball glass and top up. Garnish to desire and according to artistic sensibility and swoon.
