The Tortured Orchard Garlic Balsamic Drizzle: Product Review

I happened to be very blessed and perhaps a bit spoiled by a pet rescuer friend of mine who lives upstate New York, and without fail, once a month, she sends me a "goodie" package. She works part time for a store called The Berry Farm Gourmet Market that sells high quality foods that are all organic. Since they are all rather expensive food items I would never think to buy them for myself being that I'm on a limited food budget. To give you an example of how expensive all the organic type foods are that are this store has, they sell hand-made, organic pasta that sells for a whopping $4.59 for a 1-lb package, something I just would never think to buy for myself, and usually wind up getting the cheaper brands at my supermarket that can sell for a mere dollar a package. Thankfully she sends me a good number of these packages of this expensive pasta and it lasts a long, long time.

Just a few days ago, once again she sent me a "goodie" package, and yes she sent more pasta, plus a good number of other items. It's always a complete delight and surprise what she sends me, as I never know what she's going to send me. One such item that she sent was a nine ounce jar of a Garlic Balsamic Drizzle sauce made by what I thought was a rather strange company name of Tortured Orchard.

Being curious, I decided to see if this company had a website, if anything to gain some info on why the product had such an usual name and how it was started. Sure enough, there is a website. While there is an "about" section of it's founders, the PDF file of an article one can download, entitled "Mother-Daughter Sauces From Tortured Orchard" originally published in The Berkshire-Eagle (April 4, 2009) gives more information and a history of how this company began.

As the title suggests in the article, the Tortured Orchand line of products was started by a Ms. Sandra Walley a long time vegetarian and skilled in the culinary arts and would often try out new original vegetarian and organic type recipes on her friends and family and it was she who came up with the variety of sauces under her Tortured Orchard label. Her daughter, Amanda Walley not as enthused with cooking as her mother was, despite having been a graduate of The Culinary Institute of American and a bachelor's degree in communication, decided to take on the role of marketing her mother's sauces. The rest is as you might say history. Besides being featured as an article for The Berkshire-Eagle, the Tortured Orchard sauces have also been written up in a short piece featured in Berkshire Living, entitled "Sweet For Certain" and is also a PDF file one can download from the Tortured Orchard website. As for the choice in calling her sauces under the label "Tortured Orchard", as stated in the Berkshire-Eagle article, Ms. Sandra Walley, being an environmentalist, decided on the name as a result of "the look of orchard branches in winter...With public concern for a cleaner and greener planet, the label is not only eye-catching, but ironic as well." (1)

Now back to the actual product itself. By looking at the Tortured Orchard website, I discovered that there is a total of four different type of sauces available. All are available as 9-ounce jars, are completely natural made with organic ingredients, with no preservatives, no High Fructose Corn Syrup, low in sodium and sugar content and are trans fat free, and come with the delightful, enticing names of Spiced Pineapple Zinger, Sweet Apple Blush, Lemon Ginger Twist, and Garlic Balsamic Drizzle. Each sauce can be used as a marinade, dipping sauce, barbecue sauce, or even sauce to enhance sandwiches; actually the list is actually endless of how these sauces can be used. One can order directly on-line on the Tortured Orchard Website by calling or emailing them, but there is also a rather extensive listing of other shops in the Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut and Vermont states that carry these sauces.

O, how I wish, my friend had sent me a jar of each flavor! Unfortunately she only sent me one, the Garlic Balsamic Drizzle Sauce. The ingredients are as follows:

Ingredients: organic evaporated cane juice, water, balsamic vinegar, sweet vidalia onion, salt, seasonings, garlic, jalapeño peppers. The particulars of the sauce are:
Calories 60, Total Fat 0g, Sodium 20mg, 22%, Total Carbohydrate 8g, 3%, Sugars 7g and Protein 0g

Well, now for the taste test. I opened the jar, dabbed my finger in it to give it a try. What struck me right away was a wonderful blend of flavors, yes, it's a bit hot due to the jalapeño peppers, yet sweet at the same time, and there's a rather strong taste of the garlic which I love. I couldn't wait to try it on food, so the next evening I made my own homemade chicken nuggets and used it as a dipping sauce. What can I say? It turned a rather ordinary meal into something special and so much better than using ordinary ketchup or barbecue sauce for chicken nuggets. I can't wait to use it as perhaps a steak sauce or a marinade for other chicken dinners.

I'm going to give my friend a nonchalant hint to please, please, by all means send me some more of not only this particular sauce, as I have a feeling it's going to go fast, but to also send me a jar of each of the other flavors!

Want something a little different as far as a sauce that is versatile and can be used a myriad of ways? Something that is completely natural and organically made? Then I highly recommend getting the Tortured Orchard label of sauces; if the jar of Garlic Balsamic Drizzle is any indicator, all the sauces from this company are simply a must try.

Sources:

Tortured Orchard Website

The Berry Farm

PDF file: "Mother-Daughter Sauces From Tortured Orchard" originally published in The Berkshire-Eagle (April 4, 2009) (1)

PDF file: "Sweet For Certain" Berkshire Living (March/April 2009)-Amanda Rae Busch