I Tried 8 Popular Strawberry Jams, and This Is the Only One I’m Buying From Now On

Not much beats the simplicity of a classic PB&J. It’s the perfect combination of flavors and textures with its rich, salty peanut butter, sweet, tangy jam or jelly, and soft, pillowy-soft bread to hold it all together. Peanut butter is usually the constant; I prefer the natural kind that needs stirring beforehand, like Costco’s Kirkland brand. But the jam and jelly are where things get really interesting. Do I want a rustic, wild blueberry local jam, a mouth-puckering marmalade, or sweet grape jelly?

Most often, I want a traditional peanut butter and jelly with a strawberry jam that’s bursting with fresh, sweet berry flavor and perhaps a hint of acidity. While homemade strawberry jam is undoubtedly the best, I also love the convenience of store-bought jam. The challenge is that the jam aisles in my local grocery stores are packed with a wide range of brands, so it’s hard to know which to buy. If you also get overwhelmed when standing in front of a wall of neatly decorated jars of fruit spreads, then check out my rankings for my favorite strawberry jams—starting with the ones that left a bit to be desired.

The Difference Between Jams, Jellies, and Preserves

For starters, let’s set the stage for what I consider a jam versus a jelly, preserve, or fruit spread. Jellies are made with fruit juice, while jams, preserves, and fruit spreads are all made with either whole or chopped fruit. I consider all preserves and fruit spreads to be types of jam, so I included them in this test.

I left out products that contained fruit juice instead of fresh fruit, and I also skipped any that were sweetened with sugar substitutes like stevia. Aside from strawberries, most of the brands had a similar ingredient list, including sugar, lemon juice, and pectin (a thickening agent). Some contained additional ingredients, such as natural flavors and corn syrup. 

How I Tested the Strawberry Jams

While testing the strawberry jams, I tasted a spoonful of each many times over a few days. It was quite difficult to judge the jams by the spoonful since they were all incredibly sweet, so I spread some on a piece of sourdough bread. So sweet, in fact, that I followed the wine-tasting method and spit between samples. Spread on bread, however, it became easier to evaluate the jams’ taste. While nearly all of them are solid options, the top-ranking ones all offer great flavor and texture.

8th Place: Welch’s Natural Strawberry Spread

Welch’s Natural Strawberry Spread is sold in a squeezable bottle shaped like ketchup, which made the consistency by far the thinnest of the samples. The idea is to literally squeeze the fruit spread on a piece of bread, because who can be bothered to use a knife or spoon these days? Welch’s is a leading brand in the grape juice and grape jelly market, but their strawberry jam recipe could use some improvement.

Aside from the looser consistency, which felt more like an ice cream topping, the flavor was bland, almost watery. The first ingredient listed is sugar, and this is obvious upon the first taste. Its defining characteristic was sweetness, but not necessarily a fruity sweetness like some other entries on this list. Although it has a natural strawberry flavor, this one had the least berry flavor of the bunch.

I was a fan of its nostalgic appeal. This tastes like a jam I probably ate as a kid in my school’s cafeteria. It has a distinctly sweet strawberry aroma, but the overall flavor is dominated by its sweetness. I also appreciate that Welch’s is made without high fructose corn syrup, artificial flavors, colors, or preservatives.

7th Place: Smucker’s Strawberry Jam

By far the most accessible brand of jam and jelly on the market, Smucker’s was available in all the major grocery stores I visited while shopping for this test. Like Welch’s, Smucker’s Strawberry Jam reminds me of being a kid, scarfing down triangles of PB&J on white bread before running back outside to play with friends.

Overall, Smucker’s is an entirely acceptable jam and may very well be many people’s favorite. But that’s likely because they haven’t ventured out to try something new. The ingredient list is longer than others, including high-fructose corn syrup, which isn’t all that appealing to me in a jam. What this jam lacks compared to others is an interesting texture and a bright strawberry flavor. You might be happy with Smucker’s, but I recommend trying some of the others on the list to elevate your jam game.

6th Place: Favorit Premium Strawberry Swiss Preserve

Imported from Switzerland, Favorit is a step above Smucker’s, but honestly, it lacks the fresh berry flavor of the others on this list. It has a sweet strawberry taste with bits of seeds throughout, but no chunks of real berries. Favorit has a jelly-like consistency similar to Smucker’s, with a slightly more authentic strawberry flavor.

Like the rest of the list—except Welch’s—the first ingredient is strawberries. Favorit contains no artificial or natural flavors and no corn syrup. However, it was one of the jams on this list with a higher total sugar content in its nutrition facts. With 12 grams of total sugars, it was toward the top of the range for samples between 7 and 13 grams. This was another perfectly good strawberry jam, and I would happily put it on a sandwich, but it’s firmly in the middle of the pack.

5th Place: Smucker’s Natural Strawberry Fruit Spread

These top five jams are all highly recommended, and among them, this might be the easiest to find nationwide. Some of the others had slightly better flavor and texture, but this natural jam line from Smucker’s was a huge surprise. The texture is a massive step up from the jams that ranked lower on this list, with discernible blobs of real strawberries and little seeds throughout. As such, this has a texture similar to homemade.

I really appreciate that Smucker’s offers a line of jams without high-fructose corn syrup, artificial flavorings, or natural flavorings. The ingredient list is simply strawberries, sugar, fruit pectin, and citric acid. It also has 10 grams of total sugars, and while it’s super sweet, the fresh berry flavor really shines in this jam. Add this to your cart if you’ve only ever tried Smucker’s regular jams or jellies. The natural line is a significant step up in quality.

4th Place: Crofter’s Organic Premium Strawberry Spread

I can easily see this being at the top of many people’s lists. After all, it has the lowest total sugar content at 7 grams, and it’s made with all organic ingredients. The cane sugar is also fair trade, and the label states it is ethically sourced and environmentally friendly. All of these statements are great, but they hold little weight if the taste isn’t. Luckily, Crofter’s makes excellent jams, and their strawberry spread is one of their best.

The texture falls between smooth, like jelly, and very chunky, with some strawberry chunks, but still easy to spread on toast. If anything, it’s a bit more watery than the other top-performing jams. The flavor, however, is where this jam really shines. It’s like a mouthful of freshly picked strawberries from the orchard, and it feels very close to homemade. There’s even a hint of acidity, which I really like in jams.

3rd Place: Trappist Strawberry Preserve

Made by the Trappist Monks of St. Joseph’s Abbey in Spencer, Mass., this was certainly the most unique jam on this list. It earns its significant spot for boasting massive bites of real strawberries, jammed in the 12-ounce jar. Seriously, you need a spoon to serve this jam. The flavor, as you may expect, is predominantly fresh strawberries, though it’s a bit too sweet for my liking. That might be due to the 13 grams of sugar or the corn syrup, which make up the otherwise standard ingredient list. Either way, this is a delicious jam that is best stirred into your morning yogurt or even a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Because the strawberry pieces are so large, it’s actually a challenge to spread the jam evenly on bread. That might not be a problem for everyone, but I personally don’t love biting into a big glob of jam on my sandwiches. 

2nd Place: Bonne Maman Strawberry Preserves

These last two picks are particularly difficult to place because I loved them both. Bonne Maman Strawberry Preserves embodies the perfect flavor, texture, and sweetness of a great jam. Similar to Crofter’s fruit spread, Bonne Maman’s jam is packed with real berries. In fact, a jar of Bonne Maman feels like freshly ripened strawberries, carefully hand-crushed with sugar and preserved in charming jars topped with the iconic red plaid lid.

What’s more, the ingredient list reads like a homemade recipe: strawberries, sugar, brown cane sugar, concentrated lemon juice, and fruit pectin. The brown sugar adds just a hint of warm spice, while the lemon concentrate makes you salivate with each taste. This one was especially delicious on sourdough bread—the jam really bursts with fresh garden berry flavor. It also spreads evenly and easily on toast or bread, which is important for making a great sandwich. Plus, Bonne Maman is also readily available at almost every grocery store across the country.

1st Place: Stonewall Kitchen Strawberry Jam

After sampling enough strawberry jam for a lifetime, I keep coming back to Stonewall Kitchen. This is one of the first (if not the first) small companies making interesting, handcrafted jams and jellies to go national. My dad is an artist, and I remember going with him about 30 years ago to an art show in rural Maine. Among the painters, jewelers, and potters was a small booth selling jams and jellies, including Stonewall Kitchen. All these years later, whenever I see that distinctive rustic logo, I remember the first time I tasted their jams in New England.

There is a reason the company has continued to grow and build a reputation for its high-end products. The strawberry jam tastes as close to homemade as you can get without making it yourself (or having a mother or friend give you their homemade stuff). It’s perfectly chunky, with melt-in-your-mouth pieces of real berries, and it spreads evenly on delicious morning toast. The ingredients are exactly what you’d expect in a jam: strawberries, cane sugar, pectin, lemon juice, and citric acid. And the total sugar content is only 8 grams. Best of all, it’s still perfectly sweet and wonderful stirred into some Greek yogurt.