Looking for the best marmalade? Read on to find the results of our taste test or try making your own homemade marmalade. For more inspiration, see our marmalade recipes including drinks, bakes and mains.

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You can often tell a marmalade’s strength and bitterness from its colour. The darker the marmalade’s hue, the stronger and more bitter it will be. If you’re making your first foray into marmalade, get a lighter looking one.


How the marmalade taste test worked

We tasted all the marmalades raw, looking at peel thickness, peel amount and consistency, as well as the overall flavour. We then spread each one on buttered sourdough toast (writer’s own!) and tasted them again. Where possible we chose marmalades with thick-cut peel, as we feel this is the cut for a true marmalade aficionado. We’ve highlighted a few of the best for flavour, with one all-rounder that came out on top.


The results for the best marmalade taste test

Winner: Rosebud Preserves Seville Orange Marmalade Medium Cut, £3.95/227g
Score: 9/10

A beautiful soft set with a dark, intense colour. The rind is cut into thick squares, making it easy to spread and giving intense bursts of orangey bitterness that is absolutely perfect when eaten on toast. This was matched with a balanced, sweet-sour zestiness from the preserve itself and lip-smacking orange flavour.

Rosebud Preserves Seville Orange Marmalade

Fortnum & Mason Burlington Breakfast Marmalade, £4.95/340g
Score: 8/10

As its name suggests, this may well be the perfect marmalade for those early mornings. A beautiful orange colour with a nice, thick set. Absolutely packed with thin-cut, tender peel that is matched with a bright and fresh jam that’s packed with orange flavour. Perfect for breakfast or baking.

Fortnum & Mason marmalade

Wilkin & Sons Ltd ‘Tawny’ Orange Thick Cut Marmalade, £2.30/454g
Score: 8/10

One for the marmalade connoisseur. Devilishly dark with a slight caramelised flavour and chunky but tender peel. Very bitter and grown-up flavour. It was probably the most intense marmalade we tried, so not one for the newbies.

More like this
Wilkin & Sons Ltd ‘Tawny’ Orange Thick Cut Marmalade

Waitrose Duchy Organic Seville Orange Marmalade Thick Cut, £2/340g
Score: 7/10

A dark orange colour with plenty of thick strips of peel in a smooth orange jam. A really balanced marmalade, plenty of bitterness matched with a sweet, zesty flavour. A good all-rounder and would be perfect for baking.

Waitrose Duchy Seville Orange Thick Cut Marmalade

Harvey Nichols Seville Orange Thin Cut Marmalade, £3.50/340g
Score: 7/10

The perfect entry-level marmalade. A thick set with a light orange colour and delicate, thin peel. It’s on the sweeter side, with less of the intense bitterness of some of the others but has a really rounded orange flavour. Perfect for kids or when you want to eat lots of marmalade toast without getting tastebud fatigue.

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Harvey Nichols Seville Orange Thin Cut Marmalade

Other expert taste tests from the olive cookery team:

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Smoked salmon taste test

Authors

Janine Ratcliffe Portrait
Janine RatcliffeFood director

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