Mitch's Preserves

Start with the bottle The Rub Hub can't keep in stock: the Worcestershire Sauce. It's a genuine two-time medal winner — Bronze at the Melbourne Royal Australian Food Awards 2024 and Bronze again at the Royal Tasmanian Fine Food Awards 2025 — and it drinks like it: deep, near-black and properly rich, poured with real weight instead of the watery run you get off a supermarket shelf. Upfront it's straight vinegar tang and dark treacle sweetness; through the middle, real apple and orange bring a fruity roundness you won't find in the mass-market bottles; on the finish, garlic and a quiet hit of spice land last and linger. It's the shortcut ingredient serious home cooks keep close for a casserole, a slow braise, a proper steak sauce or a Sunday roast gravy — and, by more than one customer's account, the difference-maker in a Bloody Mary.

A family owned preserve maker working out of South West Victoria's volcanic-soil country, Mitch's Preserves buys fruit and veg direct from local growers wherever they can and still cooks everything the old-fashioned way, in small batches. Every jar and bottle in the range is gluten free.

The trophy cabinet doesn't stop at the Worcestershire Sauce. There's a stack of gold, silver and bronze medals across the range at the Melbourne Royal, Sydney Royal and Royal Tasmanian Fine Food Awards — including a Best in Class trophy for the Onion Jam, Gold for the Fig Jam, and Melbourne Royal Gold plus Royal Tasmanian Silver for the Rhubarb Chutney.

The jams are the heart of the range — twelve of them, from everyday Strawberry and Raspberry through to the award-winning Fig and Onion, plus Blackberry, Apricot, Pineapple, Fourberries, Plum & Raspberry, Strawberry & Rhubarb, Chilli Jam and two marmalades, Brekkie and Lime & Orange.

For the savoury side there's the chutneys and relishes — Rhubarb Chutney, Tomato Chutney and Beetroot & Orange Chutney alongside Tomato Relish, Caramelised Onion Relish and the Tomilli Relish pair (regular and Hot) for anyone who wants their chilli tomato relish with a real kick. The pickles — Cauliflower, Pickled Zucchini, Sweet Mustard and Green Tomato — are built for the same cheese board and ploughman's lunch, and the pastes (Quince, Rhubarb, Spiced Pear, Fig & Shiraz, Muntrie & Pepperberry) are the traditional membrillo-style match for a cheese platter.

Round out the cook's cupboard with the jellies — Quince, Mint, Crab Apple and Apple Spice — the Tomato Sauce, Sweet Chilli and Hot Sweet Chilli Sauce, or Dehydrated Citrus for the garnish tray. Can't decide? The Gift Packs and Gift Boxes bundle the range's best sellers into one order.

Real preserves, honestly made, from a town that knows a thing or two about good produce.