Premier Inn Purple sauce

Have you been staying at the Premier Inn recently and tried their own condiment Purple Sauce? When I was asked to test this new sauce, I was totally intrigued. A purple sauce?! What's next?! And is it truly purple?
The sauce takes its colour from blackberries, and is made with natural ingredients  including cracked black pepper, crushed chillies, toasted cumin and smoked salt. Its creation has been inspired by the centuries-old recipe for a blackberry ketchup. So, it's not a total novelty, more of going back in history.
This exciting sauce was crafted with the help of chef Ed Baines and is served exclusively in Premier Inn chain of hotels for breakfast. It doesn't contain any artificial colours or flavourings, and is suitable for vegetarians.
The colour is truly rich velvety purple like a Royal coat.
It goes well with meat dishes like venison sausages, or roast pork. Would you fancy it with a full English breakfast?
Delightfully fruity, it has a definite note of smokiness to it. It reminded me of a Georgian Abkhaz sauce Ajika made with plums, it has a similar complexity of flavours and richness of colour.

The first time we tried it with a venison stir-fry.
Venison stir-fry
Ingredients:
3tbsp olive oil + 3tbsp for the venison
1 red onion, finely chopped
2 small carrots
3 parsnips
1 pack of stir-fry venison (220g)
1tsp dried juniper berries (optional)
sea salt
1tsp dried rosemary
a handful of chopped dried apricots (optional)
In a big frying pan fry finely chopped red onion, sliced carrots and parsnips with 3tbsp of olive oil. Cook the veg until the onion gets translucent and slightly browned. Remove from the heat and spoon into a bowl, set aside. Add more oil to the pan and fry the venison, seasoned with sea salt, for 3-5 minutes on each side, depending on how you like your red meat. Add the juniper berries and dried rosemary, as well as chopped dried apricots. Venison works really well with the sweet flavours of juniper berries and apricots.
Serve with a generous helping of the Purple sauce.

I also poured it over turkey burgers, and it was a delicious combination.

And a bit of sauce-trivia for you:
- We're a nation of sauce-lovers - 90% of Brits eat sauce each week and over a third (35%) of us are "obsessed" with it.
- Self-confessed sauce addicts reside in Belfast (14%), Brighton (13%) and London (13%).
- Dolloping is our preferred method of sauce consumption (47%), followed by drizzling all over a meal (29%).

Are you a big fan of sauces like ketchup and brown sauce? Would you like to try the Purple sauce?

If you do, don't delay trying this new condiment, it will be available in Premier Inn hotels for a limited 6 months period only.

Disclosure: I received a bottle of Purple sauce for the purposes of testing and reviewing. All opinions are mine.