Bronwen King

bun’’. But the Cosmos has a plan. The New Moon conjunct Venus provides the impetus for a way out. And, as Mercury enters your sign at the end of this week, making you ‘‘sharper than a page out of Oscar Wilde’s witticisms, sprinkled with lemon juice’’, you’ll have the wit to find it! For more call 0900 30022.

Heinz Seriously Good Balsamic

This New Zealand-made dressing was the best nutritionally. It was top equal with Eta in balsamic vinegar content (29 per cent), used a mix of olive and canola oils and had least sugar and sodium (5.5g and 255mg per 100g respectively). Our small panel of tasters (they were hard to recruit) voted it top for taste. At $4.29 per 250ml, it was the most expensive. Overall rating: Best – most expensive but had the best nutrition profile and voted best for taste.

Paul Newman’s Own Balsamic

This dressing has good market share but several aspects let it down – it has the least balsamic vinegar (17 per cent), uses soy bean and canola oil (not as good as olive/canola), has two teaspoons of sugar and a whopping 1000mg sodium per 100ml. Taste wise it was second, just one point ahead of Eta. It was second for cost at $3.99 per 250ml bottle. I love that all profits go to charity so points there. Overall rating: Second equal – nutritionally the worst, second for taste and cost.

ETA Balsamic Vinaigrette

Since Eta is owned by Heinz Watties, this is the little brother of the Heinz version. It is considerably lower in fat (6.8 per cent) and kilojoules, but a little higher in sugar with three teaspoons per 100g. It has 29 per cent balsamic vinegar (tick) and the oil is canola. It is in the middle for sodium at 645mg/100g. Taste wise it was lower than Paul Newman’s but cost wise it was cheapest at $3.20 per 250ml. Overall rating: Second equal – nutritionally better and cheaper than Paul Newman’s, but last (just) for taste.