Life in Words

Jam vs Jelly

So I was reading a random post book by the awesome Balderdash_394. She was talking about jelly, which to us Australians, may or may not be different to what it is to the Americans. I commented, telling her that Jelly was called Jam in Australia. But now I am confused. What is jelly and what is jams, according to Australians?

Well, jam is a spread we put on toast, bread, scones, in cupcakes, on tarts, in cheesecake etc. It's got fruit in it and plenty of sugar, and comes out as a shiny, sticky paste. I personally prefer apricot jam because it has a lighter and less sweet flavour.

Jelly is what occurs from jelly crystals. You mix it with cold and hot water and put it in the fridge to set. After a good couple hours it comes out as a wobbly solid, soft and bouncy. we have varying flavours, from lime, to mango and passionfruit, bubblegum and port wine/grape. I wouldn't put it on peanut butter, because it would be way to hard to spread!

In Good old Australia we have our main jelly crystal brand called Aeroplane Jelly. They have an annoying little song that they used to use on advertisements when I was growing up, and it is still used today. My old dance school that I attended when I was five, had a theme of celebrating Australia and that was what one of the classes danced to. It's an old song and you can listen to it in the video above.

Now they have made a new version which can be seen here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwk76kwuTsQ

I personally find the song unrealistic and annoyingly catchy, because who can only live on jelly? I personally don't want it three times a day! I like it for dinner, I like it for tea, a little each day is a good recipe.

I'm sick of jelly really, because I recently had a big operation on my spine, which you might hear more about later, and I couldn't have food for a few days, only fluids and runny foods. So I lived on solid and liquid states of water, apple and orange juice, custard, and jelly. For the next couple days, jelly and custard was on my menu for desert too. 7 weeks later and if I see a cup full of lime jelly, I will probably refuse it.

Back to the topic of jam! In Despicable Me 2, GRU has a business where he makes 'jams and jellies'. To me, when I first watched it, I was like: "It looks like the same thing!"

Do you guys agree?
Watch it here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KHsFb4dm6TY

If you have a different understanding of jam and jelly, please comment and let me know, because I am, mega confused!