I love curries and I regularly attempt to make my own sauces from scratch. However I can't get the taste right and so I usually resort to ready made jars of sauces. Ready made curry sauces can be a bit hit or miss. Sometimes they taste lovely and authentic, similar to what you would find in an Indian restaurant, but sometimes they taste foul and are quite stodgy. I find that Sharwood's Indian cooking sauces are very good and remind me of what you would find in a restaurant.

Going for a curry at a restaurant can cost over £10 so making curry from a jar is a far cheaper alternative. A 420g jar of 'Sharwood's Tikka Masala sauce' will set you back about £1.50 from Sainsbury's and this can be used for 2-3 people. Curry sauces are often on offer however and can usually be found for less than £1. When they are on offer I stock up as they will keep in the cupboard for over 1 year.

The sauce comes in an attractive clear jar with an orange, yellow and black label. In the middle is the Sharwood's logo. Through the jar you can see the vibrant orange colour of the sauce within. On the sides of the label are the nutritional information, ingredients and also a recipe for a meal that can be made using this sauce.

In terms of fat content the sauce contains 8.2g of fat in a 100g serving and 4.1g of this is saturated fat. This is quite high, and not really what you would expect from a tomato based sauce. Most of the fat probably comes from the double cream which is used in the sauce.

Tikka Masala Is a medium spiced sauce made with tomatoes, fresh cream and a blend of aromatic spices. I'm not a big fan of overly spicy foods but I find that this sauce is spot on in terms of spice. It tastes lovely and I find that it goes best with chicken, rice and naan bread. Comparing it with other sauces I find that it's less sickly than korma with a nicer taste to it, and less 'earthy' than jalfrezi, rogan josh or saag masala.

Comparing the taste to 'Uncle Ben's tikka masala' I find that Sharwood's tastes less sickly and feels less heavy which makes it more pleasurable to eat. After a few mouthfuls of 'Uncle Ben's tikka masala' I start to feel a bit bloated and sick, but this is not the case with the Sharwood's sauce.

Overall I think this is a great sauce and good value for money. If you are looking to take a step up in terms of spiciness from korma, then I would recommend this sauce.