And a very Merry Christmas to You!
When faced with all those relatives and friends needing feeding, a few standby items can really help to take the pressure off. To make sure that you pick the tastiest Stollen to serve this year, read on…
Here’s the brands we tested:
Costco Konditorei Oebel £4.49 (1,000g)
Farm Shop Schlünder £6.45 (800g)
Emerson & West Deli, Market Harborough Kuchenmister £5.99 (750g)
Aldi Holly Lane £1.99 (750g)
Asda Aldubak GmBh £3.00 (550g)
Waitrose Bahlsen £4.25 (500g)
Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference £4.25 (500g)
As in previous years, we rated the cakes on taste, appearance, packaging, marzipan and value for money – the last being something Bryan keeps a beady eye on! Given the big differences in the sizes and prices we had to do some thinking about how to test fairly and here are our results:
First – Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference. This scored solidly on all categories and was an outright winner for 2 of us! Great packaging, very decorative as unusually it was covered in nuts (so good on the festive tea table) and an all round treat. Very tasty and good quality, generous marzipan.
Second – Emerson & West Deli Kuchenmister A close runner up, this came second for 3 of us and we all enjoyed the very light and flavourful cake. Almost more like a panettone, but delicious. Katie commented “It tastes like Christmas!” and it really does.
Third – Waitrose Bahlsen Scored poorly for blue plastic packaging but everyone loved the flavour and texture, which was helped by a crunchy crystalised sugar coating. Costly though, as one of the smallest loaves on test.
Fourth – Asda Aldubak GmBh This we had high hopes of, as it looked good – with a posh marzipan swirl – and was well priced. It was liked by some of our testers, but 2 identified an odd aftertaste and it was very dense, almost claggy.
Fifth – Aldi Holly Lane A very mixed response here, as some tasters really liked this and it is well priced, but others found it a little too dry and heavy, and lacking in flavour.
Sixth – Costco Konditorei Oebel A whopping loaf covered in lots of icing sugar, let down by cheap marzipan. The taste was quite liked but it was let down by poor scores for packaging, appearance and texture. Great price if you have hoards to feed (or small boys).
Seventh – Farm Shop Schlünder A very varied response here, seemingly mostly dependant on whether you like cherry brandy or not. Came last because two of us don’t, one couldn’t taste it and was cross, and all in all it left a very odd aftertaste for us all. The only one where slices weren’t finshed… pity really, as it was quite large!
It seems that, overall, you get what you pay for. The difference in quality, especially with the marzipan used, really showed here – some were quite unpleasant and others delicious. So if you want Auntie Beryl to be impressed, then paying a little more is the way to go. #christmas