A discount supermarket’s £2.99 Christmas pudding and four supermarket own-brand champagnes have trumped their pricier rivals in tests by watchdog Which?
The consumer group’s annual festive taste test gave top marks to Lidl’s Deluxe Matured Christmas Pudding, placing it narrowly ahead of luxury versions from Waitrose and Marks & Spencer costing, weight for weight, more than twice the price.
And experts voted own-brand champagnes from Morrisons, Marks & Spencer, the Co-operative and Waitrose better than the £29.99 Moet & Chandon Brut Imperial.
The tasting found the £19.99 Morrisons “The Best” champagne “far outperformed” Veuve Clicquot’s Yellow Label, the most expensive on test at £33.49.
The £28.99 Lanson Black Label Brut was voted the best champagne by Which? judges, followed by the Morrisons variety and Marks & Spencer’s De Saint Gall Premier Cru.
Which? magazine said the results proved paying more for champagne did not guarantee better quality.
The magazine’s editor Martin Hocking said: “Christmas party season is around the corner and the good news is that quality fizz doesn’t have to break the bank.
“Our experts found that supermarket own-brand champagnes performed better than some of the best known brands, so you can save some cash and keep the party bubbling.”
In the pudding tests, judges awarded a top score of 82% to Lidl’s version, praising it for its “great taste and brilliant texture”.
They said the Waitrose cherry and pecan-topped Christmas pudding with Remy Martin (81%) was “worth splashing out on” at £13.99, and placed the Co-operative’s Truly Irresistible Christmas Pudding in third place (80%).
