Despite the growing number of new and unusual flavour options hitting our supermarket shelves each year, it was the traditional fruit hot cross bun from Woolworths that topped the scoring in CHOICE's 2022 taste test.
CHOICE taste tested 23 hot cross buns across traditional fruit, chocolate, and apple & cinnamon categories. The buns were purchased from Coles, Woolworths, IGA, Aldi, Bakers Delight, and Costco.
Read the full reviews here: www.choice.com.au/hotcrossbuns
"Woolworths scored first place in the traditional fruit category of our hot cross bun taste testing. Their Luxurious Richly Fruited Hot Cross Buns received a score of 84%, and was praised by our experts for its flavour and plump fruit," says CHOICE Editor, Marg Rafferty.
"Our experts blind taste test all the hot cross bun samples in the CHOICE kitchen. Each of the buns are given a CHOICE Expert Rating, which is calculated by assessing flavour, appearance, aroma, and texture," says Rafferty.
Best traditional hot cross buns
1. Woolworths Luxurious Richly Fruited Hot Cross Buns
CHOICE Expert Rating: 84%
Price: $1.13 per bun
"These Woolworths buns have a soft texture and a good flavour. They're filled with lots of plump fruit, and have the highest fruit content out of all the hot cross buns we tested," says Rafferty.
2. Aldi Bakers Life Indulgent Traditional Fruit
CHOICE Expert Rating: 73%
Price: $0.75 per bun
"These traditional fruit buns from Aldi are large and dense, with a mild spice flavour and a good amount of fruit," says Rafferty.
3. Woolworths Indulgent Brioche Fruit Hot Cross Buns
CHOICE Expert Rating: 72%
Price: $0.75 per bun
"Our experts liked how lovely and soft this Woolworths brioche bun is. It looks good visually, with a light glaze and a thinly piped cross," says Rafferty.
Best chocolate hot cross buns
1. Aldi Bakers Life Chocolate Hot Cross Buns
CHOICE Expert Rating: 73%
Price: $0.50 per bun
"The chocolate Aldi buns were the cheapest buns in our test, along with the traditional Aldi fruit hot cross buns. Our experts noted that they have a chocolate-y dough and a slight chocolate bourbon flavour," says Rafferty.
2. Coles Chocolate Hot Cross Buns
CHOICE Expert Rating: 71%
Price: $0.58 per bun
"These buns are made up of 25% milk chocolate chips, and they're the most chocolate-y of the buns we tested. They have a mudcake aroma and a very light texture," says Rafferty.
Best apple & cinnamon hot cross bun
1. Woolworths Indulgent Apple & Cinnamon
CHOICE Expert Rating: 72%
Price: $0.88 per bun
"Our experts praised the Woolworths apple and cinnamon buns for their nice colour and good shape. They're soft and have a buttery flavour," says Rafferty.
See the full story here: www.choice.com.au/hotcrossbuns
Media contact: 0430 172 669, media@choice.com.au
Editor's notes:
Who are the experts?
Adam Moore is a prolific culinary judge. His credits include judging for Le Cordon Bleu cooking school and Royal Agricultural Society (RAS) Fine Food competitions across a range of categories.
He has formal qualifications in pastry, charcuterie and butchery, sensory evaluation, food styling and food photography. With more than 25 years in the industry, Adam has worked in restaurants, food service, retail, food manufacturing, marketing and sales. He's a
certified global executive chef, and culinology director at Culinary Revolutions.
Janet Aislabie has been teaching at TAFE NSW for the past 19 years, and is involved in training and mentoring young people for industry competitions at regional, state and national levels.
After originally studying to be a chef in New Zealand, Janet completed pastry cooking qualifications while employed at the Intercontinental Hotel in Sydney. She then moved to London and completed a Culinary Arts Diploma at Thames Valley University and worked in hotels including The Ritz and The Mandarin Oriental before returning to Australia. She feels privileged to be involved as national and regional judge for various industry competitions.
Andre Sandison has worked, managed and taught as a pastry chef with more than 25 years' industry experience across hotels, restaurants and production patisseries in Japan, Britain, Switzerland, China and throughout Australia. He also holds a diploma in Food Technology that critically underpins his technical capacity.
