Each year around Boxing Day, hot cross buns start popping up on grocery shelves. For many, the idea of buying Easter treats in December is absurd, but clearly some of us Aussies have such an appetite for these spicy, fruity baked goods that we’re willing to buy them well outside the traditional season.
Their early appearance is certainly handy for us here at CHOICE – it gives our expert taste testers plenty of time to gather and compare all the options on the market, so you can make the smartest, most delicious choice for your Easter treats.
We tasted 15 hot cross buns – ‘traditional’ fruit and chocolate varieties, including gluten-free options – from national supermarkets Coles, Woolworths, IGA and Aldi and major bakery chain Bakers Delight, to see which buns are best.
When it comes to hot cross bun varieties, the options extend from Iced VoVo to Pizza Shapes flavours, and seemingly everything in between.
Last year we saw Wagon Wheel and Fairy Bread flavoured buns on the shelves and for this year’s annual not cross bun taste test our judging panel were exposed to Doritos, Mint Slice and Cinnabon flavoured buns among others.
But despite the availability of these gimmicky options, you can’t go past a traditional fruit hot cross bun. It’s a crowd favourite.
So for those who’d prefer not to mess with a classic, which traditional buns are best?
Our panel of professionals taste-tested 15 hot cross bun products all up, toasted and untoasted, including six traditional fruit varieties (it’s a tough gig but somebody’s gotta do it).
For the second year running, Coles holds the top spot.
Coles Finest Luxurious Fruit fruit buns were once again the favourite traditional champion this year.
Coles Finest Luxurious Fruit Hot Cross Buns
CHOICE Expert Rating: 85%
Toasted score: 83%
Fresh (untoasted) score: 87%
Price: $1.38 per bun ($5.50 per 4-pack)
Experts say: “Fruit is evenly distributed and mixed peel is evident. Good to see the fruit variety.” “Appearance is typical of a hot cross bun. When cut there’s a good amount of fruit including peel. The texture is firm yet it has good eating quality.” “Lots of fruit and glaze which is nice to see. Lots of spice you can taste.” “This is a great hot cross bun. Would get this for my home.”
Why wait for the Easter bunny to bring eggs when you can eat your chocolate in bun form?
We taste-tested four chocolate hot cross buns from Aldi, Bakers Delight, Coles and Woolworths. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get our hands on IGA’s Community Co Chocolate Easter Buns in time for our test.
There was a clear favourite among our experts, scoring over 90% in our taste test – one of the highest scores we’ve ever given to a hot cross bun.
Woolworths took out top honours in the chocolate category, knocking off last year’s favourite from Coles, which had to settle for second place this year.
Top of the chocs… these Woolworths Bakery buns made with Cadbury choc chips topped the category.
Woolworths Bakery Chocolate Hot Cross Buns Made With Cadbury Milk Chocolate Chips
CHOICE Expert Rating: 95%
Toasted score: 97%
Fresh (untoasted) score: 93%
Price: 73 cents per bun ($4.40 per 6-pack)
Experts say: “Great chocolate aroma with good glaze. It presents well and looks like the real deal.” “When toasted there’s a good chocolate aroma with melted chocolate evident. Toasts well with good texture. A great product.” “Great colour, appearance was full and rich. When cut the aroma was intense of rich dark chocolate. The texture was light and the flavour was excellent. Wow, a great product.”
Woolworths chocolate buns have shown a significant improvement compared to last year’s result, when they scored just 68%. Last year our judges said that although the Woolworths bun looked the part with a good chocolate aroma, the flavour was lacking.
One said, “it looks like it’ll be super sweet and decadent but it isn’t”, while another said “visually it looks great, the expectation is big chocolate flavour but you don’t get it.”
This year, it truly impressed our judges, not only looking great but tasting great too.
Coles Bakery choc chip buns were knocked off top spot but still impressed, coming in second place.
Coles Bakery Choc Chip Hot Cross Buns
CHOICE Expert Rating: 75%
Toasted score: 77%
Fresh (untoasted) score: 73%
Price: 73 cents per bun ($4.40 per 6-pack)
Experts say: “The bun isn’t high so the texture feels dense and harder to cut and eat.” “Full of chocolate bits. It’s a little dry but there’s a nice even chocolate flavour.” “When toasted the chocolate was enhanced. A great product.” “Good chocolate flavour. Looks great when toasted.”
Many people need to avoid eating gluten, so we’ve included gluten-free traditional fruit and chocolate bun offerings from Aldi, Coles and Woolworths in our taste test. Coles didn’t release a gluten-free chocolate option this year.
We also decided to give the gluten-free buns their own category, so the scores aren’t directly comparable to their regular counterparts.
The best gluten-free traditional and chocolate buns came from Woolworths this year. The experts particularly praised their appearance, with these buns looking similar to regular buns, rather than the hockey puck shapes seen in the Coles and Aldi options.
Woolworths were the winners of the traditional gluten-free category this year.
Woolworths Free From Gluten Fruit Hot Cross Buns
CHOICE Expert Rating: 77%
Toasted score: 77%
Fresh (untoasted) score: 77%
Price: $1.38 per bun ($5.50 per 4-pack)
Experts say:“Good texture that holds together well. A little crumbly on eating.” “Aroma is typical of a gluten free product but toasting gets rid of it.” “Good fruit quantity and evenly distributed.” “The presentation was good. This was a pleasing product.” “A very good gluten free product.”
Prefer your buns with no gluten and no fruit? These impressed our experts for the third year running.
Woolworths Free From Gluten Choc Hot Cross Buns
CHOICE Expert Rating: 70%
Toasted score: 73%
Fresh (untoasted) score: 67%
Price: $1.38 per bun ($5.50 per 4-pack)
Experts say: “Chocolate pieces are evenly distributed. There’s a chocolate aroma but it smells artificial.” “When cut, the aroma was quite good and not like a gluten free product.” “When toasted, the chocolate was enhanced and improved the product.” “Not very natural, chemical flavour.” “When toasted, there’s better aroma, the bun holds itself together better but it’s not very chocolatey and still lingering with a chemical flavour.”
Text-only accessible version
The best tasting hot cross buns as rated by our experts
Best traditional
Coles Finest Luxurious Fruit Hot Cross Buns
CHOICE Expert Rating: 85%
$1.38 per bun
Best chocolate
Woolworths Bakery Chocolate Hot Cross Buns made with Cadbury Milk Chocolate Chips
CHOICE Expert Rating: 95%
73c per bun
Best gluten-free traditional
Woolworths Free From Gluten Fruit Hot Cross Buns
CHOICE Expert Rating: 77%
$1.38 per bun
Best gluten-free chocolate
Woolworths Free From Gluten Choc Hot Cross Buns
CHOICE Expert Rating: 70%
$1.38 per bun
How to choose the best hot cross buns
Choosing a hot cross bun really comes down to personal preferences. Do you like lots of dried fruits and a spicy aroma, or would you rather a gooey chocolatey bun?
Do you like to eat it toasted and slathered in butter, or do you just devour it fresh out of the bag?
There are some things to consider before you just grab the first bag of hot cross buns you see on the shelf.
1. Fruit or chocolate content
Hot cross buns are usually wrapped in clear packaging so you can at least see what you’re about to buy. Look for an even distribution of fruit or chocolate pieces – it’s a pretty good indicator of a good bun that has well-balanced flavour and texture.
You can also check the fruit and chocolate content (as well as the type of dried fruit being used) by reading the ingredients list – generally the higher the number the better.
Look for an even distribution of fruit or chocolate pieces – it’s a pretty good indicator of a good bun
In this year’s test, fruit content in traditional buns ranged from 19 to 28%. Coles Finest Luxurious Fruit Hot Cross Buns had the highest fruit content, evident in the results and comments from our experts.
The chocolate content ranged from 15 to 25% in the chocolate buns. Interestingly, our top-rate Woolworths product didn’t have the highest chocolate content in the group, with 19%. Bakers Delight Handmade Choc Chip and Coles Bakery Choc Chip buns both had 25%.
2. Do they look good?
The first thing you’ll notice is how the bun looks. And if you’re serving them up on a platter to guests you’ll want to make sure they look the part.
Our experts assess the appearance of each bun and look for an even shape and size with decent rise (or dome) as well as nice browning on the outside with a well-covered glaze and evenly centred cross.
Looks matter: Our experts take a good look at each bun before they take a bite.
3. How do they feel?
The bun should be light and fluffy to touch with a soft centre when you crack it open. A hot cross bun that feels dense and tough might be stale.
Keep in mind that toasting can improve the texture and flavour of a dense and stale bun. In some cases though – if the bun has artificial flavours, for example – toasting can enhance these poor characteristics.
4. Do they have a nice aroma?
If you can smell the blend of spices or get a nice hit of chocolate, then chances are you’ll be able to taste it when you take a bite.
Our experts noticed that some hot cross buns had little to no spice aroma but instead had a yeasty smell, which then came through on tasting.
5. Check the use-by date
If you like to buy freshly baked hot cross buns, you’ll want to look for those that are baked instore at Coles or Woolworths or made fresh daily from stores like Bakers Delight. These products will usually show a baked-on date as well as a use-by date.
Other supermarket buns are usually frozen and then defrosted when they hit the shelves. This is convenient for supermarkets and helps them keep up with stock demands, but freezing can affect shape, freshness and texture.
Always read the packaging before you buy.
6. Check the ingredients list
Flour, sugar, spices, butter and dried fruit are some of the ingredients you expect to see when you look at the ingredients list of a hot cross bun. Unfortunately, they are usually packed with way more ingredients than the basics.
Almost all the products we tested also contain emulsifiers, antioxidants, thickeners and gums, added flavours, acidity regulators and preservatives. Ingredients are listed on labels in descending order by weight, so the first ingredient will be present in the largest amount, and so on.
Also be mindful that sugar can be listed multiple times under different names like maple syrup, sucrose and dextrose.
How we test
Our experts taste each hot cross bun ‘blind’ and in a random order.
Products
We tested hot cross bun products available in major Australian supermarket chains and bakeries, including Coles, Woolworths, Aldi, IGA and Bakers Delight.
Traditional fruit buns and chocolate buns, along with their gluten-free varieties, were tested separately.
Price is for the pack size specified and bought in Sydney stores in January 2026 (not on special).
Tasting
Our panel of three experts tasted the hot cross bun samples ‘blind’ (without knowing the brands) in a random order.
Each bun was tasted fresh (untoasted) and toasted. We do this so that whether you like a fresh or toasted bun, you can see how they’re rated by our experts.
Brigid Treloar appraises one of the 15 hot cross bun products we compared and rated.
Scores
The experts independently judged all hot cross bun products. The CHOICE Expert Rating (our overall score) consists of the taste test score, which is made up of 50% for the toasted sample and 50% for the fresh (untoasted) sample.
The experts rate each hot cross bun on flavour, appearance, aroma and texture. These sensory characteristics are weighted as follows:
flavour (50%)
appearance (20%)
aroma (15%)
texture (15%).
We recommend traditional and chocolate hot cross buns with a CHOICE Expert Rating of 75% or more, and recommend gluten-free hot cross buns (all varieties) with a score of 70% or more.
Left to right: Brigid Treloar, Ian Huntley and Eddie Stewart
Brigid Treloar has been a freelance food consultant for over 30 years. The author of eight cookbooks, she also contributes to newspapers and magazines, reviews restaurants, judges cookery and recipe competitions, and judges chocolate in the Sydney Royal Fine Food Show Competition.
Brigid has presented specialist cooking classes around Australia and overseas, and often appears on TV and radio. She’s an industry assessor for Le Cordon Bleu, advises many of Australia’s food companies on product and recipe development, and also provides recipes and cooking information for company websites.
Ian Huntley is an accomplished pastry chef with over 35 years of experience in the industry. Trained in the UK and Switzerland, Ian specialised in confectionery, cake decorating, and bread making before relocating to Australia in the mid-1980s. Upon arrival, he spent five years honing his craft at two of Sydney’s premier hotels, The InterContinental and The Regent.
Ian went on to establish his own wholesale patisserie business, supplying a variety of desserts and pastries to airlines, department stores, hospitals, restaurants, and coffee shops across the region. His commitment to excellence and innovation has made him a respected figure in the Australian patisserie scene.
Today, Ian serves as the Chair of Judges for the Royal Agricultural Society’s Professional Bakery competition and is an Assessor for Patisserie and part time teacher at Le Cordon Bleu Sydney. His passion for pastry and dedication to nurturing the next generation of chefs continues to inspire.
Eddie Stewart started his culinary career at the young age of 16 and has amassed over 20 years of experience in the industry. Throughout his career, he has worked in various boutique restaurants and world-renowned hotels to develop his own unique style.
He has served as the Head Chef of Savoury and Business Development Manager for the internationally acclaimed Black Star Pastry in Sydney, where he has gained extensive knowledge of the intricacies of the culinary business.
In 2020, he joined forces with Min Chai to create a brand new concept called Tokyo Lamington, where you can indulge in deliciously created lamingtons and other baked items.
Rebecca Ciaramidaro is a Content producer in the Household team at CHOICE. Rebecca writes about a wide range of children's and household products, ranging from cots and strollers to ovens, BBQs, espresso machines and electric blankets. And also grocery items such as nappies, sanitary pads and laundry detergents.
Previously at CHOICE, Rebecca worked as a Test officer in the kitchen lab.
Rebecca has a Bachelor of Science (Nutrition and Food) from the University of Western Sydney.
Find Rebecca on LinkedIn.
Rebecca Ciaramidaro is a Content producer in the Household team at CHOICE. Rebecca writes about a wide range of children's and household products, ranging from cots and strollers to ovens, BBQs, espresso machines and electric blankets. And also grocery items such as nappies, sanitary pads and laundry detergents.
Previously at CHOICE, Rebecca worked as a Test officer in the kitchen lab.
Rebecca has a Bachelor of Science (Nutrition and Food) from the University of Western Sydney.
Find Rebecca on LinkedIn.
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