We tried Woolworths and ALDI hot cross buns – is Caramello worth the hype?

This Cadbury Milk Chocolate hot cross bun is, as one taster exclaimed, “the best bun of the lot!”. It had the perfect bread texture, with many marvelling at the fluffiness compared to other choices. Best of was the delicious chunks of chocolate that ‘melt in your mouth’.

While some pieces had chocolate chips sunken on the bottom of the bun, it still maintained an overall chocolately, balanced flavour profile.

The ooey-gooey filling of caramelised biscuit is what carried this hot cross bun to second place. While many commented on the denseness of the bread itself, the Biscoff-like filling was a game-changer.

Our favourite comment for this one? A simple : )

It really did put a smile on our faces!

For the traditionalists out there, Woolies has claimed the best fruit bun. It had the most fluffy and moist bread, and the fruit was even distributed and generous. One taster even labelled the fruit as ‘juicy’.

Overall, it was a solid bun, with great fruit and the ideal amount of spice needed for a truly traditional hot cross bun.

The only ALDI bun to make the top 5 was an apple and cinnamon flavour. According to the taste testers, it had a “nice balance of flavours” and is lovely when butter is added into the equation.

The lower scores for this mentioned “boring” and “a bit tasteless”; however, it still scored highly in comparison to others on the table.

The Cinnabon hot cross buns from Woolworths were controversial. With a spread of scores ranging from 10/10 to 2/10, we definitely had a love/hate relationship with this bun.

On the one hand, the bread was extremely doughy, and on the other hand, it had a cheesecake icing filling. In the end, the cheesecake filling won out, with tasters willing to eat the “tasteless, doughy, stale” bread with it.

According to tasters, ALDI’s chocolate hot cross buns weren’t anything to write home about. With mid-range scores, this bun was “a little underwhelming” and “nothing special”. It was still chocolate, so people were happy to take a bite.

Sitting next to the Cadbury Milk Chocolate option, which was “the Chocolate Queen”, it didn’t steal anyone’s hearts, but, it’s still a solid option if you’re in need of a chocolately hot cross bun.

The best comment of the taste-testing was about this brioche-style bun: “But why is it yellow?”. Our blind-testing meant that we didn’t know the names or flavours of each hot cross bun, and this one certainly elicited some weird stares.

All in all, it was just okay. It had a nice balance of flavour, but leaned on the doughier side. One taster mentioned that the white cross was quite thick and chewy to get through.

The Caramello-inspired bun, unfortunately, ended up mid-range for our tasters. While the caramello saucy filling was delicious, the bun itself seemed to be a let-down. This one was judged a few weeks after the official afternoon of taste-testing, as it just came out in store.

Most described it as underwhelming, and wanting “more Caramello and less bun.” Overall, it was just okay and not the dream bun everyone was hoping for.

ALDI’s version of a traditional hot cross bun scored on the lower side, mainly due to dryness. “A bit dry” was the general consensus from the tasting crowd, with many saying they’d gladly eat this option if it were toasted with butter.

The first thing that came to mind for most was ‘why bother?’ when it came to ALDI’s fruitless hot cross buns. However, the bread itself was delicious, with a nice amount of spices.

If you dislike dried fruit, but steer clear of anything chocolate flavoured, then a fruitless hot cross bun may be the perfect choice for you!

Unfortunately, the Mudcake-filled hot cross bun was a very low scorer. Don’t get us wrong, we loved the saucy filling- it tasted just like the Woolies mudcake icing. However, the bread was dry, dry, dry.

Those who were willing to overlook the dryness gave this bun high scores of 9/10 and even 10/10. The mudcake icing sauce filling was sensational, but the low scores of 3/10 and 2/10 meant overall, it was not worth the hype.

“Tastes like plastic” was by far the worst comment of the taste-testing, and it was unfortunately attributed to the Rocky Road hot cross bun from ALDI. Artificial in flavour and texture, this bun reminded one taster of “how a Barbie smells”.

Still, some loved the sugary sweetness, giving it an overall score of 5.6/10.

Finally, the lowest scorer of the afternoon went to ALDI’s Banoffee hot cross bun, which was “very banana” and “way too overpowering”. The most interesting comment about this bun was that it tastes like “fake syrup chunks in bread”.

Most people were not a fan, and, well, someone has to come last.