Who is cooking up the best hot cross buns in town this Easter?

With my trusty taste-test trio teammates once again agreeing to a blind-taste each of the high-end buns our town’s national supermarkets have baked up this year we set out to find out whose would leave you with the joyous feel of Easter, and which ones would just leave you feeling really rather cross.

After debating whether it was the done thing to do Prosecco with hot cross buns – as is now the case with afternoon tea – we agreed to stick to tea as a palette cleanser, opting for Dorset Tea’s Golden Blend (£2.65 for 80 teabags).

First up was M&S's luxury hot cross buns, promising to be packed full of juicy fruit, mixed peel and a “unique spice blend” (£1.70 for four). While these had an even distribution of fruit throughout, and had very neat piping on top, there was an almost healthy wholemeal consistency to the bun – which, let’s face it, is the last thing you want if you’re kicking back for something decadent and indulgent. And yes, I double-checked I hadn’t picked up their new-this-year savoury cheese and onion variety.

From the heady heights of one of the most expensive, I served up one of the cheapest in the shape of Lidl's luxury hot cross buns. At 99p for four, these “soft spiced buns bursting with orange soaked fruit and finished with a drop of honey” are an absolute steal, and scored very highly among all three of us. Despite having less fruit in them, they packed in far more flavour. Adver_Tom said he couldn’t see how a hot cross bun can be bettered - although he came to revise his generous scoring later in the test. Adver_Chris was slightly less impressed, as he found himself feeling sticky after eating this particular bun.

But he was even more disappointed with our next contestant, which threw a bit of a curveball into the equation. The Co-op's Irresistible Sourdough richly fruited hot cross buns promise deliciously spiced sweet buns made with plump orange soaked sultanas from their packaging, but don’t announce the presence of the stealthy apricot lurking in among them, which made him very cross indeed. “It’s almost obnoxious tasting,” he declared. “To begin with it’s quite nice, you’re chewing away and then, urgh! I don’t like them at all.” At £1.25 for four, these buns scored very poorly with him, although northerner Adver_Tom was less offended by the apricot – which we suspect is because they don’t actually get apricots where he comes from.

Next up was the more expensive Sainsbury's Taste the Difference fruity hot cross buns at £1.75 for four. I felt these came with the wrong sort of spiciness to them, and even tasted as though they were verging on the boozey front. I’m all for a bit of Christmas spice, but not in April. Adver_Chris enjoyed the bottom half, but wasn’t so taken with the glaze on the top half. All we managed to get out of Adver_Tom was “ohhhhh yes!” which we took to signal his satisfaction. Man of few words, that one.

I was hoping our budget German retailers may both come out on top after the success of Lidl’s buns earlier in the evening, but the fellow-cheapest buns from Aldi at 99p for four failed to impress, with the first observation being that they were remarkably small, and a little dry. The pack promises these “luxurious” buns have been “lovingly hand crossed by our bakers” and “selected by our experts”. Now there’s a job title. Hot Cross Bun Expert. Perhaps they should look to recruit some new experts. Or perhaps they were too busy sampling the other bizarre flavours the retailer offers including cranberry and orange buns and chocolate and toffee fudge offerings, rather than focussing their attention on the old favourite. Adver_Tom summed them up as feeling like he was eating dust. Good for the fat fighters among us then.

Next I served up Morrisons The Best extra fruity hot cross buns, made with juicy vine fruits, orange zest and spices (£1 for four). Recently we have become wise to The Best range not being as superior as the northern retailer would like to make out. Now this isn’t simply my southern bias kicking in here, as Adver_Tom even described them as having no flavour and being unimaginative. The pack I picked up seemed to be rather well-fired before they were even toasted (they were all like that on the shelf) but that doesn’t explain why there was minimal flavour to the buns, or a poor showing of spice. We can only assume that the taste testers at the Good Housekeeping Institute, who endorse these buns with a sticker on the pack, had either chosen to accompany their own taste test with Prosecco or are slyly trying to encourage bored housewives up and down the country to bake their own this Easter. These definitely need to be rebranded as The Mediocre, and Morrisons need to give themselves a talking to if they think these are in anyway close to being The Best.

These were only the warm-up act though for the biggest disappointment of the night which came in the shape of Tesco's Finest extra fruity hot cross buns. These come packed with plump orange juice-soaked raisins, sultanas and USA flame raisins (whatever they are) along with a touch of honey. At £1.50 for 4 we hoped these might have the edge on Morrisons, but the buns were very doughy, and the larger fruits sparked some alarm in Adver_Chris, who described the mysterious fruits as looking like “the droppings from the fattest of gerbils”. They clearly weren’t included to add flavour.

Equally as unappealing were Iceland's Luxury hot cross buns (£1 for four) which Adver_Chris summed up succinctly as tasting like a “wet Sunday afternoon”. They weren’t all bad, although the distribution of fruit within the bun left a lot to be desired – our batch must have been left on their side at some point during their journey from mixing bowl to oven.

On the homestretch now, I toasted up Asda's Extra Special hot cross buns, which are described as being generously prepared with plump raisins, orange-soaked sultanas and mixed peel. At 4 for £1 they’re not a bad contender on the value front at all. They were quite similar to Sainsbury’s buns, in that they had a bit of a boozey air to them, and came with a bit of an aftertaste that can only be described as Sambuca-y. Perhaps not the best ones to take round to your Nan’s on Good Friday - but definitely enjoyable, and miles apart from the likes of fellow market-leaders Tesco and Morrisons, who seem to have spent more time coming up with arrogant branding while putting out a far inferior product.

By the time we got to bun number ten my colleagues were begging me to make the torture end. “No more!”, they both cried, clutching at their stomachs and protesting at their rapidly expanding waistlines. This was of course before they saw, smelt and tasted the final bun of the evening though. I had saved Waitrose’s Earl Grey and Mandarin hot cross buns by Heston until last as they were quite simply the most unusual. Almost resembling a panettone in shape, they were bursting with flavour. Unlike the others they only come in packs of two, and are by far the most expensive at £1.89 for the pair. But we were all in agreement that they were definitely worth it. And despite the full stomachs that couldn’t handle a crumb more moments earlier, we were left with empty plates after this delicate pairing of bergamot and citrus fruits. Stealing the top spot on the leaderboard should earn them extra kudos given how sick we were of the sight of hot cross buns by this point, and our compliments go to Mr Blumenthal in the kitchen.

Ranking.

1. Waitrose – 9.6/10 2. Lidl – 7/10 3. M&S/Sainsbury’s/Asda – 6/10 4. Co-op – 5.5/10 5. Aldi – 4.3/10 6. Iceland – 3.6/10 7. Morrisons - 3/10 8. Tesco – 1.8/10