Australian supermarket garlic bread taste test: ‘A vampire would burst into flames just smelling it’

‘The garlic might’ve held back, but none of us did when it came to arguing over the last slice,’ writes Tristan Lutze about the garlic bread that took top spot. Photograph: James Gourley/The Guardian

Warm, buttery, golden and unapologetically alliumy, garlic bread is the side dish that steals the show. In our house, it’s a non-negotiable part of pizza and movie nights and the first thing to disappear, usually long before the film has started. It’s on the table when we eat spaghetti, on hand to dunk into pumpkin soup, and sometimes snatched straight off the baking tray. It’s simple, cheap and makes people happy.

To find the best supermarket garlic breads, I gathered my partner, my three-year-old daughter and a carb-loving friend and put us through a blind taste test of 12 different loaves, baking each according to the packet instructions.