Australian supermarket milk chocolate taste test: the winner costs $3.99, the worst is one of the most expensive

‘If you can find the mental space to confront your own brand loyalty, you could be eating tastier – or at least cheaper – chocolate.’ Photograph: Isabella Moore

Usually when I host a taste test the products are blind for everyone but me – I distribute the samples to the other tasters and that usually involves me seeing what the brand is. That’s fine, I tell myself: I’m a free-thinking, rational, analytical mind who can tune out any biases or marketing. Well, that’s what I thought, until a taste test of 20 blocks of supermarket milk chocolate proved I’m not only fickle but apparently heavily biased too.

I was joined by 10 friends who, like me, scored the chocolates based on texture and taste. Because many supermarket chocolates have distinct shapes or names carved into them, the other reviewers closed their eyes when I gave out each sample – although I always knew the brand.