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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Business
Kyle O'Sullivan

'I compared real Greggs to cut-price Iceland range - and was flabbergasted by taste'

Walking all the ways to Greggs to pick up a tasty pastry is a thing of the past.

Now you can stock up your freezer with pasties, bakes and sausages rolls to bake whenever you feel peckish - and who wouldn't want that sweet Greggs aroma filling up their house?

Iceland's exclusive range of Greggs products, which you can buy in stores or online, means you can can transform your kitchen into your own personal bakery in just 30 minutes.

"Simply pop Greggs steak bakes or tasty melts in your oven to get the lunches that have become so popular for hungry Brits – conveniently at home," it reads on the Iceland website.

You can even get some exciting products that you can't even buy in physical Greggs stores, such as pies and mini sausage rolls.

It all seems too good to be true, so how do they stack up against the real deal?

Meaty Sausage Roll

The Iceland version on the left doesn't look as appealing as the classic Gregg's sausage roll (Kyle Osullivan)

Cost in Greggs : £1.05

Cost in Iceland : 47p (box of eight is £3.75)

What immediately strikes you here is Iceland's Sausage Roll is not winning any beauty contests.

It had risen substantially higher, which in this case is not a good thing, while having a massive split down one side and a wonky shape.

The deformed Iceland version could not compete on looks with the Greggs classic, which shone like a thing of beauty when I took it out of the bag.

The Iceland roll didn't hold its form as well as Greggs when tucking in and the meat itself was a lot mushier on the inside.

The pastry of a normal Greggs was hard to replicate and just didn't have that same flaky texture.

However, the main factor here is taste and they are almost identical. You'd definitely struggle to identify which was which in a blind taste test.

So Greggs does get the win here but with a few minor aesthetic adjustments they could be twins.

Winner : Greggs (just)

Vegan Sausage Roll

The Iceland vegan sausage roll (left) is a slightly different shade to the Greggs original but is very similar in shape (Kyle Osullivan)

Cost in Greggs : £1.05

Cost in Iceland : 63p (box of 4 is £2.50)

Before we start, I'd like to say that the Vegan Sausage Roll in itself is an incredible feat of food engineering.

As for which comes out on top here, you can see that they are almost identical in appearance.

It's the closest Iceland have got to replicating the look of any product as they have pretty much exactly the same shape.

But it was noticeable that the Iceland version looks a bit paler and even an extra few minutes in the oven from what the instructions read.

Once again we had the pastry issue as Iceland's one was not as flaky and was a lot drier.

The key difference her was the filling, as Greggs version was a lot creamier and had so much more flavours popping off in my mouth.

The Iceland Vegan Sausage Roll just couldn't cut the mustard.

Winner : Greggs easily

Steak Bake

The Iceland Stake Bake (left) actually looks better than the collapsed Greggs version (right) (Kyle Osullivan)

Cost in Greggs : £1.65

Cost in Iceland : £1.18 (box of 2 is £2.35)

Perhaps the most surprising of the bunch was the Steak Bake.

The Greggs version was wider than the Iceland product, which had risen really well in the oven.

In contrast to the other items on this list, Iceland came out on top here in terms of looks as their Steak bake was puffier and had a nicer colour.

Whereas the Greggs original was a lot darker and had partially collapsed on the top.

But what we really care about is what's going on inside - and they were actually quite different.

Iceland was not as creamy but had far bigger lumps of meat to really stick your teeth into compared to the Greggs version.

The Greggs Stake Bake did hold it's shape better when biting into it, but this round has to go to Iceland in a shock victory.

Winner : Iceland surprisingly

The Final Verdict

Even the packaging for Iceland's Greggs range is enticing (Kyle Osullivan)

Greggs have managed to very successfully reproduce their products in frozen form at home.

The biggest negative is that they cannot get the pastry to be as flaky, but the look and taste of the rest of their products is pretty much identical.

As well as the three mentioned above, they also sell classics like Vegan Steak Bakes, Vegetable Bakes, Corned Beef Bakes, Bacon & Cheese Wraps, Cheese & Onion Bakes, Sausage & Bean Melts and Chicken Bakes.

But there's also new products such as Mini Sausage Rolls, Chicken Pies and Steak Pies.

When it comes to cost the Iceland versions are a no brainer and it's so much more convenient to just whip one out of the freezer.

Ultimately it comes down to whether you want the convenience of having easily accessible bake at home at a fraction of the cost, or a slightly better quality.

For me nothing beats an actual Greggs, but Iceland's range comes surprisingly close to challenging.

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