With just a week until Christmas, many shoppers will be heading out to the supermarket to pick up those last minute bits - from tin foil and kitchen roll to stuffing and, of course, cranberry sauce.
Cranberry sauce always reminds me of that episode of Friends where Chandler makes a big deal out of making it for Thanksgiving. Well, this Christmas, the cranberry sauce is my responsibility - so I took it very seriously and found the one I’ll be taking to my brothers for our Christmas dinner for 14.
I picked up the cheapest jar of cranberry sauce that I could find at Aldi, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Asda and Marks and Spencer to see which one is the best tasting and greatest value for money this December.
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I found that the cheapest cranberry sauce came in at half the price of the deerest - but would price play a part in how it tastes when it’s topping your roast potatoes? Here’s what I found when I tried all of the supermarket cranberry sauces - and which I’ll be serving up to my family on December 25.
Price
As with many of these foodie comparisons, Aldi is almost always the cheapest option, and it’s no different for their cranberry sauce, coming in at 55p a jar. Morrisons comes in close second though, having reduced their £1.09 cranberry sauce to 59p ahead of Christmas.
Sainsbury’s offered a larger 250ml jar - compared to everyone else’s 200mls - for 75p, with Tesco and Asda both selling theirs for 80p each.
Once again, M&S was the most expensive place to buy your Christmas condiment, at £1.10 - a penny more than Morrisons’ at full price.
Here are all of the cranberry sauce jars in order of cheapest to most expensive:
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Aldi 55p
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Morrisons 59p
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Sainsbury’s 75p
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Tesco 80p
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Asda 80p
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M&S £1.10
Appearance
I’m ashamed to say I made a rash judgement on Tesco’s cranberry sauce and deemed it the ‘ugliest’ immediately upon opening it. There was a film of cranberry seeds sitting on top of the sauce, which gave me visions of having to sit with a toothpick for two hours after Christmas dinner.
Meanwhile, M&S’s looked the most inviting, with a berry-red hue, and a good texture and consistency. Asda, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s and Aldi all looked fairly similar and I’d have slathered any on a leftover turkey sandwich on Boxing Day - so it would all really come down to the taste test.
Looking at the jars, the amount of actual cranberry used varied from 35 per cent to 47 per cent, with Aldi offering the least berries, while Tesco, Asda and Morrisons featured the most. M&S’s jar contained 40 per cent cranberries with Sainsbury’s having 45 per cent - but would fruit content affect the flavour?
Taste
Here’s where things got interesting. I started off with Tesco’s cranberry sauce hoping that, if it wasn’t the best, things could only go up from there. However, I was pleasantly surprised, with a sharp and vibrant flavour and crunchy texture, with a chunk of cranberry in every bite, it was better than I had initially expected.
Marks and Spencer’s cranberry sauce was also very fruity, with cranberry skins adding extra flavour to the sauce, however Asda’s offering was quite watery, and in comparison, didn’t pack as much of a punch as the first two spoonfuls.
Sainsbury’s was the wateriest sauce, with the least amount of flavour, seeing it plummet to the bottom of Santa’s naughty list, while Aldi’s firmer offering came in close second, but still didn’t fill me with festive glee.
And the winner is…
So, that means the winner for us was Morrisons, with a good consistency that was slightly gelatinous, and a sharp fruity flavour that would be perfect for dunking pigs in blankets in.
I thought the 59p price was really good, and would have actually been happy to pay the full £1.09.
Marks and Spencer’s cranberry sauce was also delicious, but Morrisons got our vote for Christmas dinner for being such good value and full of flavour.
So if you’re planning a last minute shopping trip to grab the remaining bits for the weekend, we recommend scouring Morrisons’ shelves for a jar of the good stuff.
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