Feeling peckish in a hurry? Well a standard staple of the Welsh diet many of us turn to is toast. So simple and yet so delicious, a thick toasted piece of white bread is a cracking bit of comfort.
However, like almost everything else in the shopping basket it is getting more and more pricey with the cost of an average loaf of white bread at an all time high. Figures from the Office of National Statistics show it now comes in at £1.40 as of December 2022 and brand leaders cost a lot more.
To try and help you make the best decision when it comes to your taste buds (and your bank balance), Andrew Nuttall from North Wales Live has taste tested some of the most popular brands of thick sliced loaves. This is his verdict:
Warburtons
£1.40 for 800g
Hot out of the toaster and paired with a generous helping of butter, this classic breakfast did not fall short of expectation. As bread, the generously sliced pieces were soft, fluffy and had one of the longest dates for freshness on its packaging - meaning less potential for waste.
When getting my supplies for this review I wanted to make sure I was getting the best price for this major brand and, from shop to shop, Warburtons was set in stone at £1.40 - the most expensive offering of this bunch. Other big brands like Hovis and Kingsmill were priced similarly though.
It is clear to see why so many families put Warburtons in their shopping trolleys. However, purely from a price point of view, it loses for being expensive compared to other options on the shelves - almost double in some cases!
Rating: 7/10
Co-op
£1 for 800g
Our most expensive own-brand bread came from the Co-op, leaving you no change from a £1 coin. The very uniform slices were, as promised, thick like Warburtons and had no issues fitting fully into my toaster.
I wasn't left disappointed by the bread, nor was I wowed into justifying my biggest own-brand spend. it was a perfectly nice piece of bread and toast but there are definitely cheaper options available which stunts this supermarket's score in my eyes. It's true redeeming factor came in freshness by matching the lifespan of a Warburtons loaf with four days.
Rating: 6/10
Aldi
79p for 800g
The most affordable of our batch came from Aldi. At just over 60p cheaper than the big brand, the retailer offers a great option for keeping within a budget when every penny matters during the weekly food shop. It also retains its freshness for three days, according to the label I picked up.
I found the bread itself to be nice and thick - as you'd hope - and when toasted it became even better. Its thickness helped the butter melt perfectly and made every bite taste great.
Rating: 8 /10
M&S
85p for 800g
My winner came from M&S. It was a clear favourite amongst my family as well - evidenced by how much they'd left behind for me to get a picture for this review!
I can't blame them though as the bread was just as thick as Warburtons and had a very subtle sweetness to it. It was very soft and toasted both evenly and beautifully - it was absolutely top tier!
I was expecting M&S - a brand known for luxury - to be the most expensive of my batch but the supermarket proved me wrong. It came in just pennies over Aldi's exact same offering (a real eye-opener in this cost of living crisis) and offered an extra day of freshness on top of the major branded bread - lasting for five days after being purchased - which sealed the deal for me in terms of being a good value for money.
Rating: 9/10
Tesco
85p for 800g
Tesco gave it a good go with its product - being fairly pleasant to use for a lunchtime sandwich or a quick piece of toast at breakfast. It crisped up to a lovely dark golden brown (although I'd put the toaster through its paces at this point!) and tasted pretty good too.
I'd wager that - were it put side-by-side with a trusty bit of Warburtons - I'd struggle to spot or taste the difference. It also had one of the better dates to keep fresh with three days from purchase.
Rating: 7/10
Asda
95p for 800g
It was sold as "thick sliced" but I was left a little underwhelmed by the amount of uneven slices. This was my least favourite option. At one point it thought I may have picked up the wrong kind of loaf as some sections were noticeably thinner than others - but maybe this was just my batch.
Despite my best efforts of digging through what was on the shelves, the best date for the bread I could find was March 31. That meant, at best, this loaf had two days of freshness [when bought on March 29] which probably wouldn't be the best for smaller households or those that may just not use enough bread to justify one of the most expensive options from the supermarkets we tried.
Rating: 5/10
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