Pricewatch Christmas puddings: SuperValu takes the crown

Aldi Specially Selected Golden Topped Christmas Pudding

€12.99 for 908g, €14.30 per kg

This is an excellent Christmas pudding and one we can see why it won a Great Taste award earlier this year. At 907g it’s a fine size and will quite handily feed a full house on Christmas Day, particularly if the house has already stuffed its face with turkey and ham and all the trimmings. It seems to have slightly less “vine fruits” (that’s raisins and currants and the like to you and Pricewatch) but there is plenty of orange and cherries to make up for the shortfall. It is a really good product at a really good price. We liked the kick of brandy and the “shimmering golden glitter sparkle” it was dressed with even if it didn’t make a blind bit of difference to the taste.

Verdict: Very good indeed.

Star rating: * * * *

Christmas: we spend money we don’t have on stuff we don’t need

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Smoked salmon: which is the best?

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Value for Money: shortbread

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Dunnes Stores Simply Better

€9 for 454g, €19.82 per kg

This pudding spent six months maturing before it made it into the box. We liked the fact that it came from Co Carlow. It was nice and fruity and we liked the sherry kick. It is a pleasingly traditional pudding like the kind we could almost imagine making ourselves if we were more organised and remembered to do such things in the summer time.

Verdict: Lovely.

Star rating: * * * *

SuperValu

€6 for 908g, €6.60 per kg

Typical! You wait a year for a plum pudding from Carlow and then two come along at once. This is on special in SuperValu at the moment and is selling for half-price. We’d recommend it at its full price of €12 but at €6 it is a steal. It is really rich and dense and full of fruity flavours and we loved the stout in the mix.

Verdict: Super value.

Star rating: * * * * *

Marks and Spencer

€18 for 907g, €19.84 per kg

This is not a traditional Christmas pudding, unless it is a tradition in your house to add Belgian chocolate pieces and a thick orange glaze to your Christmassy desserts. It is most unusual but in the best possible way. It is very fruity and very chocolatey and will appeal to the cohort who are more keen on the idea of a Christmas pudding than an actual Christmas pudding. The clementine sauce comes in a plastic piping tube that you use to drizzle (or splodge, if you’re Pricewatch) it in an almost hypnotic way over the pudding before you eat it. It tastes great. And it looks great. We’d not be eating it all year round, but as it’s Christmas we might have a second slice.

Verdict: Pleasantly unusual.

Star rating: * * * *