I compared supermarket Christmas chocolate biscuit selection boxes to see which one was best (Image: Dayna Farrington)
There is nothing I love more than opening a box of chocolate biscuits as I cosy up with the family to watch some Christmas TV or a film. I’ve been buying treats for weeks and hiding them away from prying eyes so they hopefully last until at least Christmas Eve!
You’ll no doubt have spotted the endless supply of near-identical-looking boxes of chocolate biscuits in all the supermarkets over the last few months. This year, I collected four chocolate biscuit selection boxes from Tesco, Aldi, Morrisons and Marks and Spencer to put them to the test (I couldn’t find any in my local Sainsbury’s or Asda). Here’s how they fared on taste, texture, bake, presentation and price.
M&S Outrageously Chocolatey Milk, Dark and White Chocolate Biscuits (£6.50)
M&S Outrageously Chocolatey Milk, Dark and White Chocolate Biscuits (Image: Dayna Farrington)
The most expensive biscuit box of them all at £6.50. It was also £1 more than last year. But if the quality and taste is good, I’m willing to pay that little bit extra. The box was slightly bigger than the other three too. So would we get more biscuits? More variety? The box states: “More chocolate than biscuit.”
Inside there are 12 varieties of biscuit, the most of all the boxes: eight milk chocolate biscuits, two dark chocolate, one white and one marbled. And there are 24 biscuits in total inside the box.
Tesco Extremely Chocolatey Biscuit Selection (£5.25 or £4.50 with Clubcard)
Tesco’s Extremely Chocolatey Biscuit Selection (Image: Dayna Farrington)
Tesco’s biscuit selection also saw a price increase this year from £4.50 to £5.25. However, when I was in store they were on a £4.50 offer if you have a Clubcard. Tesco’s biscuit box is a lovely festive red, with some Christmas tree decor and the biscuits displayed on a gold plate. I must admit, it was my favourite packaging out of the four.
Tesco also offers milk, dark and white chocolate biscuits. The box reads: “A carefully chosen selection of biscuits smothered in smooth chocolate.”
Inside there are 10 varieties of biscuits: seven milk chocolate, two dark chocolate and one white chocolate. I counted 26 biscuits inside – the most out of all the boxes.
Aldi Belmont Biscuits Extremely Chocolatey Milk Chocolate Biscuits (£4.39)
Aldi’s Belmont Biscuits Extremely Chocolatey Milk Chocolate Biscuits (Image: Dayna Farrington)
Aldi is the cheapest of the lot at just £4.39, which is an increase on the £3.99 I paid last year. But similar to last year, I could only find a milk chocolate selection box. The box is plain blue with pictures of floating biscuits. Quite boring in comparison to the other three. Inside I found nine varieties of biscuit, all milk chocolate. Aldi seemed to have double the orange cream filled biscuit too. Inside I counted 24 biscuits, the same as M&S.
Morrisons Extremely Chocolatey Biscuit Selection (£6)
Morrisons Extremely Chocolatey Biscuit Selection (Image: Dayna Farrington)
Last but by no means least is Morrisons. However there was a steep price increase this year. They cost me £6 compared to last year’s £4.50. Last year Morrisons offered milk, dark and white chocolate. This year, they seem to be only offering milk chocolate. There might be another option on sale, but this was the only one available in my local Morrisons.
The box is red with some nice stripes, featuring a lovely bauble and an image of each biscuit you can expect to find inside. Quite festive really. The box reads: “A selection of milk chocolate coated and cream filled biscuits.” Inside I found nine varieties, all milk chocolate and with double the orange cream filled biscuit. I counted 25 biscuits.
But which box stood up to the taste test? I picked three biscuits that featured in each box to see which supermarket would be crowned king of the biscuits.
Milk chocolate regencies
The milk chocolate regencies looked identical (Image: Dayna Farrington)
It’s a staple in most chocolate biscuit boxes and was called a Milk Chocolate Regency by all four supermarkets. I must admit they all looked remarkably similar. If I was being picky, maybe Tesco was slightly smaller than the other three. However, the taste changed it all. Aldi had a good crunchy biscuit but the chocolate left an odd aftertaste which I wasn’t sure on. Morrisons had a really good layer of chocolate and a lovely sweet tasting biscuit.
Tesco’s chocolate and biscuit was just incredibly bland. MandS had a really smooth-tasting chocolate, while the biscuit had a slight festive spice flavouring to it, which stood apart from the rest.
M&S: 5/5Morrisons: 4/5Tesco: 1/5Aldi: 2/5
Viennese fingers
The four Viennese fingers had different tastes (Image: Dayna Farrington)
Each of the biscuit boxes also had a Viennese finger inside too. They all had different names but looked pretty identical. All four biscuits were identical in shape, though some had less chocolate drizzle on if I was being picky. Tesco had the chunkiest chocolate drizzle and was maybe a little bit bigger?
Tesco had a really nice soft biscuit with a shortbread flavour coming through which complimented the smooth chocolate. Marks and Spencer hit it right again with the spicy biscuit but it was a real thin layer of chocolate, so felt more biscuit over chocolate.
I enjoyed the sweet and smooth taste of the Morrisons chocolate with a good crunchy biscuit. While I felt Aldi’s biscuit was a little crumbly but I liked that it had a thicker layer of chocolate than the others.
M&S: 3/5Morrisons: 4/5Tesco: 5/5Aldi: 3/5
Milk chocolate orange sundae/clementine cream
They may have different foil around them, but they were identical inside (Image: Dayna Farrington)
Despite having slightly different names, all the boxes had an orange flavoured milk chocolate biscuit. It would have been nice to compare a dark or white chocolate biscuit, but Morrisons and Aldi had other ideas this year. They were all wrapped up in shiny gold wrappers perfect for Christmas, while MandS had a lovely orange (very fitting) wrapper around it. But they all looked very similar after being unwrapped: a smooth, round chocolate biscuit with a hidden flavouring inside.
Tesco had a really strong orange flavour coming through, with a nice ratio of chocolate to biscuit. While Morrisons completely lacked any flavour at all and was disappointing. Aldi had a good strong citrus flavour and the biscuit was lovely and crunchy. Marks and Spencer was giving real Terry’s Chocolate Orange vibes (which I’m here for). The clementine flavouring was really sweet and tangy.
M&S: 5/5Morrisons: 1/5Tesco: 4/5Aldi: 4/5
Overall
Collating all the scores together from the three taste-tests, these are the best supermarket chocolate biscuit selection boxes for Christmas:
M&S: 13/15Tesco: 11/15Aldi: 9/15Morrisons: 9/15
Overall, I much preferred the Marks and Spencer biscuits. Taking price and number of biscuits inside the box into account, though, Tesco also scored very high. It was definitely a more affordable option, especially if you have a Clubcard. I much prefer the variety of having milk, dark and white chocolate biscuits too.
I’d been hopeful for Aldi with the cheaper price but they just didn’t score well on taste, nor did Morrisons. I found both to be disappointing.
Dining and Cooking