A food reviewer has said she was "gobsmacked" after a supermarket own-brand hot chocolate beat Cadbury in a taste test, with Lidl emerging as the "easy winner". Sam, known online as @samlouiseeb, tasted four hot chocolates with her husband Frank, ranking them for taste, price and cocoa percentage.
Lidl beats luxury rivals
The Norfolk-based reviewer, who has more than 16,000 followers across TikTok and Instagram, compared products from Lidl, Tesco and M&S to the classic Cadbury hot chocolate. She said she was surprised to find the big brand "weak in flavour".
Sam said: "The Lidl option was by far the best which really surprised us. Being the budget option we naively thought it would have less flavour, but it was really creamy and the chocolate had the perfect sweet flavour. We will definitely be saving our money and picking this one from now on."
Cocoa content comparison
The Lidl hot chocolate cost £1.69 for 400g and ranked higher than the M&S hot chocolate, which costs £4 for 300g. Sam placed M&S in second place, noting it contains more than double the cocoa content at 41%, compared to Lidl's 15% reduced fat cocoa powder.
Sam said: "I feel like it [M&S hot chocolate] tastes like it's got too much of it [powder] in. It's richer chocolate, it has potential if it was made with full milk, cream. I still don't think it's better than the Lidl one, Lidl is the easy winner."
Cadbury and Tesco disappoint
The pair also tried Tesco's own brand and Cadbury chocolate powder but were disappointed by both. While both contain 25% cocoa powder, Tesco's own brand cost £2.50 for 400g, compared to Cadbury at £3 for 250g.
Frank said: "Tesco is a lot more watery in terms of flavour. It tastes like a hot chocolate that you would get when you go to a food truck and they give it to you and it's water on top of the powder and they haven't stirred it properly. Cadbury is a little weak in flavour. I don't mind it, I think it tastes weaker because M&S one is very strong."
The couple ranked Cadbury in third place, with Tesco at the bottom. They concluded that Lidl's hot chocolate was the best option despite being the cheapest and having the lowest cocoa percentage, urging shoppers to "save their money".
Frank said: "The more luxury or branded you go, the less product you get, shrinkflation. Considering there's quite a big disparity with the prices when you're jumping from £1.69 to £4 for some hot chocolate. I would happily sit there and say, save your money."
