Jump directly to the content
SAY CHEESE

I tried Christmas cheese at supermarkets like Aldi and Asda – the loser surprised me

CHEESE is almost a must at Christmas alongside chocolate and Baileys - but which supermarket offers the best one?

With everyone looking to save money this Christmas, The Sun has been finding out how you can enjoy a festive feast on the cheap.

Rosie Taylor tested Wensleydale cheese with cranberries at the major supermarkets
8
Rosie Taylor tested Wensleydale cheese with cranberries at the major supermarketsCredit: ©2022 Darren Cool
The discounters were the cheapest but not the best, according to Rosie
8
The discounters were the cheapest but not the best, according to Rosie

We’ve tested some of Britain’s favourite seasonal specialities to find out which supermarket own-brand goods are the best quality for the price.

This time we’re looking at a Christmas classic: Wensleydale cheese with cranberries. 

We bought packs of the cheese from Tesco, Asda, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, Aldi and Lidl.

For each one, we gave it a score out of 10 for taste and a score out of 10 for value, based on the price per 100g.

Read more on Christmas

This score also took into account the amount of cranberries in the cheese and how healthy it is.

Here’s how the cheeses scored out of 20 overall:

Tesco Wensleydale with cranberries

  • £2.20 for 200g
Tesco's Wensleydale had big and juicy cranberries
8
Tesco's Wensleydale had big and juicy cranberriesCredit: ©2022 Darren Cool

This Tesco cheese had a nice creamy taste and contained big juicy cranberries.

At £1.10 per 100g, it was a middle-of-the-range price.

But it was the most fatty of all the cheeses we tested, containing 17.5 per cent saturated fat.

  • Taste: 7/10
  • Value: 7/10
  • Total: 14/20

Asda Wensleydale with cranberry

  • £2.20 for 200g
Asda's cheese came with the highest cranberry content of them all
8
Asda's cheese came with the highest cranberry content of them allCredit: ©2022 Darren Cool

The Asda cheese had a higher cranberry content than all the other cheeses we tested, at 14 per cent (compared to 13 per cent for the rest).

But the cheese itself let it down. It had a tangy, sour taste and a rubbery texture.

Although the same price as cheeses from Morrisons and Tesco, it was nowhere near as good.

  • Taste: 4/10
  • Value: 6/10
  • Total: 10/20

Morrisons Yorkshire Wensleydale with cranberry

  • £2.20 for 200g
The cheese at Morrisons came with an uneven spread of cranberries
8
The cheese at Morrisons came with an uneven spread of cranberriesCredit: ©2022 Darren Cool

This Morrisons cheese had a traditional Wensleydale taste and was decent value for money at £1.10 per 100g.

It was let down by the fact the cranberries weren’t very even spread throughout the cheese – so some parts had lots of fruit and other parts had none.

It was also the saltiest product we tried, containing 1.06g of salt per 100g, a sixth of your daily allowance.

  • Taste: 8/10
  • Value: 7/10
  • Total: 15/20

WINNER Sainsbury’s Wensleydale and cranberry

  • £2.50 for 200g
Rosie crowned Sainsbury's the winner in our test
8
Rosie crowned Sainsbury's the winner in our testCredit: ©2022 Darren Cool

The Sainsbury’s cheese had an authentically crumbly texture and classic Wensleydale taste.

It contained juicy cranberries and a hint of Christmas spice. A perfect Christmas cheese.

At £1.25 per 100g it was the most expensive product we tried – but worth the extra pennies.

  • Taste: 9/10
  • Value: 7/10
  • Total: 16/20

Aldi Emporium Wensleydale with cranberry

  • £1.79 for 200g
Aldi's cheese came last in our test
8
Aldi's cheese came last in our testCredit: ©2022 Darren Cool

Aldi’s cheese had an unpleasant plasticine-like texture and a bitter aftertaste.

Although one of the cheapest cheese we tried, at 90p per 100g, we didn’t think it was worth buying.

  • Taste: 2/10
  • Value: 7/10
  • Total: 9/20

Lidl Wensleydale with cranberry

  • £1.79 for 200g
Lidl was joint cheapest and enjoyable to eat, but it wasn't an authentic crumbly Wensleydale
8
Lidl was joint cheapest and enjoyable to eat, but it wasn't an authentic crumbly WensleydaleCredit: ©2022 Darren Cool

The Lidl version of the cheese was creamy with very sweet cranberries.

It was smooth and enjoyable to eat – but not an authentic crumbly Wensleydale.

READ MORE SUN STORIES

At 90p per 100g, it was the joint cheapest cheese we tried so a real bargain.

  • Taste: 6/10
  • Value: 8/10
  • Total: 14/20
Topics