Review Two: Tesco Finest 12 Month Matured Christmas Pudding, 100g £1.50

So today it’s the turn of Tesco’s finest range and their 12 month matured Christmas pudding. Now there’s some initial confusion here; the front of the box tells me its infused with cider, amontillado (I don’t even know what this is…), sherry and ruby port. So far so boozy. Then the side of the package tells me it’s ‘with Courvoisier VS cognac. Is this an ingredient or a serving suggestion? Currently the number of different boozes seem to be out numbering other ingredients. I may have to drink this pudding rather than eat it. It’s not one for the teetotallers out there.

Onto packaging and I like what they have done here. Eschewing the ‘super-large quality street’ cellophane aesthetic of most individual puds, Tesco have gone for a classic matt finish box design. Seasonal and posh. Inside, the pud comes clothed in a swarthy black case. If James Bond were to eat a Christmas Pudding, this wold be it. I feel like it was delivered by the Milk Tray man.

Glowing from this positive packing experience I pierce the lid – no exciting booze fumes yet – but on exiting the microwave this pudding is emanating a selection of glorious scents. I’m not which one of the top shelf liquors it is but it smells good, and fortunately not of cooked cider which smells vile.
Initial appearance shows a good mix of plump fruit and even something that looks like a slice of apple. And here is where it all falls down. Literally.
I was quite excited as I noticed the pudding pack suggested a proper dome shape. Unlike Lidl’s homage to Australian geology, this pudding should have been the right shape. Careful readers will note the use of the past tense here because on removal from its plastic shell, this pudding has collapsed. Firstly, it took me three tries to get it out and then ‘flumph’. You could not serve this at a dinner party without some serious brandy butter related replastering.

Trying not to judge this book by it's cover, first bite and it’s actually pretty tasty. Fruity, boozy and with a tang. It’s a lighter pud, a golden brown sponge rather than a dark mahogany but it is good. There’s lots of fat raisins and a pleasing dryness with no grease or oil residue on the plate. There’s even big chunks of nuts which gives a good texture. But perhaps too much dryness as it’s not holding together well.

Aftertaste is perhaps a bit too tangy for my liking – too much fruit acid rather than a pleasing mellowness. Frankly, I’m a little surprised at their claims of 12 month maturing as this feels like a younger pudding than that. Continuing through, it gets a little sticky as things progress, there’s perhaps a bit too much sponge and it does continue to fall apart during eating so, several spoonfuls in, I’m left with a medley of brown crumbs more than one pleasing final spoonful. I’ll definitely finish this one though.

Score: A fairly pleased 6.5. Almost twice the price of Lidl and almost twice as good, you could serve this up at your Christmas dinner with no shame attached and actually, as it's on the lighter side, it feels like you could probably even stomach this after the main feast with relative ease and no need for a strategic lie down between courses. That said, if you are to go for it, make sure your guests aren’t architects, I think the odds of getting this one out the plastic in one piece are limited.

Review One: Lidl Favorina Christmas Pudding, 100g 65p 
 
Wrapped in shiny red seasonal cellophane and promising ‘a rich Christmas pudding…with glace cherries…laced with cider, rum and brandy’. As far as I’m concerned, Lidl are already on the back foot due to the fact I hate cider and believe it has no place in a Christmas pudding. In addition, their mince pies rated VERY badly last year so this could be a poor early showing for the people’s supermarket.

Initial puncturing of film releases a pleasing boozy smell; ‘ah’, I thought ‘that smells of Christmas’. Post nuking, this scent is replaced by something rather akin to pond weed. It’s not looking good for Lidl, and I mean that in more ways than one. This pudding doesn’t have a lot to be said for its appearance. Emptied onto a plate it looks like the desert equivalent of table top mountain; squat with a disappointingly flat top and even a crack at the crown where the pudding has split, evidencing poor pudding construction.

It is a reasonable dark brown colour though, perhaps not as dark as one might like but it looks pudding-y enough that I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt. Also weirdly smooth exterior suggests a bias against fruit in the filling. It's like shiny brown sponge.

So to taste, first forking and its very claggy and spongy, there’s none of the clean crumble that you’d want from a dark fruit pudding. It’s sticky and a bit glutinous.

First taste and it’s immediately disappointing, as, frankly, it tastes a bit rubbish. There’s an initial fruity hit that’s very quickly replaced with a quite unpleasant sour taste. Continued eating and you seem to get a palate full of whatever it is you’ve got on the fork; if it’s a current, it tastes of currents, if it’s mixed peel, it tastes of that but there’s no cohesion or unity of bigger pudding flavour. And not a sniff of the alleged booze content or the glace cherries. I love glace cherries – they are the fruit equivalent of a sixpence in a pudding but where are they now? Nowhere, I tell you.

After taste is greasy and a bit flat. Plus, it’s stuck in my back teeth which isn’t good. I’m not even going to finish this which, as my family will testify, is unheard of. A worrisome start to the Pudding Club as predicted disappointment ends in actual disappointment.

Score: A very let down 3. I’m a lover of Lidl and their Christmas range is by and large epic but this is a massive fail on their behalf, made more annoying by the fact I bought a family size one of these as well. However, a wide open playing field in the run up to the big day.

After much shenanigans, indecisiveness and a public vote, I’ve decided to ignore the weight of popular opinion and invoke the time-honoured female prerogative of changing my mind. Due to a heady combination of several facts, including the discovery that crackers are stupidly expensive (yes, yes, I know you all warned me), I’ve overthrown my original idea and it’s going to be.....Christmas puddings instead. Woohoo!

A few ground rules: I’ve discovered most supermarkets do an individual person sized pudding – I’m mainly doing these so I don’t turn into a total bloater by the time the big day comes around, plus the fact they can be microwaved in, literally, a minute. This does limit the section a bit however, I will take requests for family size ones but it’ll have to be over a weekend for the requisite 2 hour steaming time. If any of you actually care that much that is.

I’m also doing these ‘clean’ with no accoutrements of cream, custard or brandy butter. I’m keeping the variables down to a minimum and I believe it’s more important to know what the pudding tastes like rather than the topping.

Anyway, enough caveats, loosen your waistbands people, here we go, welcome to the Christmas Pudding Club.