Taste test against Tesco's Camomile tea. Pleasant flavour - there's a hint of sweetness, and a juicy fresh grassiness before finishing with a gentle bitterness. They are similar enough. Both the same price as well. 75p for 20 bags.
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Date: Sept 2020 Score: 5
This is a fairly standard supermarket product, sold by Lidl under their Newgate brand, which was registered in 2003, and is one of Lidl's main brands, used for a variety of meat and processed products, often canned. The recipe and price of 55p for 410g matches that of Tesco, and of Asda.
We didn't like this. Very little cheese flavour. Indeed, it was closer in character to a milky macaroni pudding than a macaroni cheese. A little bit sweet and bland. Not a product I can see us buying again. Though it might be fun to do a taste test one day.
Date: Sept 2020 Score: 3
A proper Lidl meal. We had the Smoked Haddock Fishcakes, Lidl potatoes and Lidl broccoli. Worked well. The spuds were creamy and tasty. The broccoli fresh. And the smoked haddock was a great success. Very savoury and tasty. Will certainly be buying these again. Not all the haddock is smoked so there is a good balance on the smoked flavour - it enhances the savoury flavour, but doesn't overwhelm. Really nice.
Ocean Trader is Lidl's brand name for frozen fish products. It was first registered in 2013. They are £1.99 for 320g. Tesco do two own brand smoked haddock fishcakes: The regular 2 smoked haddock fishcakes at £1.50 for 270g, and the Finest brand 2 smoked haddock fishcakes at £2.50 for 290g. It looks like Lidl are positioning themselves somewhere between these two, and are opting for four small fishcakes in place of two large ones.
Be fun to do a test taste one day.
Date: Sept 2020 Score: 8
Sondey is Lidl's cake and biscuit brand, which they created in 2010. They are 99p for 210g. We've eaten them all, and I can't remember how many were in the pack, but they were small, and I think it was around eight. Tesco do a pack of five white chocolate cookies for £1, and Sainsbury's do the same (though currently they are discounted to 80p). To do a fair price comparison we would need to do a side by side taste test, and look at the differences in size and weight, but on first glance they appear to be about the same price. They are soft baked cookies, and are quite sweet, with a delicate and attractive lemon flavour. They have more chocolate (29%) than Tesco and Sainsbury (both 19%), though the chocolate doesn't make a strong impression - it's mainly the sugar, flour and lemon. All in all, though, this is a tasty and attractive cookie I'd be happy to buy again.
Date: Sept 2020 Score: 7
This is a hot chocolate from Lidl's "Deluxe" range, which is equivalent to Tesco's "Finest", Sainsbury's "Taste The Difference", etc. It's £1.85 for 350g. It's not an instant hot chocolate - this is cocoa powder to which you add hot milk, but it does have sugar included, so is termed hot chocolate rather than cocoa, and costs less than cocoa because it has less chocolate. Sainsbury's do a hot chocolate - £1.60 for 300g, and Tesco's is £1.95 for 400g. But neither of these are equivalent, as they are not the "finest" own brands. The top own brands don't have chilli, but are the best to price match: Sainsbury's Belgian Hot Chocolate is £3.50 for 280g, and Tesco's Santo Domingo Hot Chocolate is £2.50 for 250g. At first glance it appears that Lidl's Deluxe range is better value, but if Lidl's Deluxe is more equivalent to the standard supermarket own brands, then the price is roughly the same. A taste test would be needed, but this does taste a little thin on the chocolate, which is somewhat compensated for by the chilli, but it's more of a pleasant chilli enriched milky chocolate drink than a rich and smooth chocolate drink. It has 39% cocoa compared to Tesco's 52%. Despite the "Deluxe" brand, this actually sits between the standard supermarket own brands and their finest brands, and so the price is roughly equivalent, though edges in favour of Lidl.
On the whole I really like this. Easy drinking with a pleasant chilli warmth that gently nips rather than bites deep. I'd like a bit more smoothness, and a bit more chocolate, and a bit less sugar, but I like it enough that I think it highly likely I'd drink it again.
Date: Sept 2020 Score: 7
Sponge cake with hazelnut and butter flavouring. Very pleasant - part of Lidl's Duc De Coeur (Duke's Heart) range of French influenced products. £2.49 for 320g. Difficult to price comparison this product as I don't think there is an equivalent in the UK. This is a French regional speciality from Creuse in central France. The recipe is old, but was only discovered recently, and is starting to become popular in France. Understandably popular, as this is a very pleasant cake. Easy eating and delicate, yet richly flavoured. It's good as an after meal desert, as part of breakfast, or with a cup of tea in the afternoon.
I can see us buying this again - though I suspect this is one of those dishes that Lidl may produce occasionally or just the once rather than offer regularly. Get it while you can! Will keep for around three months unopened, after which it is best consumed within a few days.
Date: Sept 2020 Score: 8
It's an OK dish, but lacks oomph. I prefer the British cod in butter sauce products. They are cheaper to buy (£2.20 for 552g) and cook (5 minutes in the microwave rather than 35 in the oven), and I find them much more flavoursome. Though inoffensive and gently likable, I can't see us buying them again too often.
Date: Sept 2020 Score: 5
Lidl's mushy peas are in an unbranded tin simply named "Mushy Peas". On the back, in small writing as usual, is the Lidl name to mark this as a Lidl own brand. But also given is the address: Princes Ltd, Liverpool. Princes make Batchelors Mushy Peas, which contain exactly the same ingredients and colouring. The Lidl Mushy Peas are 23p, while the Batchelors are 55p. Being listed with the same ingredients doesn't necessarily mean they are the same quality, because Tesco's Growers Harvest Mushy Peas (the Tesco rival to Lidl) have exactly the same ingredients and colouring as Tesco's British Mushy Peas, but with difference in price: Growers Harvest are 23p, British Mushy Peas are 30p. While they may use the same amount of peas, salt, sugar and colouring, the quality and/or treatment of the peas may be different. It would be fun to do a blind taste test of different mushy peas one day.
Anyway. The colour of these peas is rather too bright for me. They look slightly ill. And slightly artificially coloured. The colouring isn't natural.
The taste is fairly neutral - not too sweet nor too salty, though toward the end I found them a little bitter. However, they did have a proper pea taste. Consistency is fairly dry and firm. They do feel and taste like proper home made mushy peas, and of better quality than 23p. I wasn't blown away by them, but I did like them rather a lot.
Date: Sept 2020 Score: 7
We have now done a taste test with Lidl's Mushy Peas against Tesco Growers Choice, and Batchelors. The Batchelors mushy peas won, though were very close to Lidl in appearance, texture and taste. There's not a lot in it, but Batchelors was preferred by all three of us. The one we disliked was the Tesco Growers Choice. The appearance was probably the most natural - it didn't have the vivid rather artificial green of the other two - but looked the least appetising. The taste was rather bland, and the texture was a little lumpy. I think people will differ in their taste appreciation, and there will be many who would prefer the more naturally flavoured and more natural looking and textured Tesco Growers Choice, but for us, we all three were happier with the colour, taste and texture of the other two. For the price, the Lidl mushy peas has to be the winner.
Date: Oct 2020 Score: 8
Everything about this looks cheap and nasty. In colour and appearance it's an attempt to cash in on the awesome Pot Noodle brand, but lacks the humour, the professionalism, and the slaggish class of Pot Noodle. The lid is thin and tore as I was trying to open it. You look inside at this miserable looking heap of dried noods with barely any powder. Just this small, insignificant dried lump of yellow huddled in a corner of the white cup. And where's the mango sauce? Well, that was hidden inside the noods. I poured on the water and stirred before I found it. And it was a joyless unmarked and uncolour plastic sachet. No cost saving unturned. My hopes were not up.
Then I started eating. I'd had these nods before, and have reviewed them twice before under slightly different names: Vitasia Speedy Noodle Spicy Curry. And I remembered that they are way tastier than you expect them to be. It just works. Not too spicy. Not too sweet. A good balance. And they have that comfortable gooey sticky mouthfeel that is so typical of the best British noods. Asian style noods are either watery or dry. British noods are thick, moist, comforting.
I like these noods. To be honest I'm not a huge fan of Lidl. I think their products can be good, but they can also be bland or overly sweet - simply going for the cheapest, easiest, most commercial product that is going to appeal to most people. They head downwards for the lowest common denominator. They are not looking to make distinctive, interesting, challenging, exciting food products. They just want products that are going to appeal to the most people. If what you want is the bland, slightly sweet, everyday familiarity, and are not interesting in trying something unusual, unique, interesting, with complex and fascinating flavours, then Lidl is your bag. And just sometimes, as with these noods, the familiar and the comforting is just what I want.
Yes. This hits the spot.
Date: Sept 2020 Score: 8
