The best Jaffa cake is…

Occasionally I answer someone’s question with a fact I know to be true, only for them to cock an eyebrow at me, as if to say ‘Well that’s what you think – but can you put meat onto those opinion bones so I can actually believe you’.

So when some asked me what the best Jaffa Cake was – I felt the quest for empirical evidence rising within me.

A taste test – neh, a blind taste test – would prove my opinions are built on the most concrete of principles. My blind test test was executed in the most scientific way i could muster…  a bunch of people eating a bunch of non-branded biscuits*.

The test was run along the lines of knockout competition, with the first round pitting brands/supermarkets against each other.

A1 Tesco basic vs A2 Tesco own brand

B1 Bahlsen Orange vs B2 Bahlsen Raspberry

C1 Sainsbury’s own brand vs C2 Sainsbury’s basic

D1 McVities vs D2 Kelkin gluten free

E1 Asda basic vs E2 Asda own brand

F1 Aldi own brand vs F2 Lidl own brand

G1 M&S peach flavour vs G2 M&S own brand

H1 Morrison’s own brand vs H2 Morrisons basic.

Round two would be winner A vs winner B, winner C vs winner D, winner E vs winner F and winner G vs winner F. Then the winners of those rounds would play each other until the last two – when a winner would emerge.

And despite some rather surprising results (McVities dropping out early every time and the basic version often beating the own brand version) a winner duly emerged.

I won’t bore you with the victors of all the rounds – suffice to say the winner overall (never less than in the final four and winner of three of the six blind tests) was the one I stated as the best Jaffa Cake when asked the original question – M&S’s own brand.

M&S’s oblong offerings are worthy winners – with a delightful balance of dark chocolate, orange jelly and soft sponge.

Please never doubt me again.

*before you start banging on about a Jaffa Cake being a cake not a biscuit. It’s in the biscuit aisle so we’re calling it a biscuit. (And before you protest about how it’s been proven a cake in court, realise you’re beginning to be one of those people who always tell you a tomato is actually a fruit – we all know, but you’re the only one who cares.)