Cadbury Dairy Milk has been the nation’s favourite chocolate bar for as long as most of us can remember.
However, now that it tastes more like chocolate-flavoured palm oil than actual cocoa, it’s no surprise that a blind taste test has crowned a different champion. A supermarket own brand bar managed to match Cadbury exactly, scoring the same overall points, and it comes in noticeably cheaper too. Nine different milk chocolate bars went head to find out which ones are actually worth your money. Here’s how they all stacked up.
A supermarket bar tied with Cadbury for first place.
Morrisons’ own milk chocolate bar scored 74 out of 100, landing it in a tie for first place alongside Cadbury Dairy Milk, which scored exactly the same. Tasters described it as sweet and creamy without being overly rich, and several people said it tasted remarkably close to the real thing.
The main difference people spotted came down to looks rather than taste, with the Morrisons chunks appearing a bit richer and glossier in colour compared to Dairy Milk. It’s also worth knowing this bar doesn’t contain any palm oil, based on the ingredients listed on the packaging.
Cadbury was instantly recognisable, even in a blind test.
Despite everyone tasting the chocolate without knowing which brand was which, plenty of testers immediately picked out Cadbury purely from the taste alone. Several said they’d be able to spot it anywhere, describing the flavour as nostalgic and creamy.
Cadbury scored highly across almost every category tested, only losing points when it came to value for money. Prices varied depending on where it was bought, ranging from £2.75 up to £3, working out considerably more expensive than most of the supermarket alternatives it was up against.
Lidl came in a close second.
Lidl’s own bar scored 68 out of 100, landing it firmly in second place overall. Tasters picked up on strong hints of vanilla and hazelnut, giving it a flavour several people described as interesting compared to the more classic chocolate taste of the other bars.
Some testers noted it leaned slightly sweeter than most of the other options tried. One reviewer specifically praised how attractive the bar looked, describing neat, well shaped squares alongside a flavour that paired nicely with its sweetness.
Aldi’s budget bar impressed with its aroma.
Coming in third place with a score of 61, Aldi’s own milk chocolate bar stood out for its rich chocolatey smell and glossy appearance. It wasn’t quite as sweet as some of the other bars tested, with a few tasters picking up on a subtle bitterness reminiscent of Hershey’s chocolate.
For anyone who finds most milk chocolate a bit too sugary, this could be worth trying instead. It offers a noticeably different flavour profile compared to the sweeter bars further up the rankings.
Three supermarkets tied in the middle of the table.
M&S, Tesco, and Asda all landed in a three-way tie for fourth place, each scoring 53 points. Tesco’s bar had a slight tanginess that reminded several testers of cooking chocolate, rather than a bar meant for snacking straight from the wrapper.
M&S’s chocolate was described as pleasant enough, though the flavour was considered a little underwhelming given how much it cost compared to the other options. Asda’s bar fared a bit worse, coming across as noticeably harder and denser than the rest, with a slight metallic aftertaste that some testers found off-putting.
Waitrose and Sainsbury’s landed at the bottom of the rankings.
Waitrose’s Belgian milk chocolate looked impressive, with generously sized chunks that stood out visually from the other bars. Unfortunately, the taste didn’t quite live up to either its appearance or its higher price tag, with testers describing the flavour as somewhat cheap despite how good it looked.
Sainsbury’s own bar fared even worse, finishing right at the bottom of the entire ranking. One tester summed it up simply as dull, with nothing particularly memorable about the flavour at all.
How the whole taste test was actually carried out
Every bar was tasted blind, meaning testers had no idea which supermarket or brand each sample came from while scoring them. Bars were judged across five categories, including taste, texture, appearance, smell, and overall value for money, each contributing towards a possible maximum score of one hundred points.
Nine bars were included in total, covering Tesco, Aldi, Lidl, Morrisons, Asda, M&S, Waitrose, and Sainsbury’s, alongside Cadbury Dairy Milk as the benchmark everyone else was measured against. This gave a fair, side by side comparison across all the major UK supermarkets in one single test.
