I compare the bargain basement Aldi festive meal deal with Booths fancy upmarket version
In the UK, the pre-packaged sandwich market is worth more than £8bn and, according to The Grocer, more than a third of Brits buy themselves a meal deal at least once a week. It’s an indisputable fact: we love our sarnies and we love the convenience of a good old meal deal.
With the Christmas period upon us, our usual selection of meal deals is far from impervious to the impacts of rampant festive commercialism, with pretty much every major retailer with butties on their shelves rushing to stock turkey and cranberry-this, chicken-and-stuffing-that, and gingerbread-whatever-it-may-be.
The convenience and value of a meal deal is what makes them so popular across the UK. This seemingly simple combination of a main, a snack, and a drink has captured the nation's heart, offering both convenience and value.
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I wanted to see which was the best supermarket meal deal by trying some of the UK’s best-sellers. Today I will be putting high-end supermarket Booths against popular discount supermarket Aldi to see which festive meal deal comes out best.
Booths
Menu details: (British sliced turkey breast with British streaky bacon, herby stuffing mayonnaise, fruity cranberry sauce and spinach), with a mince pie and a coca cola.
Cost: £5 (with meal deal discount) - value for money 4/5
Starting off with the sandwich. As far as meal deal sandwiches go, it perfectly captured the taste of Christmas. It had a good ratio of bread to filling and the ingredients didn’t feel overly overly processed. The saltiness of streaky bacon and sweet cranberry sauce really added to the festive taste of the sandwich without being too overpowering.
The addition of spinach improves the texture of an otherwise soft sandwich. There was a subtle hint of the stuffing mayonnaise which would’ve been better if that flavour was more prominent like the cranberry sauce. 4/5
With the snack, the mince pie was the only festive snack that was on offer - you could count the Lindt chocolate bar as festive but these are sold year-round. The mince pie was a great option for a festive meal deal - you can’t really go wrong with that. The only thing is it could’ve had more filling. 3/5
There were no festive drinks on offer in the meal deal section so I went for the next best thing - Coca Cola.
Aldi
Menu details: (Emmental Cheese With Formed Cooked Sliced Smoked Turkey, Cranberry Sauce, Sage And Onion Mayonnaise, Formed Cured Cooked Oak Smoked Ham With Added Water, Lettuce And Beechwood Smoked Cooked Streaky Bacon On White And Rye Bread), BBQ Flavour Chicken Skewers, Apple Juice
Cost: £4.37 - value for money 2.5/5
Again, starting with the sandwich the packaging and description promoted a festive-filled sandwich however, it was disappointing to find that it just tasted like any other meal deal sandwich. The taste was good however, I was expecting a more Christmassy-taste with the sage and onion mayonnaise and cranberry sauce but those flavours weren’t coming through that strong. 2.5/5
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There was a variety of snacks and drinks, however there were no options for a festive snack so I settled with BBQ chicken skewers and an apple juice. 3/5