Winner of Christmas Product of the Year 2023 is: 
The Lidl Deluxe 24-month Christmas Pudding

Produced by Matthew Walker

About the product

"The perfect end to your Christmas dinner, this traditional pudding is full of juicy vine fruits, mixed nuts and spice. Matured to perfection for 24 months and produced with speciality ingredients sourced from the best producers (amontillado sherry, cognac, Chilean flame raisins) this is an indulgent and luxury experience. Serve with lashings of custard or cream."

About the Quality Food Awards

Now in its 44th year, the Quality Food Awards are the longest-running, most prestigious food awards in the UK; they cast a spotlight on products that offer fine ingredients, great taste and aroma, beautiful packaging and amazing value for money.

The Quality Food Awards are not just about new products - our judges are looking to reward excellence in food and soft drinks, regardless of when a product was launched. If it tastes great and looks great, a well-established product is as eligible to win an award as one that was launched in the past 12 months. We do ask that the product is on sale by the time the award results are announced.

In this year's Quality Food Awards, our esteemed panel of judges tasted dozens of products submitted by producers and retailers alike. The entries are split into four main categories:

• All Year Round Categories
• Christmas Categories
• Foodservice Categories
• Performance Categories
  
  

The Quality Food Awards judging process

This year, judging took place at 1 Wimpole Street across three weeks.  One by one, each product is brought into the judging room and reviewed by the panel. Judges first review the product individually, inputting their personal feedback based on their initial impressions using the key judging criteria.

Here at the Quality Food Awards we pride ourselves on our stringent judging process. Each product is judged against our strict judging criteria:

• Taste
• Texture
• Flavour
• Aroma
• Ingredients list
• Provenance
• Product appearance
• Packaging
• Price point/value for money
• Innovation/aims in the marketplace
  
  

What our judges loved about the Lidl Deluxe 24-month Christmas Pudding

The Quality Food Awards judges were extremely impressed with the taste of the Lidl Deluxe 24-month Christmas Pudding;  "a good amount of moistness, level of booze maturity and a great treacle aftertaste." The Christmas Pudding contains nuts and raisins, and our judges all agreed that the nuts added a lovely crunch and that the raisins were plump and juicy, providing a good contrast and, "...a very good rounded taste overall.". One judge also commented that, "the nuts studded throughout have held their texture, keeping their crunch and adding a textural difference.".

Flavour: Flavours of sherry, cognac and brandy were prominent 

Aroma: Our judges commented that hey felt that the Christmas Pudding had a "good, fruity spice aroma".

Ingredients list: Everyone on the judging panel agreed that the Christmas Pudding, "Sells well on a great ingredients list." and were impressed with the variety of nuts in the product - walnuts, almonds and pecans.

Product appearance: The judges commented on the attractive, "glossy colour" of the pudding

Packaging: As well as the Lidl Christmas Pudding being a delicious product, our judges also felt that the packaging, "...looked good and very festive" and they were confident that it will stand out on the shelf in-store. One judge commented on the Art Deco-style packaging and felt that this meant that it would be great for gifting.

Price point/value for money: The price, and value, of this product really wowed the judges. Comments included:

"This product is amazing value for money"

"This Christmas Pudding is incredible value considering it's a two-year-old cake"

"This pudding is dense with fruit, increasing the value point for money"

"With real whole nuts it is an incredible price."

When you can buy the Lidl Deluxe 24-month Christmas Pudding

The best Christmas food product of 2023, the Lidl Deluxe 24-month Christmas Pudding is £7.99 and will be available in-store from November 2023.

https://www.lidl.co.uk/