Remember when we tasted store-bought milk tarts, and the cheapest one came up tops?

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In celebration of Heritage Day 2018, we decided to tackle the question lingering in many South Africans: who makes the best supermarket milk tart? We bought milk tarts from the four major national retailers, and asked our colleagues to blind taste them and rate them. We bought from Pick ‘n Pay, Spar, Woolworths and Checkers. 

Here are some of the rules: 
-All testers tasted all 4 samples
-Samples were not labelled
-Each sample was tested on Appearance, Flavour, Texture of filling, Crust and Authenticity (your opinion on the overall taste). 
-We also measured the net weight of the tarts and compared it to the overall price.

RECIPE: Shortcrust biscuit-base milk tart

Spar – R30,25 (R51,27 p/kg)

Spar milk tart scored well over all five categories, showing dominance in the Crust category scoring the highest score of 83/100. Testers said this about this tart:

“Crust was nice and stable.”

“Lovely flavour – not authentic as my I know it but I guess “authentic” means different things to different people.” 

Overall score: 84/100

RECIPE: Melktert Swiss roll

Pick n Pay – R24,99 (R40,31 p/kg)

This milk tart scored the lowest in all 5 categories, particularly in Appearance (60/100) Comments from the testers include: Crust is so bad. And it’s wet! …This is therefore the worst. No thank you. Boy bye.”, “The flavour was underwhelming.”

Overall score: 64/100

Woolworths – R50,99 (R79,55 p/kg)

The milk tart from Woolworths scored well in flavour (78) and texture of filling (77) but lost points in the authenticity and appearance categories (65 and 68 respectively). Some remarks from the panel: “Powerful flavors! Soft! Lovely.”, “Loved the extra cinnamon”, “Looks the worst but tastes the best. The crust is also gross though.”
Overall score: 71/100

RECIPE: Caramel milk tart

Checkers – R19,99 (R35,63 p/kg)

This milk tart scored a massive 97/100 for appearance, as well as scoring first in both the flavour and texture of filling categories (88 for each). Our tasters said this:

“Delicious and creamy.”

“The crust was nice and soft.”

Overall score: 87/100

UPDATED 18 September 2018: Checkers has informed Food24 that its milk tarts could differ from store to store.

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The Winner is Checkers, with the highest taste test score as well as being the best value for money!