We taste-tested Australian vs South African snacks – and the winner was clear

Australian food products end up on opposite ends of the scale regarding South African tastebuds.

On a recent trip to Australia, I noticed that several chocolates sold there are incredibly similar to what we have for sale in South Africa.

This is partly due to shared British influences in both countries and the presence of significant corporations, mainly Cadbury, in both South Africa and Australia.

Despite the similarities, there is only one way to determine which country has better foods—a taste test.

As Australia’s food industry is quite broad in scope, ranging from Cambodian to Greek food in central Melbourne, I decided to bring home a few goods back for the BusinessTech team that share similarities with South African brands or can compete with a South African classic.

We thus decided to compare the following products:

• Vegemite vs Marmite

• Tim Tams vs Chocolate Romany Creams

• Lunch Bar vs Picnic Bar

• Boost Bar vs 5 Star

• Mars Bar vs Bar One

• Milky Way vs Woolworths French-Style Nougat in Milk Chocolate

Results

Regarding the results, Australian Snacks reached the top and bottom of the rankings.

The classic Australian Tim Tam Biscuits scored an average of 9.3, by far the best of the pack.

Although several retailers in South Africa sell Tim Tams, I got a pack in an Australian supermarket for AUD$3 (roughly R36), which is remarkably cheap for a country with quite high food prices.

The cheap price likely won’t compensate for Tim Tams’s risks, which has a 0.5/5 health score per Australian standards.

However, on the other end of the scale was Australian classic Vegemite, which our team (even the Marmite lovers) found disgusting, scoring a measly average of 2.3.

Vegemite’s taste was flat and lacked the saltiness of South African marmite, which our tasters, as the expression stated, either loved or hated.

Regarding the most similar products, our team said that the South African Lunch Bar (score of 6.7) was quite close to the Australian Picnic Bar (7.7)

South Africa is an outlier when it comes to the Lunch Bar, as other territories, including the UK, USA, Canada, and New Zealand, also called the chocolate bar with nougat, caramel, biscuit, and puffed rice a Picnic Bar.

The equivalent of a South African 5 Star is a Boost Bar. Both products are quite similar in terms of taste, but the 5 Star (8.0) scored slightly better due to the better chocolate quality and larger amount of caramel.

The largest difference in score between similar products in both countries was 4.0 points between Marmite (6.3) and Vegemite (2.3).

This was followed by a 3.6 difference between Bar One (7.3) and Mars Bar (3.7), with our team thoroughly disliking the taste of the Mars Bar’s chocolate.

Alongside the Tim Tam, the Milky Way bar was probably the hardest snack to find a direct competitor for in South Africa. Given the Nougat centre, we compared it to a Woolworths Nougat bar in Milk chocolate. The Milky Way was victorious in this comparison, scoring 6.0, above the 5.0 for the Woolworth’s nougat.

The official scores can be found below:

Despite being the home of the best food product on the list, Australia still could not beat South Africa in our overall comparison.

South Africa was able to win four of the six direct comparisons:

• Vegemite vs Marmite (Winner)
• Tim Tam (Winner) vs Chocolate Romany Creams
• Lunch Bar vs Picnic Bar (Winner)
• Boost Bar vs 5 Star (Winner)
• Mars Bar vs 5 Star (Winner)
• Milky Way (Winner) vs Woolworths French-Style Nougat in Milk Chocolate

As per our usual disclaimer for our taste comparisons, this article is purely for fun. Please don’t email us complaining that your favourite product scored poorly.

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