Lifestyle

We taste-tested every Hot Cross Bun we could find at major retailers – and the winner was clear

Staff Writer

 ·12 Mar 2026

Following our long-held tradition of ignoring dietary advice, the BusinessTech team decided to get an early jump on Easter by testing out 21 different kinds of Hot Cross Buns to find the perfect bite.

Hot cross buns are spiced buns traditionally filled with raisins, eaten by many around Easter time. Historically, they were consumed on Good Friday, marking the end of Lent.

However, over time, buns have become available year-round and evolved into various types and flavours, eaten by people from all walks of life.

While the traditional bun is still a staple, retailers offer variants, such as those without raisins or those with extra spices.

Chocolate variants have also become incredibly popular, and in recent years, some ‘luxury’ variants have emerged, including caramel-, Biscoff-, and lemon-stuffed buns.

We scoured our local Checkers, Food Lovers, Pick n Pay, Spar and Woolworths and bought every type of bun we could find to put them to a blind taste test to see which would emerge as the office favourite.

Across our 20 or so taste-testers, we heated the buns and left them to be scored out of 10, then averaged the scores to find the winner.

Because of the sheer variety of hot cross buns, we have split the rankings into five categories, in addition to the overall ranking. The categories are: Traditional, Extra Spice, Fruit Free, Chocolate, and Filled.

A common remark before kicking off the taste-test was “how can you taste-test hot cross buns? Aren’t they all the same?”

However, our tasters soon learned that this was far from the case, and even among similar types of buns, the flavour, consistency, and spice levels varied widely.

Disclaimer: Taste is subjective, and as the scores show, opinions on Hot Cross Buns can differ greatly. All buns were procured from local retailers and were heated before serving. The rankings are not exhaustive or comprehensive, as many other retailers and brands exist, and even local retailers themselves make in-store versions. Please remember that this list is just a bit of fun; please don’t email us complaining that your favourite brand was ranked low. Go eat whichever brand you love.

The Results

Across all categories, the overall winner was Checkers’ premium Forage & Feast Limited Edition Triple Chocolate Hot Cross Buns.

Not only was this incredibly tough to track down (Sixty60 wasn’t delivering, and we had to hunt it down in-store), but its counterpart—the Limited Edition Caramel & Pecan Nut Hot Cross Buns—was described as “mythically rare”.

However, its rarity lived up to the hype, with the bun emerging as the office favourite, carrying a total score of 7.9, and the tasters clearing the plate.

The top score not exceeding 8.0 is a testament to an age-old debate that happens every year around Easter.

Specifically, that any variation of a hot cross bun that isn’t a traditional hot cross bun isn’t actually a hot cross bun. Many traditionalists scored the non-traditional variants low out of principle.

However, the rankings show that most tasters simply don’t care what the sticklers think, with the top six spots in the overall ranking being chocolate or filled hot cross bun variants.

Across categories, chocolate hot cross buns scored the highest average of 6.60. This was followed by the filled category (5.86).

The traditional (4.94) and extra-spice (4.38) buns were considered average.

While it appears that most tasters enjoy something other than a “real” hot cross bun, the results also show that they at least expect something in the bun, with the fruit-free variants scoring low (3.54).

Across retailers, Woolworths emerged as the best performer on average (scoring 5.64), followed by Pick n Pay (5.22), Food Lovers (5.18), Spar (4.90) and Checkers (4.20).

Notably, while Checkers took top honours in the ranking, it also took the top dishonour, with the brand’s extra spice hot cross bun scoring last, with most tasters not keen on the flavour.

And even though Woolworths was consistently high, it had a notable stumble with its new Condensed Milk & Lemon Filled Hot Cross Buns, which no one was really keen on either.

Most remarked that this should have been packaged and marketed as something else, as it was too far a departure from the spiced-bun category to make any sense.

Full Ranking of all 21 Hot Cross Buns

Best Traditional Hot Cross Bun

Best Extra Spicy Hot Cross Bun

Best Chocolate Hot Cross Bun

Best Fruit-Free Hot Cross Bun

Best Filled Hot Cross Bun