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Hot cross buns, the Easter treat traditionally eaten on Good Friday, now appear in our shops as early as January. And it’s not just the spiced ones packed with dried fruit that you’ll find on supermarket shelves: it seems that any enriched-dough creation can be described as a hot cross bun, so long as a flour cross has been slapped on top.
Step into a Marks & Spencer food hall and you will be greeted with displays full of garish pink “red velvet” hot cross buns, while Tesco has more than 10 varieties available this year, as well as a tear-and-share brioche. Purists may turn up their noses, but Becca Stock, who reviews food on TikTok and Instagram as @beccaeatseverything, says that, to enjoy a non-traditional bun, you have to view it as a separate product. “For me, they sit in different categories,” she says.
Although I come from a family of hot cross bun lovers, enjoying them hot, cold and as a vehicle for cheddar cheese, I have never ventured into the world of novelty flavours. Have I been missing out? To answer that question, dear reader, I tried 25 non-traditional buns (toasted and buttered, of course). My control, a traditional hot cross bun on the side, was M&S’s luxury fruited hot cross bun, named “best splurge” by the Filter last year.
Chocolate
Waitrose No 1 Belgian chocolate hot cross buns, £2 for two
All the major supermarkets offer some kind of chocolate-based hot cross bun. Clearly, people like them: in its annual supermarket taste test, the Australian consumer advocacy group Choice awarded one of its highest ever scores to a chocolate bun.
I was disappointed to find that most of these eschew dried fruit in favour of chocolate chips – chocolate and raisins are a great combination, as far as I’m concerned. But chocolate hot cross buns are designed for people who don’t like dried fruit, says Charles Banks, the managing director of the food trends agency thefoodpeople. His children love the chocolate ones, whereas he prefers a traditional bun, so he buys both. “From a retailer’s point of view, that’s an increased weight of purchase,” he says. Also, any purist outrage only creates publicity, he points out.
These buns are on the pricier side, but they are large, with a more sophisticated, dark-chocolate flavour than some of the cheaper versions. It tastes almost exactly as if I’ve toasted and buttered a chocolate muffin, but that’s not a terrible thing. 5/10
Tesco Finest triple chocolate hot cross buns, £2 for four
Beware: if you like your toaster, do not buy these buns. They are jam-packed with chocolate chips, which create a sticky mess when they melt. They are also way too sweet for me and, again, I miss the traditional flavours – cinnamon and allspice can be delicious with chocolate. Including them would make this feel more like a riff on a hot cross bun rather than an unrelated product. 4/10
Waitrose milk chocolate & fudge hot cross buns, £2 for four
These were Stock’s favourite when she tested novelty buns and I can see why. They taste properly chocolatey rather than just having a cocoa-powder flavour. While I can’t taste the fudge, the bun had a delicate, milky sweetness. At 50p a bun, the price is bang average for a supermarket offering. If I were going to buy chocolate hot cross buns again, I would probably choose these. 7/10
Iceland Luxury extremely chocolatey hot cross buns, £1.80 for four
Do not be fooled by the “luxury” branding: these buns are disgusting. They are dry, barely holding their shape as they were cut, and the cocoa flavour has a synthetic quality. 2/10
Lidl Deluxe triple chocolate hot cross buns, £1.49 for four
Once again, these are essentially chocolate muffins in disguise. They are similar to the Tesco Finest ones when it comes to stickiness and sweetness. I don’t love them, but I’ve given them an extra point for value – they were the third-cheapest buns I tried. 5/10
M&S red velvet filled hot cross buns, £3.50 for four
I was fully expecting these to be style over substance – Stock agrees that they seem to have been made with social media in mind. In the three years since she has been reviewing hot cross buns, “every year they come out with bigger and wackier flavours”, she says. Shops want to create items that might get talked about online – M&S puts “as seen on social” labels on some products – and zhooshing up existing products with flavours that are popular on social media (such as red velvet, which is essentially a chocolate sponge dyed red and topped with cream cheese icing) is increasingly common.
These buns may be TikTok bait, but they taste quite nice. The chocolate flavour is subtle and nowhere near as sweet or artificial-tasting as the gaudy exterior suggests. They are the only buns here advertised as being filled, which translated as a tiny blob of cream cheese icing in each bun. Since I toast and butter mine, I can barely taste this. It feels a bit stingy, especially given that these buns are more expensive than most. 5/10
Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference double chocolate & cherry hot cross buns, £2 for four
Finally, the fruit and chocolate combination I’ve been hoping for! Sadly, the fruit in question is sweetened cherries and cranberries, meaning that the overwhelming flavour of this bun is sugar. These buns were apparently made with a sourdough starter, but any fermented flavour is drowned out by the sickliness. 3/10
Tesco Finest salted caramel & Belgian chocolate hot cross buns, £2 for four
Like almost every supermarket salted caramel product, this is not salty enough. It’s also not caramelly enough, or chocolatey enough, or anything enough, really. It’s not horrible, but “inoffensive” is probably the best I can say. 4/10
Worst!
M&S tiramisu hot cross buns, £2.90 for four
The perfect encapsulation of what Banks calls the “dessertification” of food and drink – think cheesecake-flavoured matcha lattes or viral recipes for pudding-flavoured breakfast oats. If these buns tasted of tiramisu, I would be impressed. In reality, they are dry and bitter, with a flavour reminiscent of cheap instant coffee. Truly vile. 1/10
Lemon
Waitrose white chocolate & lemon hot cross buns, £2 for four
Citrus zest is typically found in traditional hot cross buns, so dialling up that element feels logical. As with the chocolate buns, however, spices and dried fruit tend to be left out of citrus-forward varieties.
In this case, they have been replaced with white chocolate, which I can’t taste. The lemon flavour is also fairly mild, which I’m pleased about, since I often find it too strong. But if you’re someone who likes citrus flavours – presumably the target market of this bun – you may be disappointed. 3/10
Asda Exceptional lemon & white chocolate hot cross buns, £1.77 for four
The same concept as Waitrose’s, but executed better. Although the white chocolate content is only marginally higher (14% rather than 12%), the flavour comes through a lot more and the whole thing feels creamier and more indulgent. Like most of these novelty buns, they are too sweet. 4/10
Morrisons The Best lemon drizzle hot cross buns, £1.80 for four
These have kept the usual raisins and sultanas, making them essentially extra-lemony hot cross buns. The “drizzle” in the name is misleading – there is no glaze or any other nod to the classic cake. 5/10
Cheese
M&S extremely cheesy cheddar and red leicester hot cross buns, £2.90 for four
By this point in the taste test, I’m becoming uncomfortably full and frankly my scores can no longer be trusted – but at least I’m getting a break from all the sweetness. I love a slice of cheese on a regular hot cross bun, but the lack of fruit in this one means that it tastes more like a cheese scone. It’s perfectly pleasant, though, and holds its shape well when sliced and toasted. 6/10
Tesco Finest cheddar & red leicester hot cross buns, £2 for four
The same cheeses combine in these plump and enticing buns, but they have a doughy centre and only a faintly cheesy flavour. If you were doing a blind tasting, you could be forgiven for mistaking this for a plain roll. 4/10
Aldi Mighty cheesy hot cross buns, 85p for four
These were the cheapest buns I tried, but even the low price wouldn’t tempt me to buy them again. Mighty is Aldi’s own-brand yeast-extract spread and I like cheese and Marmite as a combination, so I had high hopes. However, the yeast extract flavour doesn’t come through and the small, dry buns are dominated by a strong artificial-cheese flavour. 3/10
Berries
Asda Exceptional cherry bakewell hot cross buns, £1.77 for four
It’s almost freaky how much these taste like shop-bought cherry bakewell tart. It’s not a flavour I reach for, but if you do, you’ll love these. 5/10
Tesco Finest strawberries & clotted cream hot cross buns, £2 for four
Like the buns I tested that come in packs of two, these are larger than the average hot cross bun. The first bite is almost unbearably sweet – like the worst strawberry jam ever. As I chew, the creaminess kicks in, which helps to balance the sweetness. 3/10
Waitrose No 1 berry blush hot cross buns, £2 for two
Not as synthetic-tasting as Tesco’s, but nonetheless the flavour is more berry sweets than real berries. Also, they are really, really sticky. 4/10
Apple
Waitrose apple and cinnamon hot cross buns, £2 for four
Apple goes well with the traditional hot cross bun’s cinnamon and sultanas. These plump, golden brown buns are a notch sweeter than a classic bun, but they give me the warming hit of spice I’m after. 6/10
Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference apple & cinnamon hot cross buns, £2 for four
Scrawnier and less flavoursome than their Waitrose counterparts, these are perfectly good apple and cinnamon buns. They hold their shape well in the toaster. 5/10
Joint best!
M&S granny smith apple hot cross buns, £2.90 for four
These are beautifully made hot cross buns, full of spices and sultanas, but jazzed up with generous chunks of tangy green apple. Absolutely delicious. 9/10
Morrisons The Best apple & cinnamon hot cross buns, £1.80 for four
If you want an apple and cinnamon hot cross bun, do not choose these. I can only assume “The Best” is a joke. I barely detect any cinnamon and the apple has a perfume-like flavour. Yuck. 2/10
And the rest
Aldi Specially Selected rhubarb & custard hot cross buns, £1.19 for four
These buns are on the smaller side and have an unappetising luminous-yellow colour. The colour is less aggressive when the buns are toasted, though, and they retain their pleasing roundness. The rhubarb pieces, while there could be more of them, are delicious. I don’t think the white chocolate chunks are necessary, since the buns are already sweet, but this is much tastier than I expected. 7/10
Joint best!
Tesco Finest brown butter and chai tea hot cross buns, £2.25 for two
This combination really works – it’s a proper riff on a hot cross bun rather than a complete reimagining. The spices in a traditional masala chai are similar to the ones that go into a hot cross bun. As Banks says: “It’s everything that a hot cross bun is, but dialled up.” The infusion of black tea means it’s more bitter than a classic bun, which I really like, but may put off sweeter-toothed people. It’s a touch dry, but nothing a generous slather of butter can’t solve. 9/10
Waitrose St Clements hot cross buns, £2 for four
One of the better known variations of hot cross bun, heavier on the citrus than a classic. I really enjoy this, but mostly because it tastes like a traditional hot cross bun, which I can’t help thinking is unbeatable. 8/10
Prices accurate as of 18 March 2026
