Best Christmas puddings: tastiest supermarket options revealed

Fruity and full of festive flavour, a traditional Christmas pudding is the ultimate way to round off celebrations. 

To find out how supermarket options compare, we asked 66 shoppers to blind-taste and rate 10 premium puddings, from supermarkets including Aldi, Tesco, Waitrose and more. 

Our tests uncovered a Best Buy pudding that impressed tasters with its well-balanced flavours and moist texture. We also found a brilliant budget pick worth snapping up.

Keep reading to discover the best traditional puds for Christmas 2024, and the dry, unappetising options to steer clear of.

Note: these Christmas puddings were tested for Christmas 2024 and are no longer available. New results will be published in November 2025.

If you'd rather DIY your Christmas pudding this year, head to our guide on how to make Christmas pudding

Best traditional-style Christmas puddings

Only logged-in Which? members can view our full taste test results and tasting notes for each supermarket Christmas pudding. 

If you’re not yet a member, you’ll see an alphabetically ordered list of the Christmas puddings on test. To get instant access to these and thousands of other reviews join Which? today 

Aldi Specially Selected 24 Month Matured Christmas Pudding

£7.49 for 800g (94p per 100g)

Can Aldi’s cheap Christmas pudding compete with more expensive rivals?

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Asda Exceptional 12-Month Matured Luxury Christmas Pudding

£8 for 800g (£1 per 100g)

This Christmas pudding is from Asda's new premium Exceptional range. Is it a step up from the rest?

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Co-op Irresistible 12 Month Matured Christmas Pudding

£2 for 100g (£2 per 100g)

Co-op's small puds are only available in 100g individual sized servings this year. Are they a good option for smaller gatherings?

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Iceland Luxury Christmas Pudding

£4 for 400g (£1 per 100g)

Made with cider, brandy, almonds and glacé cherries, Iceland's pudding sounds enticing, but does it make for a luxurious festive dessert?

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Lidl Deluxe 12 Month Matured Christmas pudding

£4.49 for 400g (£1.12 per 100g)

Lidl says its pudding is 'packed with juicy vine fruits, crunchy almonds and walnuts, generously laced with cognac and sherry'. Did it stand out from the crowd?

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M&S Collection 12 Month Matured Christmas Pudding

£14 for 907g (£1.54 per 100g)

At £14, M&S is a little more expensive than most other puddings we tested. Is it worth the price?

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Morrisons The Best 18 Month Matured Christmas Pudding

£9 for 800g (£1.13 per 100g)

This pudding is matured for a lengthy 18 months. Does it make for a richer flavour compared to other puddings?

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Sainsbury's Taste the Difference 18 Month Matured Christmas Pudding

£9 for 800g (£1.13 per 100g)

Sainsbury’s pudding contains cider, sherry and brandy. Could our panel 'taste the difference'?

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Tesco Finest Vintage 18 Month Matured Christmas Pudding

£14 for 800g (£1.75 per 100g)

The priciest pudding on test per 100g, is Tesco's vintage pud worth splashing out on?

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Waitrose No1 Christmas Pudding 12 Month Matured

£12.50 for 800g (£1.56 per 100g)

Waitrose says its Christmas pudding is matured for a year to develop a rich, rounded flavour. Did it impress our tasting panel?

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In need of mince pies, too? Find out the supermarkets that came top in our taste test of the best mince pies

Are 18- or 24-month matured Christmas puddings better?

People often think that the longer a Christmas pudding has 'matured' for, the better and richer the flavour will be. But it's not a foolproof route to a perfect pud. 

In our taste test, some 12-month matured puds outperformed 24-month matured puddings. There wasn't any clear pattern in terms of which puddings scored best for flavour and how long they'd been matured, so don't get too swayed by this when choosing.

Should you steam or microwave Christmas pudding?

Steaming your pudding is preferable to microwaving it. If you heat it in the microwave, the fat can separate too quickly, leaving you with a dry pudding (and vine fruits that are nuclear levels of hot).

Most pack instructions recommend steaming for 1-2 hours. Once it’s on the hob, you'll just need to keep an eye on the water levels to make sure it doesn’t dry up. You can speed things up considerably by using a pressure cooker.

How to get a perfect dome when turning out your pud

Christmas puddings always look delectable on the packaging, but transferring a neat dome of dessert from the plastic casing onto your serving plate isn’t always easy, and it's a bit dispiriting serving a crumbly mess at the dinner table.

If you’ve ever been left scraping half of your pudding from inside a tub, follow these simple steps to success:

1. Leave the pudding to stand for a minute or two before serving. This gives it a chance to settle and hold its shape better.
2. Run a knife around the edge of the pudding to separate it from its casing.
3. Put a plate over the top of the casing and turn the plate and casing over. Wait a minute or so, or until you feel the pudding come free.
4. If your pudding comes in a plastic tub and shows no sign of shifting, use a corkscrew to make a hole in the base of the tub. This will allow some of the pressure to escape, and should help to release the pudding

How to light a Christmas pudding

Lighting up the Christmas pudding is a popular festive tradition if you're after a showstopping finish to your Christmas dinner. But it's a bit of an art, so here are some tips to avoid a soggy disappointment:

• You'll need alcohol with a high spirit content (around 40%), such as rum, brandy or Armagnac, to guarantee a good flame. 
• Gently heat around 2-4 tbsp of alcohol in a saucepan
• Remove from the heat, and carefully light the alcohol while still in the pan, tilting it to the side
• Immediately pour onto your pudding for an impressive flame
• Carefully carry it to the table

How we tested Christmas puddings

Rebecca Marcus, lead taste test researcher, says: 'We go the extra mile to ensure our food and drink reviews are independent, impartial and based on robust test methodology. Recommendations from our consumer panel taste tests are backed up by statistically significant results, checked and verified by our in-house stats team, so Which? members can be confident they’re getting the best and tastiest products.' 

All the Christmas puddings we tested were blind-tasted and rated by a panel of 66 people in September 2024 at our specialist tasting lab.

We recruited a panel Christmas pudding fans who broadly represent the demographic profile of adults in the UK (age, gender split etc). 

The taste test was blind, so our testers didn’t know which brand they were trying. They each tasted the puddings in a different order that was fully rotated to avoid any bias. 

Each tester had a private tasting booth so that they couldn’t discuss what they were tasting or be influenced by others.

They rated the taste, texture, aroma and appearance of each pudding and told us what they liked and disliked. 

The overall score was based on:

• 50% flavour
• 20% aroma
• 20% appearance
• 10% texture

These weightings are based on what people ranked as the most important attributes when tasting Christmas puddings.

To see all our festive taste tests, and our tests of everyday staples such as baked beans, head to our round up of the best food and drink.

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Where to buy free-from, vegan and vegetarian Christmas puddings

A traditional recipe Christmas pudding typically contains alcohol, dairy and gluten. Some puddings also contain suet, made from animal fat, meaning they're not suitable for vegetarians.

All the Christmas puddings we tested this year are suitable for vegetarians. 

If you're looking for dairy-free, gluten-free, alcohol-free or vegan puddings, most supermarkets now stock a wide range of options to suit everyone. Here's a round-up of the options on offer:

• Asda Alcohol Free Christmas Pudding, £3/400g – alcohol-free, vegetarian. 
• Asda Exceptional Free From Luxury Christmas Pudding, £5/400g – gluten-free.
• Asda Free From Christmas Pudding, £3.50/400g – gluten-free, vegan.
• M&S Made Without Christmas Pudding 6 Month Matured, £4.50/400g – gluten-free, vegan.
• Morrisons Alcohol Free Christmas Pudding, £1/100g – alcohol-free, vegetarian.
• Morrisons Free From Rich Fruit Christmas Pudding, £4/400g – gluten-free, vegan.
• Sainsbury's Free From Christmas Pudding, £4/400g – gluten-free.
• Sainsbury's Taste the Difference Free From Christmas Pudding, £2/100g – gluten-free. 
• Tesco Alcohol Free Christmas Pudding, £3.25/400g – alcohol-free, vegetarian.
• Tesco Free From Christmas Pudding, £4/400g – gluten-free, vegan.
• Tesco Finest Free From Christmas Pudding, £2/100g – gluten-free, vegetarian.
• Waitrose Alcohol Free Christmas Pudding, £1.75/100g – alcohol-free, vegan.
• Waitrose Free From Milk & Gluten Free Christmas Pudding, £2/100g – gluten-free, vegan.

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What to do with leftover Christmas pudding

From cheesecake and trifle to Christmas cookies, there are all kinds of imaginative ways to use up leftover Christmas pudding, so there's no need to let it go to waste.

The Good Food website has plenty of recipe inspiration, or you can check out our mince pie expert Edd Kimber's recipe for Christmas pudding doughnuts.

You could even try making homemade Christmas pudding-infused vodka by crumbling leftover pudding into a bottle and leaving it to infuse for a couple of months, before straining it ready to use in festive cocktails.

Best wine to have with Christmas pudding

We asked wine expert Charles Metcalfe for his recommendations on wines to serve with Christmas pudding. Here’s what he said: ‘The wine has to be sweet, so an asti or another moscato spumante are brilliant, refreshing and perfect in flavour. ’

Find out which wines scored highly in our independent expert taste tests in our best champagne and best red wine guides.

Cocktails that go with Christmas pudding

Opting for a cocktail (or mocktail) instead can add some theatre to your Christmas lunch. Here are some options that pair perfectly with Christmas puddings:

• Espresso martini Our experts recommend coffee as a pairing for Christmas pudding. For a boozy twist, a traditional Irish coffee works well, or try an espresso martini.
• Spicy cocktails Anything with ginger is ideal, as the fiery taste will blend well with the spices in your pudding – perhaps go for some ginger wine or ginger beer. You can make this into more of a mocktail by rubbing fresh ginger around the inside of your glass (filled with ice), before pouring in the ginger beer. Then garnish with fresh ginger slices or grated ginger.
• Negroni The orangey tang works well with Christmas pudding. Make your own by stirring together one part gin, one part vermouth rosso and one part campari over ice. Garnish with a slice of orange or some orange peel.
• Mulled cider A mulled cider will go better with a Christmas pudding than mulled wine. Our experts suggested heating cider with spices and a little brandy.

Looking for more drink recommendations? Read our reviews of the best gin, best prosecco and best port wine.

See DrinkAware for information and advice about drinking responsibly.