Which? reveals the Best Buy beef burgers for your bank holiday barbecue

In a blind taste test of premium beef burgers, the Co-op’s Irresistible Hereford Beef Burgers came out on top, while the two most expensive offerings – from Waitrose and Gourmet Burger Kitchen – languished at the bottom.

Ahead of this weekend’s bank holiday, Which? has blind taste-tested nine supermarket premium own-brand fresh beef burgers alongside one branded product, to find out which barbecue staple would be crowned the burger king.

The only brand to be rated a Best Buy was the Co-op’s Irresistible Hereford Beef Burgers, scoring an impressive 82%. Our panel of testers, made up of celebrated butchers and chefs, commended the Co-op burgers for their juiciness, appearance, and great beefy taste.

The Co-op burgers were among the more expensive of the brands we tested, costing £3.19 for the pack of two burgers. However, the panel also praised a far cheaper option – Aldi’s Specially Selected Aberdeen Angus Beef Quarter Pounders came in second in our taste test, scoring 75%. Priced at £2.49 for a pack of four, each Aldi burger works out at less than half the price of a Co-op burger.

At the bottom of the table was Gourmet Burger Kitchen’s Gourmet Beef Burgers, with a score of 56%. Costing £4.50 for a pack of two, these were the most expensive burgers we tried (costing 38p more per burger than the next most expensive brand), but were branded a ‘huge disappointment’ by our panel. These burgers shrank badly during cooking, and one panel member described their taste as ‘awful’ and the texture as ‘hideous’.

The second lowest scoring brand was Waitrose, with its Waitrose 1 Hand-Pressed Beef Burgers which scored 62%. These were also the next most expensive burgers in our test, costing £3.74 for a pack of two.

Nikki Stopford, Director of Research and Publishing at Which?, said:

“Barbecues are a staple of any British bank holiday weekend, so shoppers will be delighted to know they don’t have to pay over the odds for a great burger this summer.

“Our taste test results found that price and brand are no indication of quality, meaning everyone can enjoy a great barbecue this weekend – weather permitting!”

 

Notes to editors:

  1. Four experts – three butchers and one head chef – tasted and assessed 10 premium, chilled beef burgers. Burgers were assessed raw, and then fried by our chef, before being tasted blind in a varied order by our panel.

  2. Prices exclude special offers/deals and were correct the week ending April 6 2018.

  3. Scores were awarded on the following criteria, and then combined for an overall rating:

    1. Taste (50%)

    2. Juiciness/tenderness (15%)

    3. Texture (15%)

    4. Aroma (10%)

    5. Appearance (10%)

  4. See below for the full table of results (NB: cheapest prices and highest percentages are in green, most expensive prices and lowest percentages are in red):

  1. For advice on buying a barbecue, visit: https://www.which.co.uk/reviews/barbecues/article/how-to-buy-the-best-barbecue

  2. For advice on getting the most out of your barbecue this bank holiday, visit: https://www.which.co.uk/reviews/barbecues/article/how-to-get-the-best-from-your-barbecue

  3. For more information on how we test barbecues, visit: https://www.which.co.uk/reviews/barbecues/article/how-we-test-barbecues

 

Press Release