Tom Conran’s breakfast test

Youghurts, museli, marmalade and croissants. Sounds good? We'll see...
  
  


Marmalade

Real Eating Company, 340g, £3.75, 01273 221441
Generous peel, well-balanced sweetness and acid. Perfectly set. Five stars

Tiptree tawny, 454g, £1.59, available from Waitrose and Sainsbury's
Very English in style - heavily set. Good colour with tasty peel. Four stars

Frank Cooper's coarse cut Seville, 454g, £1.22, widely available
Very, very thickly set with peel like dried fruit. Three stars

Duchy Originals Seville, 340g, £2.25, available from Sainsbury's and Waitrose
Too heavily set for me. Three stars

Duerrs fair trade, 454g, 94p, widely available
Heavy set jelly, too sweet and full of shredded bits of orange. One star

Muesli

Dorset Cereals luxury, 500g, £1.19, available from Waitrose and Asda
Really very good. Four stars

Mini Magoo, 500g, £4.95, available from Harvey Nichols, Fresh & Wild and Planet Organic
Slightly sweetened and very approachable. Three stars

Waitrose Organic, 1kg, £3.29
A nice crunchy texture. Three stars

Marks & Spencer unsweetened fruit and bran, 500g, £1.49
Like bran and you'll like this, but raisins and apricot balance the wholesomeness. Three stars

Co-op fair trade, 500g, £2.05
Too much fruit for me - it's all raisins and sultanas. Two stars

Orange juice with bits

Pret A Manger, 250ml, £1.20
A good product, slightly sweeter than the others. Four stars

M&S freshly squeezed, 500ml, £1.59
Has a good bit of texture and natural flavour and colour. Three stars

Asda with juicy bits, 1l, 69p
Horrible. Insipid with a boring taste. no stars

Sainsbury's with juicy bits, 1l, 76p
Can't see any bits but I can taste pith. Bitter. no stars

Tropicana, 1l ,£1.22, widely available
This just doesn't taste natural. And very few bits, too. no stars

Free-range eggs (fried)

Waitrose Columbian blacktail organic, 6 for £1.59
Nice deep yellow yolk, a really rich and delicious taste - excellent. Five stars

M&S, 6 for £1.49
You can tell this is the freshest by the way it holds together in the pan. A lovely eggy egg. Four stars

Sainsbury's, 6 for 89p
Really good. More going on in terms of depth of flavour. Four stars

Asda, 6 for 98p
Slightly less flavour than the others, slightly rubbery white, but still very appealing. Three stars

Tesco organic, £1.14 for 6
Somewhat flat and unexciting in comparison to the others. Three stars

Unsmoked back bacon

Duchy Originals, 184g, £3.99, available from Waitrose
Good texture and fat-to-meat ratio. Not too salty. Five stars

Tesco Wiltshire cure, 250g, £2.18
Anyone would like this - mild flavour, slightly sweet - nothing too challenging. Four stars

Waitrose English, 250g, £2.29
The thinnest, but then you can crisp it up. Less traditional style, slightly salty. Three stars

Asda, 250g, £1.38
Not terribly exciting - a bit too salty. Two stars

M&S British, 250g, £2.88
I know you need to salt bacon, but I think they have taken it too far with this one. Two stars

Ketchup

M&S, 490g, 79p So thick it won't come out. I can see pepper and tomato skin. It's unusually dark and tastes of cinnamon and cloves - it's almost HP. Four stars

Asda, 485g, 55p
I don't mind this; it's sharp with a good, strong malt vinegar kick. Three stars

Co-op, 340g, 43p
This is too sweet and too acidic. Slightly spicy, which might mean it won't go with everything. Three stars

Tesco, 485g, 55p
Cheap vinegar flavour, a sort of sickly sugariness. Two stars

Sainsbury's, 500g, 80p
Tastes like sweetened tinned tomatoes. One star

Plain yoghurt

River Cottage, 300ml, £2.20, www.rivercottage.net
I can tell this is made with rich milk - it's creamier and sweeter than the others. Five stars

Rachel's Organic, 450g, £1.49, widely available
Smooth and creamy with a good lactic balance. Fairly neutral flavour. Three stars

Yeo Valley Organic bio live, 500g, £1.05, widely available
Rich and creamy taste, but not so creamy in consistency. Three stars

Onken Biopot, 500g, 94p, widely available
Tastes neutral to start and then creamier. You can taste the fat - good. Three stars

Tesco natural Greek style, 500g, 41p
I don't like this much, the texture isn't so nice and the flavour is a bit synthetic, like powdered milk. Two stars

Croissants

Pret A Manger, 80g, 80p
Looks promising - wellmade. Crisp exterior and slight sourness which is very good. Four stars

Tesco, 29p
Just what you look for in a croissant - flaky outside and chewy inside. They've used decent butter and flour. Three stars

Starbucks, £1
Could be a little crispier on the outside, but it looks well-made. Three stars

Asda, 2 for 78p
These are enormous. They are too soft but very light and not that bad. Two stars

Sainsbury's, 4 for 61p
These are far too small and smell like cheap bread, are spongy within and damp on the outside - they might be better warmed up. One star

Blueberry muffins

Starbucks, £1.35
They've used wholewheat flour which gives it texture and a wholesome feel. Decent blueberries, too. Four stars

Pret A Manger double berry, £1.25
Muffin itself is good, with toasty flavours, but is let down by doughnut-style blueberry goo in the middle. Three stars

Tesco, 4 for £1.09
There aren't enough blueberries here and I think they've added blueberry flavour to the dough. Three stars

Waitrose, 89p
There are enough berries, but the dough is quite wet and instantly turns into a paste in your mouth. One stars

Asda, 4 for £1.42
You'll only like this if you like blue food. It's really not great. no stars

English breakfast tea

Twinings, 125g, £1.49, widely available
Good, with clean, refined flavours, but I need more tannic builders' tea. Four stars

Clipper organic, 50 for £1.99, widely available
This has a strong flavour with pep. But still not strong enough for me. Three stars

Fortnum and Mason, 25 for £2.25, 0845 300 1707
It's good but I would like a more powerful flavour. Three stars

Tea Direct fair trade, 80 for £1.89, widely available
I am afraid I find this rather uninspiring. Two stars

M&S, 125g, £129
I don't like this - you can taste more of the bag than the tea. One star

Strawberry yoghurt

Rachel's Organic, 450g, £1.29, widely available
I like this. You can taste good yoghurt through the strawberry, although the fruit dissolves on the tongue. Three stars

Waitrose woodland dessert, 150g, 55p
This tastes like a creamy fool and has seeds in which means it contains real fruit. Three stars

Yeo Valley Organic, 450g, £1.25, widely available
Nice natural taste. Three stars

Asda, 140g, 48p
Too sweet with a lurking caramel flavour. Tastes like it has had fruit pulp added for taste. One star

Onken Biopot, 500g, £1.09, widely available
Looks like paint - vivid - and slightly slimy and synthetic. no stars

· Breakfast is served daily from 8am at Tom Conran's Tom's, 226 Westbourne Grove, London W11 (020 7221 8818).

Compiled by Rebecca Seal

 

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