Frankly, cookies aren’t meant to be weather-driven or tied to any season. Still, in places where it starts to feel chilly, slipping a box of cookies into your shopping bag becomes a simpler pleasure.
While I’m keen to sample every cookie, this time of year also feels ideal to welcome the Jaffa cake into my tea-time repertoire of dunkable treats. If you’ve never tried a Jaffa cake, a few quick notes: it’s a British tea biscuit dating back to McVitie’s and Price in 1927, basically a straightforward construct (sponge cake base, fruity jelly filling, a thin shell of dark chocolate on top), and yes—Mary Berry even featured them as a Technical Challenge on Season 7 of The Great British Baking Show (GBBO for short).
Although a number of Jaffa cakes from the UK, including McVitie’s, are sold in the United States, Aldi and Lidl both offer store-brand variants of their own. And in the Jaffa cake arena, one retailer clearly has the upper hand.
Aldi ― Benton’s Zingy Orange Jaffa Cakes
Pros: The orange flavor arrives bright and fragrant at first bite. “Zingy” genuinely belongs in the name, and it plays nicely off the dark chocolate. The portion size feels appropriate for a tea-time treat—not too bulky, not too delicate.
Cons: Where to begin? The appearance is a concern. The chocolate coating on Benton’s cakes looks dull, almost dusty. For both variants, the fruity filling isn’t perfectly centered every time, so you get little chocolate humps here and there. The sponge is noticeably dry; it crumbly-disintegrates on the tongue, leaving a powdery trace on the plate or, in my case, on a neatly folded paper towel. The orange flavor, while zingy, lacks an edge—no bitterness or citrus zest to counterbalance the sweetness (which would pair better with dark chocolate). In the end it’s a sugary, dusty crumble with a chocolate shell that seems years past its prime.
Aldi ― Benton’s Sweet Raspberry Jaffa Cakes
Pros: It shares the same favorable footprint as its zingy orange sibling regarding size and balance between sponge, jelly, and chocolate coating. Yet the raspberry version offers nothing redeemable in terms of flavor. At best, it’s nominally “sweet,” which is exactly what the label promises.
Cons: The drawbacks mirror those of the orange variant—crumbly, dry, and disruptive to tea time. The raspberry filling, however, stands out as markedly artificial-tasting, devoid of any convincing fruit character. I didn’t even bother inspecting the ingredients—whatever the method, the raspberry seems to have wandered far from the garden. At least there were fewer crumbs left behind (the flavor itself proved too off-putting to finish).
Lidl ― Sondey Orange Flavored Jaffa Cakes
Pros: Similar to Benton’s, there’s a clear upside here: the price. The box runs just under $2.50. Beyond that, this cookie—across both flavors—displays more strengths than its Benton’s counterparts: the sponge is tender, the chocolate coat is smooth with a healthy sheen, and the orange filling isn’t merely sweet or tart. It evokes the essence of Terry’s Chocolate Orange.
While I don’t claim to be a connoisseur of Jaffa cakes, among the four variations, these hit the mark: dainty yet assertive. Indulgent without heaviness, they strike a balance of citrus and dark chocolate that wakes the palate. A superb tea cake.
Cons: Nearly no drawbacks—except perhaps the orange lingers on the sweeter side. Yet the flavor manages to stay within a pleasant range thanks to the polished, slightly bitter dark chocolate cap and a neat, glossy finish.
