Each year, around Boxing Day, hot cross buns start popping up on grocery shelves. For many, the idea of buying Easter treats in December is absurd, but some of us Aussies clearly have such an appetite for these spicy, fruity baked goods, that we're willing to buy them well outside the traditional season.
Their early appearance is certainly handy for us here at CHOICE – it gives our expert taste testers plenty of time to gather and compare all the options on the market, so you can make the smartest choice for your Easter treats.
We tasted 19 hot cross buns – 'traditional' fruit and chocolate varieties, including gluten-free options – from national supermarkets Coles, Woolworths, IGA and Aldi, major bakery chain Bakers Delight and membership warehouse Costco, to see which buns are best.
On this page:
- Best traditional fruit hot cross buns
- Best chocolate hot cross buns
- Best gluten-free hot cross buns
- How to choose the best hot cross buns
- How we test
Best traditional fruit hot cross buns
When it comes to hot cross bun varieties the options extend from Iced VoVo to Pizza Shapes flavours, and seemingly everything in between. This year's annual not cross bun taste test saw Wagon Wheel and Fairy Bread flavoured buns evaluated by our shrewd panel of judges.
But despite the availability of these gimmicky options, our polls consistently show that you can't go past a traditional fruit hot cross bun. It's a crowd favourite.
So for those who'd prefer not to mess with a classic, which traditional buns are best?
This year Coles has knocked last year's winner Woolworths out of the top spot
Our panel of professionals taste-tested 19 hot cross bun products all up, toasted and untoasted, including 9 traditional fruit varieties (it's a tough gig but somebody's gotta do it).
This year Coles has knocked last year's winner Woolworths out of the top spot.
You can compare all products in our full hot cross buns review.
Coles Luxurious Fruit Hot Cross Buns were the favourite traditional bun this year.
Coles Luxurious Fruit Hot Cross Buns
- CHOICE Expert Rating: 75%
- Toasted score: 80%
- Fresh (untoasted) score: 70%
- Price: $1.38 per bun ($5.50 per 4-pack)
- Health Star Rating: 3.5
- Good to know: The pack price has gone up $1 since last year; suitable for vegetarians; no artificial colours or flavours
- Experts say:
- "Good size, shape and even cross; great fruit variety so adds interesting flavours and textures. No glaze but overall a delicious product."
- "Apricot is a great touch; needs glaze; when fresh it has a raw spice flavour but when toasted it has great texture and flavour."
- "Perfect for toasting and buttering. Love the array of fruits."
Best chocolate hot cross buns
Why wait for the Easter bunny to bring eggs when you can eat your chocolate in bun form?
We tested four chocolate hot cross buns from Aldi, Bakers Delight, Coles and Woolworths, and while we recommend two of these, there was a clear favourite among our experts, scoring over 80% in our taste test.
If you prefer chocolate chips over dried fruit, the Coles Bakery Easter Choc Chip Hot Cross Buns took out the honours in this category.
Coles Bakery Easter Choc Chip Hot Cross Buns
- CHOICE Expert Rating: 82%
- Toasted score: 83%
- Fresh (untoasted) score: 90%
- Price: 73 cents per bun ($4.40 per 6-pack)
- Health Star Rating: 2
- Good to know: 25% chocolate; the pack price has gone up 40 cents since last year; suitable for vegetarians; Rainforest Alliance certified cocoa.
- Experts say:
- "Looks great, good amount of chocolate chips. Toasted – visually is perfect, chocolate smell is good, fluffy and dense from chocolate chips, flavour hit the mark."
- "Chocolate pieces are evident and chocolate aroma and flavour comes through well."
- "Nice milk chocolate flavour, no spice. Toasted flavour overpowers chocolate a bit. This one is better fresh."
Best gluten-free hot cross buns
Many people need to avoid eating gluten, so we've included gluten-free traditional fruit and chocolate bun offerings from Aldi, Coles and Woolworths in our taste test.
We also decided to give the gluten-free buns their own category, so the scores aren't directly comparable to their regular counterparts.
Generally speaking, the gluten-free buns don't score as well as regular options, but the best gluten-free traditional and chocolate buns came from Aldi and Woolworths this year.
Aldi Bakers Life Gluten Free Fruit Hot Cross Buns were the winners of the traditional gluten-free category this year.
Aldi Bakers Life Gluten-Free Fruit Hot Cross Buns
- CHOICE Expert Rating: 68%
- Toasted score: 70%
- Fresh (untoasted) score: 67%
- Price: $1.33 per bun ($3.99 per 3-pack)
- Health Star Rating: 3.5
- Good to know: No artificial colours or flavours; dairy free; good source of dietary fibre; suitable for vegetarians.
- Experts say:
- "Appearance not as attractive because it's quite dark with flat shape, but it's better on eating."
- "Looks like a hockey puck, round, brown, lots of fruit. Looks very dark when toasted. Minimal aroma. Gritty texture but fluffy and still a bit gritty when toasted."
- "Good appearance and great texture for a gluten-free bun."
Prefer your hot cross buns with no gluten and no fruit? These buns impressed our experts for the second year running.
Woolworths Free From Gluten Choc Hot Cross Buns
- CHOICE Expert Rating: 64%
- Toasted score: 63%
- Fresh (untoasted) score: 63%
- Price: $1.38 per bun ($5.50 per 4-pack)
- Health Star Rating: 3.5
- Good to know: The pack price has gone up by 30 cents since last year; Rainforest Alliance certified cocoa; vegetarian; no artificial colours or flavours.
- Experts say:
- "Good chocolate distribution but not as evident in aroma and texture."
- "Flaxseed aroma and not much aroma when toasted. Texture looks great but turns to powder in the mouth, which is slightly improved on toasting. Powdery mouthfeel and flaxy aftertaste. Chocolate chips are too small to be of note. Unpleasant. Flavour is slightly improved on toasting but needs more chocolate.
- "Nice looking for gluten-free, shape is great. Flaxseed aroma and flavour is very strong. Where is the chocolate flavour?"
How to choose the best hot cross buns
Choosing a hot cross bun really comes down to personal preferences. Do you like lots of dried fruits and a spicy aroma, or would you rather a gooey chocolatey bun?
Do you like to eat them toasted and slathered in butter or do you just grab one fresh out of the bag and devour it?
There are some things to consider before you just grab the first bag of hot cross buns you see on the shelf.
1. Fruit or chocolate content
Hot cross buns are usually wrapped in clear packaging so you can at least see what you're about to buy. Look for an even distribution of fruit or chocolate pieces – it's a pretty good indicator of a good bun that has well-balanced flavour and texture.
You can also check the fruit and chocolate content (as well as the type of dried fruit being used) by reading the ingredients list – the higher the number the better.
2. Do they look good?
The first thing you'll notice is how the bun looks. And if you're serving them up on a platter to guests you'll want to make sure they look the part.
Our experts assess the appearance of each bun and look for an even shape and size with decent rise (or dome) as well as nice browning on the outside with a well-covered glaze and evenly centred cross.
3. How do they feel?
The bun should be light and fluffy to touch with a soft centre when you crack it open. A hot cross bun that feels dense and tough might be stale.
Keep in mind that toasting can improve the texture and flavour of a dense and stale bun. In some cases though – if the bun has artificial flavours – toasting can enhance these poor characteristics.
4. Do they have a nice aroma?
If you can smell the blend of spices or get a nice hit of chocolate, then chances are you'll be able to taste it when you take a bite.
Our experts noticed that some hot cross buns had little to no spice aroma but instead had a yeasty smell which then came through on tasting.
5. Check the use-by date
If you like to buy freshly-baked hot cross buns, you'll want to look for those that are baked instore at Coles or Woolworths or those made fresh daily from stores like Bakers Delight. These products will usually show a baked-on date as well as a use-by date.
Other supermarket buns are usually frozen and then defrosted when they hit the shelves. This is convenient for supermarkets and helps them keep up with stock demands, but freezing can affect shape, freshness and texture.
6. Check the ingredients list
Flour, sugar, spices, butter and dried fruit are some of the ingredients you expect to see when you look at the ingredients list of a hot cross bun. Unfortunately, they are usually packed with way more ingredients than the basics.
Almost all the products we tested also contain emulsifiers, antioxidants, thickeners and gums, added flavours, acidity regulators and preservatives. Ingredients are listed on labels in descending order by weight, so the first ingredient will be present in the largest amount and so on.
Also be mindful that sugar can be listed multiple times under different names like maple syrup, sucrose and dextrose.
How we test
Our CHOICE kitchen team Fiona Mair and Chantelle Dart unpack the products so they can be tasted 'blind'.
Products
We tested hot cross bun products available in major Australian supermarket chains and bakeries, including Coles, Woolworths, Aldi, IGA and Bakers Delight, as well as wholesale warehouse Costco.
Traditional fruit buns and chocolate buns, along with their gluten-free varieties, were tested separately.
Price is for the pack size specified and bought in Sydney stores in February 2025 (not on special).
Tasting
Our panel of three experts tasted the hot cross bun samples 'blind' (without knowing the brands) in a random order.
Each bun was tasted fresh (untoasted) and toasted. We do this so that whether you like a fresh or toasted bun, you can see how they're rated by our experts.
Eddie Stewart tastes one of the 19 hot cross bun products we compared and rated.
Scores
The experts independently judged all hot cross bun products. The CHOICE Expert Rating, our overall score, consists of 90% sensory and 10% nutrition (based on the Health Star Rating).
The sensory score is made up of 50% for the toasted sample and the other 50% is for the fresh (untoasted) sample.
The experts rate each hot cross bun on flavour, appearance, aroma and texture. These sensory characteristics are weighted as follows:
- flavour (50%)
- appearance (20%)
- aroma (15%)
- texture (15%).
We recommend traditional and chocolate hot cross buns with a CHOICE Expert Rating of 70% or more, and recommend gluten-free hot cross buns (all varieties) with a score of 60% or more.
Meet our expert taste testers
(Left to Right) Eddie Stewart, Jane Bardell and Brigid Treloar
Brigid Treloar has been a freelance food consultant for over 30 years. The author of eight cookbooks, she also contributes to newspapers and magazines, reviews restaurants, judges cookery and recipe competitions, and judges chocolate in the Sydney Royal Fine Food Show Competition.
Brigid has presented specialist cooking classes around Australia and overseas, and often appears on TV and radio. She's an industry assessor for Le Cordon Bleu, advises many of Australia's food companies on product and recipe development, and also provides recipes and cooking information for company websites.
Eddie Stewart started his culinary career at the young age of 16 and has amassed over 20 years of experience in the industry. Throughout his career, he has worked in various boutique restaurants and world-renowned hotels to develop his own unique style. He has served as the Head Chef of Savoury and Business Development Manager for the internationally acclaimed Black Star Pastry in Sydney, where he has gained extensive knowledge of the intricacies of the culinary business.
In 2020, he joined forces with Min Chai to create a brand new concept called Tokyo Lamington, where you can indulge in deliciously created lamingtons and other baked items.
Jane Bardell might fill her days producing insurance content as one of our esteemed CHOICE content producers, but she spends her weekends and evenings perfecting her brioche, refining her frangipane tarts and decorating cakes for special occasions. She's just as comfortable manipulating data in a spreadsheet as she is shaping a loaf of sourdough. She also holds a statement of attainment in sensory analyses for fine food judging.
We're on your side
For more than 60 years, we've been making a difference for Australian consumers. In that time, we've never taken ads or sponsorship.
Instead we're funded by members who value expert reviews and independent product testing.
With no self-interest behind our advice, you don't just buy smarter, you get the answers that you need.
You know without hesitation what's safe for you and your family.
And you'll never be alone when something goes wrong or a business treats you unfairly.
Learn more about CHOICE membership today
Stock images: Getty, unless otherwise stated.
