Aldi is launching mystery hot cross buns — with £1,000 prize for guessing flavours

Hot cross buns are a staple at this time of year, along with a whole lot of chocolate.

Many will opt to keep things traditional with spiced buns, but for those feeling a little more daring, the supermarkets have been putting weird and wonderful twists on the classic.

M&S recently introduced hot cross buns filled with lemon curd, while Sainsbury’s has coffee and chocolate chip ones on its shelves. 

But it’s Aldi that’s about to launch something very unusual, as the bargain retailer is going to be selling mystery hot cross buns over the next few weeks.

There will be three top secret flavours to choose from as part of its Village Bakery range (99p for two) and shoppers will have to try and work out what they can taste. 

And those who love a good guessing game can take things one step further as the supermarket is offering exciting prizes for those who can work out the mystery flavours.

Aldi will be launching a ‘guess the flavour’ competition from March 20, when the very first flavour is released in shops.

The second flavour will hit the shelves from March 27, while the third will be available from April 3.

Shoppers will have until 11:59pm on April 6 to submit their guesses to be in with a chance of winning £1,000 worth of Aldi vouchers, with the secrets being revealed on April 7. 

How to take part in Aldi’s guess the flavour challenge

To be in with a chance of winning, you must be over the age of 18. All you have to do is send your name, age and the number of the flavour you tried (e.g. Mystery Flavour 1) along with your flavour guess to [email protected] 

There will be three winners in total – one winner per flavour – and the winner will be chosen at random from a collection of correct entries. 

But there is a catch – customers can only submit one guess per flavour, and multiple entries won’t be counted.

So make sure you think long and hard before sending off your final answer.

Speaking about the challenge, Julie Ashfield, Chief Commercial Officer at Aldi UK, said: ‘We know how much our shoppers love hot cross buns, so we wanted to create something fun and exciting for them this Easter.

‘Our buying team has created some truly unique flavours that will challenge even the most seasoned taste buds. 

‘We can’t wait to see if our shoppers can crack the mystery flavours. Good luck!’

This comes after shoppers went wild over Aldi’s new Dairyfine Curious Inventions Easter egg.

The £3.99 chocolate product, which comes in milk or white variations, and features popping candy and cherry jellies, was compared to Cadbury’s Curious Inventions bar – and customers claimed it was even ‘better than Dairy Milk’.

The retailer also recently caused a stir with Friends fans, after launching an interesting Easter treat.

Aldi teamed up with ChoViva, a cocoa-free chocolate alternative from Germany, for its Dairyfine Peanut Butter Mini Eggs (£1.49 for 90g).

The product is said to look and taste like the real thing, but instead of being made from cocoa as is traditional, it’s been formed in a more sustainable way using fermented oats and sunflower seeds, as well as  sugar, vegetable fat, skimmed milk powder and emulsifiers.

The chocolate alternative was compared to ‘Mockolate’ a chocolate substitute that featured in the season two episode, The One with the List. In the episode, Monica (played by Courteney Cox) attempted to create recipes for the controversial product, without much success.

On Reddit, u/100ProofPixel asked: ‘I can’t be the only person that went straight to Mockolate?’

Similarly, on TikTok @heymacksarrow said: ‘It’s giving that time Monica had to recipe test for fake chocolate.’

While ChoViva is debuting in the UK thanks to Aldi, this isn’t the first time the product has been used by a big name brand.

The chocolate alternative has also been used by Lindt. In 2023 Lindt in Germany started selling limited-edition vegan hazelnut bars, using ChoViva.

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