HOW WE CONDUCTED OUR TASTE TEST
IT'S FREE AND FAIR!
Taste is a subjective thing, but when you gather a group of experts and ask them to blind-taste ready-made panna cottas from two major supermarkets, you have a fair way of assessing quality.
For this taste test, the judges were Professor Gerrie du Rand of the Department of Consumer and Food Sciences at the University of Pretoria and 30 of her final-year students.
Using the facilities at the department, the products were unwrapped, numbered and where prepared exactly to package instructions. The students were asked to judge each product according to appearance, aroma, taste and texture, as well as to say whether they would consider buying it.
What is interesting is that there is always a clear winner in each category and the comments reflect similar sentiments.THE RESULTS
FIRST PLACE: PICK N PAY
Vanilla flavoured panna cotta with berry coulis
Price: R38.90 for 500g
What the judges said:
Claire: The panna cotta was really good and topping a little sour, which was nice.
Kirsten: The berry topping is very tart, which works well with the cream.
Tacia: The texture is more pleasing than the other sample and the flavour is good.
SECOND PLACE: CHECKERS
Creamy vanilla panna cotta with pineapple and coconut sauce
Price: R 29.99 for 500g
What the judges said:
Jessica: Grainy texture. Pina Colada flavouring was delicious but I didn't like chunky texture.
Sofia: Topping could be more consistent in texture though the flavour was good. It doesn't hold its shape and sinks on the plate. Texture not smooth. Quite sweet.
Paige: Topping too runny and its flavour is too prominent; it overpowers the panna cotta...