Nutella Vs Aldi Nutoka : Which One Is Tastier And Cheaper?
We’ve all heard about the popular hazelnut chocolate spread Nutella by Ferrero. Have you ever wondered whether cheaper supermarket own brands are just as tasty? My family and I love a nutty, chocolate spread with our toast, croissant or porridge for breakfast. All these years I’ve bought Nutella and never really tried the supermarket’s alternatives. So I thought it was about time to give the supermarket’s own brand hazelnut choco spread a try. I decided to give Aldi’s Nutoka a try, since I regularly shop at Aldi and found many of their dupes very impressive!
Check out My review of Aldi’s Magnum Premium Dishwasher Capsules, to find out whether they are any good.
The price difference
A 350g jar of Nutella from Tesco is £1.99. Aldi’s Nutoka on the other hand is £1.15 for a 400g jar. That’s a 84 pence difference in price between the two spreads. However if we break it down to cost per 100g, Nutella costs £0.57/100g and Nutoka only costs £0.29/100g. This shows that Nutoka is 28p cheaper per 100g, which means Nutella cost twice the price of Nutoka per 100g!
Nutella vs Nutoka visual differences
Visually both Nutella and Nutoka look very similar, it’s like playing a game of spot the difference. Both have a white lid and read writing on a white background. Nutoka has used a dark brown for its o instead of black like Nutella’s N. I’ve also noticed there is a knife with the hazelnut chocolate spread on both pictures on the front of the jars. Another similarity is that both picture hazelnuts and hazel nut halves on the jar. There is a slight difference in the shape of the jar, but it’s very subtle.
Nutoka vs Nutella nutritional values per 100g
Per 100g | Cost in £ | Energy in kcal | Fat in g | Carb in g | Protein in g | Salt in g |
Nutella | 0.57 | 539 | 30.9 | 57.5 | 6.3 | 0.11 |
Nutoka (Aldi) | 0.29 | 558 | 35.5 | 51.8 | 6.1 | 0.10 |
The nutritional value per 100g is very similar with slight differences. Nutoka contains 19 calories more than Nutella, which is not much, but may be important for those who count calories. I’ve noted that Aldi’s own branded hazelnut chocolate spread contains 4.6g more fat than Nutella. However Nutoka contains 5.7g less carbs than Nutella. There isn’t much difference in protein and salt content between the 2 hazelnut chocolate spreads. Nutella contains 0.2g more protein and 0.01g more salt than Aldi’s own brand hazelnut chocolate spread.
What’s in the ingredient list?
Sugar, Rapeseed Oil, ???????? (13%), Palm Oil, Fat Reduced Cocoa Powder (7%), Skimmed ???? Powder, Dried Glucose Syrup, Emulsifier: Lecithins (Sunflower); Flavouring.
Sugar, Palm Oil, ????????? (13%), Skimmed ???? Powder (8.7%), Fat-Reduced Cocoa (7.4%), Emulsifier: Lecithins (????), Vanillin
Comparing the ingredients of the two hazelnut spreads, both contain 13% hazelnut. Nutella contains 0.4% more fat reduced cocoa, which isn’t a significant difference. I’ve noticed that Aldi used rapeseed oil and dried glucose syrup in their spread, which Nutella doesn’t.
Another thing I’ve noticed is that Nutoka and Nutella both contain lectithins. However one is derived from sunflowers and the other from soya. According to Dr.Samanthi Udayangani the key difference between the two is that soya lecithin extraction uses chemicals such as acetone and hexane, whereas the extraction of sunflower lecithin is done via cold pressing, which does not use any chemicals.
Now that I’m aware that soya lectithin extraction uses chemicals, I’m kind of put off food products that contains lectithin made from soy. When I think about the solvent acetone, the first thing that comes to my mind is nail polish remover. Acetone is a highly flammable solvent that is capable of breaking down plastic. Hence it’s great at removing nail polish with ease.
Nutella vs Nutoka taste & texture test
My little girl Yasmin, my other half Oliver and I all have a sweet tooth and love Nutella. Hence we were all so excited to do the taste test to compare the two chocolate hazelnut spreads. Olly and I compared the texture of Nutella and Nutoka and found that both had pretty much the same consistency. Both are quite thick but still smooth. We’ve noted that Nutella was slightly darker and shiny than Nutoka. From a distance the colour looked the same, but when inspected more closely the difference could be seen.
When it came to taste and smell, we found Nutoka was more nutty in flavour and scent compared to Nutella. Nutella on the other hand had a richer chocolate taste to it. We could taste and smell both the hazelnut and chocolate in both hazelnut choco spreads and enjoy both. However we did prefer the taste of Nutoka more as the hazelnut flavour was little bit stronger than Nutella. At the end it doe come down to whether you prefer more hazelnut or chocolate flavour on your toast, pancake or porridge for your breakfast.
Which is better nutella or Nutoka? My conclusion:
We were very impressed with Nutoka, Aldi’s version of Nutella. We loved the fact it tastes like Nutella, with a slightly stronger hazelnut taste than Nutella. At £0.29 per 100g Nutoka is certainly much better value than Nutella, which is awesome. Since Nutella is 28 pence per 100g more expensive, it practically means we get twice as much for our money buying Nutoka. The texture of both spreads are smooth, but Nutoka seems a little bit smoother, which made it a little a bit easier to spread on bread that hasn’t been toasted. On toast both Nutella and Nutoka spread easily as the heat would melt the choco hazelnut spread a little bit making it easy to spread.
In the future we will be going for Nutoka instead of Nutella. If I’m ever near a Lidl, I’d also love to try Lidl’s version of Nutella. I’ve heard may good things about it and at £1.09 for 400g (27p per 100g) it’s slightly cheaper than Nutoka.
Have you tried any supermarket own brand hazelnut spread? If so what’s your thought? Get in touch, I’d love to hear from you.