My Favourite Aldi Products I Can’t Live Without

Disclaimers: This is not a sponsored post. I have in no way been influenced or paid to endorse these products.

I actually get my groceries delivered, something I never thought I would do but when we moved to the UK and didn’t have a car for 6 months, I was not keen to have to carry my groceries home, especially during the winter months. It also seemed a waste of money to get a taxi we you can get your groceries deliver for as little as £2 (sometimes even less). We also do a lot of gourmet cooking so require a lot of speciality items that you can’t get in Aldi. However, although I love the convenience of home deliveries, especially when I schedule a shop to be delivered when we arrive home from holiday, there are some products that I prefer to buy from Aldi because of both cost and quality. It helps that we live near one so it is quite convenient to pop in on our way home from work.

I must admit that I wasn’t always an Aldi fan. I remember when it first opened when we were living in Australia. The meat and fresh veg options were very limited. I was also a bit put off by the lack of options. However, when I was complaining to my friend about how rubbish my expensive Finish Dishwasher Tablets were, she encouraged me to try the Aldi ones, and since then I’ve never looked back. So here are my favourites…

Chocolate Tiffin Squares

You may well ask what is a Tiffin? Well it’s what we call a hedgehog slice in Australia and a biscuit slice in New Zealand. Basically its crushed biscuit in a buttery chocolate base topped with chocolate icing. The tiffin that they sell is made in Scotland and sold under their Specially Selected range. They are delicious.

I did try to take a photo of them, but they don’t last very long in our household and by the time I got the camera out we had eaten them all. Anyway, next time I’ll try and take a photo of them, but for now you’ll just have to make do with a picture of the packaging. These also come in caramel shortcake (like a caramel square aka millionaires shortbread) which are also yummy. My only gripes are the excessive plastic packaging and that there are only 5 squares. If sharing between two of you, it will inevitably lead to an argument as to who gets the last one.

Ice Cream

The Aldi ice cream that I can recommend are:

Gianni’s Soft Scoop Cornish ice cream: This ice cream is lovely and creamy and light. I prefer this one over the Gianni Vanilla Soft Scoop Ice Cream which I think is just average.

Gianni’s flavoured ice cream in a tub: There is no denying that the packaging looks just like Ben & Jerry’s and the flavours and taste are very similar but for a fraction of the price. Flavours include cookie dough, chocolate brownie, and cheeky monkey.

Strachan’s ice cream: Made in Scotland, the packaging and ice cream tastes just like the more expensive Scottish ice creams Mackie’s. It is a more traditional style ice cream, so it’s not as creamy as I like it, but if you prefer this type of ice cream then it’s worth trying. It comes in several different flavours including vanilla, raspberry and honeycomb.

Chocolate

As I’ve gotten older I prefer dark chocolate, as I now find milk chocolate a bit too sweet. For an everyday eating chocolate that is also good to cook with, I recommend Aldi’s Dairyfine dark chocolate. It’s also vegan friendly as it contains cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter, emulsifier – soya lecithin, vanilla (Allergy advice: Contains soya, may contain traces of peanuts, nuts, and milk). It might not be the best chocolate you’ve ever eaten, but it’s definitely worthy of your consideration and is sold for a great price. Read my homemade hot chocolate recipe here.

If you are looking for a more high quality chocolate, then I recommend the Moser Roth Chocolate range which comes in Ghanaian 35%, Peruvian 62%, and Dominican Republic 75%. My favourite is the Peruvian. My only gripe with this product is the excessive packaging, as within each pack the chocolate is individually wrapped into smaller portions which I think is unnecessary.

Cheese

I’m really impressed with the range and quality of cheese at Aldi. My favourite everyday cooking (and snacking!) cheese is the Emporium Extra Mature British Cheddar. It comes in different strengths and as white or orange cheddar. I prefer the strongest 5 strength. It is perfect for lasagne, cheese toasties and cheese toppings. I love to steal a mouthful of grated cheese when I’m cooking with it. I also use the Specially Selected Parmigiano Reggiano as parmesan hard cheese in my cooking. It’s been matured for 30 months.

For a more luxury cheddar, I like the Specially Selected Crunchy Cheddar range, the soft goats cheese rolled in herbs and the Red Leicester and Red Fox which are delicious melted on a burger patty. But my absolute favourite Aldi cheese is the Specially Selected Spanish Manchego cheese. I just can’t get enough of this one.

Crackers

Since we’re talking cheese, it makes sense that we move on to crackers. I love the Specially Selected Gourmet Savoury Crackers range. There are three flavours including Black Pepper, Sea Salt, and my all time favourite, Rosemary, which has a slightly different, more flaky texture than the other 2. The Black Pepper is my second favourite.

Wine

What goes with cheese and crackers? A good wine of course. Aldi have a great range of budget, mid-range, and more expensive wines to choose from. Personally, I’m a bit of a wine snob so I’m not a fan of their cheapest wine, but there are many good ones to be found in the mid-range selection from a variety of countries including New Zealand, South Africa, US California, Argentina, and France. The prosecco is not bad either.

Spirits

Aldi get some really good gins, whiskey and other spirits in store as special buys, some of them are award winning. Look out for them as they sell out quickly, particularly around Christmas.

Steak

Grab a nice Aldi red wine and fry up a quality Aldi steak. We buy the 28 day Specially Selected range of steaks. I love that they are individually packed so we can each choose the cut we prefer. I always go with the rib eye and my husband likes sirloin. You can also choose from fillet and rump. I serve these steaks with a buttery Bearnaise sauce, fried mushrooms and some good chips.

Coffee

I’m not a coffee drinker, but my husband likes to make himself a coffee using a hob espresso maker, so he buys ground coffee. The Specially Selected range have a good selection of beans to choose from including Ethiopian, Colombian, Kenyan, and Rich Java. My husband likes the Ethiopian and Colombian, but I know coffee is a very personal taste, so choose your favourite flavour.

Porridge Oat Bars

I went into Aldi this weekend and was excited to find them selling what looks like Stoats Porridige Oat Bars that have been re-branded for Aldi as Brochan. I did a quick Google search and found out that this is actually the name of their porridge cafe in Edinburgh. The packaging looks identical except for the different brand, however, they are being sold at a fraction of the price than they do at the other supermarkets. This was a real find for me as the supermarket I get my deliveries from had stopped stocking them. I love these oat bars as they are both yummy and filling, not like those other crappy snack bars on the market. They are made in Scotland and come as a pack of 4 x 50g bars and come in several different flavours. I love the raspberry and honey.

Frozen Berries

Aldi have a great selection of frozen berries at an affordable price. I love the Four Seasons Summer Fruits mix which includes raspberries, blackberries, and black and red currents. There is also a Black Forest Fruits collection but I’m not a fan of cherries, and in the mixed berries pack it has strawberries which I don’t think freeze well. I like my berry mix for breakfast on granola and natural yoghurt with a squirt of honey (Aldi honey is very nice too). I also love the frozen raspberries which I sprinkle onto my brownies before popping them in the oven. I also use them to naturally flavour the marshmallows I make to go with my homemade hot chocolate in winter. The frozen blueberries also work great in the blueberry buttermilk pancakes my husband makes.

Maple Syrup

I fell in love with maple syrup when I visited Canada in my early 20’s. But most of the maple syrup on the market is just the cheap maple flavoured syrup and is not actually maple syrup. The maple syrup that the supermarkets stock is expensive. That’s why I love Aldi’s Specially Selected Canadian Maple Syrup – Grade A. It’s a reasonable price and tastes delicious. My husband makes fluffy buttermilk pancakes and we love pouring this all over them. I love it when he adds blueberries to the batter as well and we’ve used both the fresh and frozen blueberries from Aldi to make them.

Coconut Oil

I love to cook with coconut oil and also use it in my DIY beauty products and in my natural dandruff treatments. This Coco Loco coconut oil is surprisingly cheap, especially considering it is cold pressed 100% raw, organic and extra virgin. It is smells delicious and fresh. It also has a lovely gloss and tastes really good.

Cling Film

The cheap cling film from other supermarkets is really thin and poor quality, so I buy the Alio Cling Film from Aldi. The 75m roll lasts a long time too and has a good metal cutter on it.

Dishwasher Tablets

After a friend recommended them, this is what originally drew me to shop at Aldi. They have several dishwasher tablets to choose from and I can recommend them all, but I now use the cheapest kind, Magnum Classic which come in a big 50 box. They also sell cheap dishwasher salt at Aldi too.

Toilet Paper

Some people don’t seem to care much about the quality of toilet paper they buy, but I hate the thin single ply or even double ply toilet paper. I like Aldi’s Saxon Superior 3 ply 18 pack. It’s thick, soft and good value.

Tampons

I like the Florette Applicator Tampons so much that I reviewed them in my post here. There are three types of absorbency available; regular, super, and super plus. I used Tampax for over twenty years and these Florette tampons are so similar that I can’t tell the difference between the two. Their performance and quality are exactly the same. It’s even difficult to distinguish between their product packaging colors and design.

Lacura

Lacura is Aldi’s famous skin care range. It shot to fame in 2010 when its serum beat it’s more expensive rivals by winning best intensive anti-ageing serum in a series of blind tests carried out in the UK. Since then Lacura has been a popular range of skin care for those in need of a quality, cheap skin care that really works. Check out my in depth product reviews on the Lacura range of skin care.

The Basics

If you are doing your major shop at Aldi then there are lots of bargains to be found here, including the veg, meat, eggs, milk, oil and spreads etc.. are all good quality. Sadly, unlike Lidl, there are no nice fresh baked goods.

Have You Tried the Aldi Range of Products?

Let me know in the comments below if you have tried any of the products in the Aldi range and whether you liked them or not.