Do flavoured mayonnaises appeal to you? When the waiter delivers my pub lunch and asks if I’d like any sauces, I know I’d be sending the mayonnaise back if it tasted of bacon, mustard or pesto.
And if you’re anything like Which? Convo editor Patrick Steen, you might even hate mayo whatever the flavour.
Yet, despite my not liking it, flavoured mayos are on the rise; Hellmann’s sells four flavoured varieties and Branston sells five. And there are plenty more to choose from if you like your mayo a little out of the ordinary.
A quick look at Tesco’s site shows that you can buy mayo flavoured with aioli, chilli, dijon mustard, garlic, lemon and garlic, mustard and onion, pesto, piri piri, roast garlic and black pepper and sweet chilli.
Hellmann’s is mayo-market leader
Despite the emergence of exotically flavoured mayos, traditional full-fat and light varieties still dominate the market with Hellmann’s real and light varieties accounting for more than 60% of all mayo sold in the UK.
There’s a big difference in fat content between the two types, but is there a difference in taste between the two?
To find out, we asked 36 staff from our Customer Service Centre to taste Hellmann’s Real Mayonnaise and Hellmann’s Light Mayonnaise to tell us which one they liked the taste of best.
Full-fat mayo versus light
Each mayo was tested blind and 26 of our tasters told us that they preferred Hellmann’s Real Mayonnaise’s ‘richer taste and thicker consistency’ to Hellmann’s Light, which one tester told us was ‘nice but a bit bland’.
So despite the popularity of light mayo (more than a third of Hellmann’s sales are Hellmann’s Light), it seems that real, full-fat mayo is still the people’s favourite.
But where do your preferences lie? Are you a full-fat fan or a lover of light? Have you been adventurous enough to dip into any flavoured mayo varieties?