olive Christmas supermarket awards 2016

Best Christmas fizz

Winner: Aldi Veuve Monsigny Champagne Brut. This is a very accessible and affordable champagne with a creamy finish. £9.99/75cl

Highly commended: M&S Monticella Prosecco Superiore. A great buck’s fizz contender, this is a light and easy-drinking prosecco with a strong pear nose. £15/75cl

Canapés

Winner: M&S 10 Mini Scallop En Crôutes with Champagne Sauce. An innovative, fun and luxurious canapé in a light sauce that delivers its promise of fizz. £9/150g

A ready-made cheeseboard

Joint winner (A): Asda Extra Special Cheese Selection. A stellar selection of cheeses, each prime examples of their kind (great gouda and a strong red), but subtle enough to please every palate. £6/590g

Joint winner (B): Co-op Irresistible Luxury Cheese Selection. A top-quality selection of strong, pokey cheeses including a fab brie and creamy, piquant blue, presented in a rustic tray. £7/550g

A standout starter

Joint winner (A): Iceland Luxury Lobster Thermidor Tails. An easy, cook-from-frozen option that’s special enough for the festive period. £12/300g

Joint winner (B): Ocado Scallop & Pea Fricasse Gratin. An indulgent, creamy queenie scallop and pea filling topped with a crunchy crumb and served in scallop shells for extra wow factor (and to save on the washing up!). £6/280g

Smoked salmon

Winner: LIDL Deluxe Oak & Applewood Smoked Scottish Salmon. Well balanced with a nice smoke, caramelised flavour and rounded creaminess. £2.29/100g

Highly commended: Booths Whole Mulled Port Marinated Smoked Salmon. An impressive, pre-sliced whole side of salmon with subtle Christmas spicing. £28/800g

A ready-made side dish for Christmas Day

Winner: M&S Three Squash Bake. With roasted squash, lentils for added texture, cheese sauce and a crisp crumb, this is a properly comforting side dish. £5/300g

A vegetarian main course

Winner: M&S Two Butternut and Sweet Potato Rösti. This veggie dish looks and tastes really fresh and homemade. It packs in plenty of texture – its rösti base is topped with kale, slices of squash, silky onions, feta, crunchy pumpkin seeds and a zingy bright green pesto. £6/500g

All the trimmings

Winner: LIDL Deluxe With Love Garnish Pack. The stuffing stood out in our taste test for its great texture and subtle blend of herbs and spices. £3.99/392g

Best fish centrepiece

Joint winner (A): Co-op Irresistible Side of Salmon with Orange and Cranberries. The flavours and herbs in this salmon side are well balanced. The sweetness gives the fish a lift but is tempered by tart cranberries. Warning: very moreish! £8.99/775g

Joint winner (B): Booths Poached Salmon & Prawn Centrepiece. With tender salmon, juicy prawns and dill cream, this impressive dish looks and tastes great. £29/1kg

Best food gift under £20

Joint winner (A): M&S Oudinot Champagne Truffles in a gold jar. There’s substance behind style in this beautiful presentation jar. The artisan chocolates contain a smooth ganache with a boozy kick. £12/145g

Joint winner (B): Aldi Exquisite Jewelled Layered Pie. A stunning hot-crust pastry pie with well-cooked layers of outdoor bred British pork, chicken breast, paté and glacier fruit with balanced spicing, and just the right amount of jelly. £14.99/1.75kg

The Christmas ham

Winner: Asda Smoked Gammon with Whisky & Ginger Glaze. This moist joint has a delicious glaze to make it extra festive – ideal for a striking centrepiece. £3.50/1.29kg

Best gluten-free Christmas cake

Winner: M&S Hand Decorated Gluten-Free Snowflake Cascade Christmas Cake. With juicy fruit, a great texture and an orange citrus hit, you’d never know this pretty cake was gluten-free. £12/935g

Best gluten-free mince pies

We made these joint winners – we couldn’t tell them apart! Both had light, crumbly pastry packed with plump fruit with just the right level of sweetness.

Joint winner (A): Asda Free From Mince Pies. £1.75/280g

Joint winner (B): Co-op Free From Mince Pies. £1.99/280g

Best food gift over £20

Winner: LIDL Deluxe Serrano Ham Leg. Everyone loves a Christmas ham. This one had a maturity and depth of flavour with a nutty layer of fat that kept us going back for more. £29.99/6.5-7.5kg

Best Christmas pudding

Winner: M&S 8 Month-Matured Vintage Christmas Pudding. A classic example of a Christmas pud with a great shape packed with juicy fruit, spices and nuts, plus a decent whack of booze (port, sherry and cognac). £14/800g

Highly commended: Booths Brandy Port and Walnut Christmas Pudding. If you like marzipan, this is the pud for you. It looks homemade, and has a hint of saltiness for those with less of a sweet tooth. £11/908g

Mince pies

Winner: Asda Extra Special Mince Pies. Well-balanced mince pies that are juicy with nicely-spiced filling encased in great crumbly pastry. £1.25/pack of six

Alternative Christmas drink

Winner: Maynard’s 40-year-old tawny port (Aldi). Absolutely delicious! A beautiful raisin nose – we wanted to keep drinking it all night long. £29.99/75cl

Best frozen dessert

Winner: Co-op Prosecco & Raspberry Meringue Stack. You wouldn’t know this crowd-pleasing dessert was frozen – the layers hold really well and there are contrasting and defined raspberry and prosecco flavours. £5/577g

Highly commended: M&S Raspberry & Blackcurrant Dome. This shimmery dome reveals beautiful, neat layers when cut into. It has a zingy, berry flavour and a moist, almond sponge. £8/470g

A show-off dessert for Christmas Day

Winner: Morrisons The Best Chocolate Christmas Tree. This fabulously kitsch dessert is a stunning centrepiece with defined layers of chocolate mousse, ganache, sponge and feuilletine. £9/410g

Highly commended: M&S Chocolate Pine Cones. These beautifully balanced desserts are unique, festive and have a chocolate sauce centre. £12/540g

How we chose the winners

The olive team chose 20 categories of products you might want to buy to make Christmas entertaining hassle-free. The supermarkets selected the products they wanted to put forward in each category (we only allowed them one entry per category, so they had to choose carefully). The panel tasted them without knowing where they came from, and rated each individually. As well as a few joint winners, we awarded some highly commendeds to those that deserved a mention.

It’s easy to find the products – just look out for this label in supermarkets: