Scotland at the heart of Aldi’s 2019 Christmas range

Supermarket Aldi has revealed its Christmas 2019 menu – and Scottish produce is playing a major part of it.

The budget supermarket is out to impress this year, and proves that having a lower price doesn’t mean there is any reduction in quality.

Scottish Field was invited to join Aldi at their Christmas product launch in London, and we noticed that Scotland will be helping to feed the nation this festive season

Smoked salmon sourced from Scotland is a big part of their seafood starters. The speciality selected salmon loin fillet is everything you would hope – and indeed expect – it to be.

The exquisite rope hung 14 hour smoked salmon is traditionally hand cured with sale and demerara sugar for 24 hours, before being rope hunt and gently smoked for a further 14 hours.

For those looking for a different taste, there’s the specially selected infused salmon side, with a choice of lemon and herb, or lightly smoked Prosecco, cranberry and orange available.

Scottish Field’s real favourite, however, was the specially selected gin smoked salmon trio, including Topaz, Harrison and Gin Lane. The gins and the salmon all combine well, and left us wanting a little bit more. A great sign.

This is a great quality salmon – don’t expect a cheap cut because this is a budget supermarket – and, with this writer having been raised on very good fish, I can heartily approve.

Scotland’s spirits are another big part of the festive range in 2019.

UK buying director Tom Bradley, who was previously based in Scotland at the Aldi Bathgate offices, is particularly proud of their selections.

He said: ‘Our 25 year old single malt is coming in for £39.99, and it’s very popular, at a fantastic price. It has been sourced through Quality Spirits International, which is part of William Grant.

‘We also have a premium blended malt coming into the range.

‘We have a lot of core range Scottish brands. We’ve been working with William Brothers for our winter craft beers, and we’ve agreed a national listing with them. We’re trying to scale up the smaller Scottish suppliers to work with us across the rest of the UK.

‘There’s so many new spirits coming from Scotland, and over the past 12 months have been working to pull together exclusives for Aldi We#re ruthless in terms of our quality expectations – we only want the best.

‘We’ve won 52 awards to date across our spirits range, and we’ve noticed rum is an emerging favourite. We also have the Infusionist gin brand, and we’ve got whisky liquers coming.’

Aside from their Scottish output, we sampled various first class foods. The turkey was tasty and succulent, the two-metre long pigs in blankets is out of this world, and specially selected Yorkshire puddings, loaded with pigs in blankets, are superb.

If you enjoy cheese, then look out for the Wensleydale with white chocolate, raspberry and prosecco – yes, that’s right. White chocolate. This was hugely popular on the day and I had a lengthy wait to get my sample, and boy, was it worth it. I’ll be having one of these as soon as I spot it in my local store.

Of particular note are the number of vegetarian and vegan-friendly creations that are on the way. The retailer is launching 136 brand new lines and changing 200 others. Having sampled various of these, including the vegan parcels and nut roast, as well as the equivalent of sausage rolls, these were all very filling.

However, it was the desserts that particularly grabbed our attention. The golden twist sticky toffee pudding was one I couldn’t leave alone, and the exquisite Florentines were so tasty I wanted to take the whole plate and sneak it into my bag. I didn’t, but I was close!

The Prosecco panettone is a brilliant combination of flavours, while the Moser Roth chocolate selection will have something to suit all palates – milk chocolate, white chocolate, dark chocolate and liquers.

However, I’ve saved the best till last. The exquisite Specially Selected Exquisite Chocolate Bauble was my favourite thing from the whole day. The white chocolate is gingerbread flavoured with a dried fruit and nut centre, and the centrepiece comes in a box with a selection of filled chocolates. I couldn’t get enough of this, and I’m not a big fan of gingerbread. The flavour is smooth and creamy and melts wonderfully in the mouth. I don’t just urge you to try it, I insist!

The Aldi Christmas range will arrive in supermarkets imminently.

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