The Aberdeen Christmas Market 2021 kicked off with a festive bang yesterday as hundreds of people headed down to Broad Street for the official opening.
While there are plenty of rides and amusements to enjoy, food and drink journalist Karla Sinclair and myself were more interested to find out what tasty festive treats were on offer.
In the interest of research, we decided to head down to the market this afternoon for a bite to eat and to find out what dishes you should, and shouldn’t consider purchasing when out and about.
With price points ranging from a fiver to nearly a tenner, we’ve put four dishes and two drinks to the test to find out if they are worth investing in.
Aberdeen Christmas Market 2021
Making its return for the first time in two years, Codona’s Amusement Park is the firm behind the amusements and food offering.
They have added some new dishes and drinks into the mix, but have kept some old classics on the menus of the various food stalls they have in operation.
The order
The results
So what did our food and drink journalists make of the Aberdeen Christmas Market food and drink offering?
Haggis bon bons
The bon bons didn’t have the spicy, peppery kick Karla or I were expecting them to have.
They lacked any flavour other than haggis and were really soft inside and not crispy enough on the outside like haggis bon bons should be.
Presentation
Karla: 2/5
Julia: 2/5
Taste
Karla: 1/5
Julia: 2/ 5
Footlong Bratwurst
This monstrous footlong hot dog wasn’t that easy to eat – despite it being cut in half. We decided to add sauerkraut to it, but it also came with grilled onions, tomato ketchup and mustard.
The sausage itself didn’t impress me, however Karla enjoyed the flavour more. The bun had started to get soggy which put me off a little, but the onions were nice – and could have been even nicer if they were more crispy and less oily.
Presentation
Karla: 3/5
Julia: 3/5
Taste
Karla: 3/5
Julia: 3/ 5
Belgian fries
I thought the cone of fries looked a little similar to another business’ offering in Aberdeen that I had tried at the Backyard Beach Collective.
The seasoning, which was a bacon, honey and jalapeno one made by Aberdeen firm Angus & Oink was delicious and probably the best thing we tried. Karla and I both adored the seasoning and had we not got the creamy garlic mayonnaise and parmesan cheese sauce, I think these would have been our favourite.
The chips themselves were well cooked, but the sauce was far too creamy for my liking and was just smothered all over the top meaning the chips within the cone didn’t see any covering at all.
Presentation
Karla: 3/5
Julia: 3/5
Taste
Karla: 4/5
Julia: 2.5/5
Dutch pancakes with Nutella and mini marshmallows
Between us I think we agreed that this was the stand out of the taste test.
We both enjoyed the little fluffy pancakes topped with hot Nutella sauce, mini marshmallows and finished off with cocoa powder and icing sugar.
Presentation
Karla: 4/5
Julia: 4/5
Taste
Karla: 4/5
Julia: 4/5
Malibu hot chocolate
If you like your hot chocolate ridiculously sweet then this is for you. And if you don’t it’s maybe best just to stick to the usual offering, or enjoy the deluxe one.
While the flavour of the coconut Malibu was nice, I didn’t think it worked so well in a hot chocolate which was warm.
Presentation
Julia: 3/5
Taste
Julia: 3/5
Mulled wine
Sipping away at a mulled wine was a first for Karla.
The experience could have gone one of two ways (very well or very badly), but she thought it was a straight-up winner.
Although the presentation was rather bleak, it was sweet, spicy, fruity and most importantly, tasty.
Presentation
Karla: 2/5
Taste
Karla: 4/5
The overall winner of the Aberdeen Christmas Market 2021 taste test was the Dutch pancakes with the Nutella sauce and marshmallows receiving a total of 16 out of 20.
