Pimm’s v Jeeves

The sun’s out and Wimbledon’s on. This can only mean one thing – ding-ding-ding! It’s time for an alcoholic fruit-based punch taste test.

Although I love Pimm’s as a true bargain hunter I hate having to pay over the odds for it, so I recruited my MSE colleagues to  try out Lidl’s cheaper version to see if they could taste the difference.

The contenders

In the red corner – one litre of Pimm’s (given a royal warrant by the Queen, no less), on offer for £10 until Sunday 6 July at Morrisons (usually £16-£20).

In the blue corner – one litre of Lidl’s Jeeves (very butler-esque) for £5.99.

The look

The bottles are very similar to look at. They’re pretty much the same shape, and the colour of the liquid’s the same. There are even similarities in the white labels – golden trim and red font.

The taste test

So they look the same – but do they taste the same? I added the same amount of punch drink, along with lemonade, strawberries, oranges, cucumber, mint and lime (which I was told was Pimm’s sacrilege).

I asked everyone to tell me anonymously which one they preferred. Here are some of the comments…

Jug A “I prefer the texture”, “this one is stronger”, “tastes like diet Pimm’s”, “the best and original”, “strongest and tastiest, 40 – love”.

Jug B “it was delicious”, “sweeter and tastes nicer”, “has more of an after-taste”, “sweeter but weaker”.

The results

It was a close one, with Jug A getting 11 votes and Jug B getting 12. Which means the winner is… *drumroll*

Jeeves!

The overall opinion was that Pimm’s was stronger (at 25% rather than 17.5%) and Jeeves was sweeter. So it pretty much came down to that. However, when you consider the votes were pretty equal, you’ll definitely save some cash buying Jeeves at almost half the offer price.

Forumites have also had this discussion, comparing Aldi’s version, called Austin’s, with Pimm’s. And guess what? Most preferred the cheaper Aldi version too!