‘Tastes like I remember from childhood’: the best supermarket double cream, tasted and rated

<p>The very best double creams have a wildly complex taste, but which brands are a little scoop of sunshine and which are much of a muchness?</p><p>• <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/thefilter/2026/jan/25/best-supermarket-natural-yoghurts-tasted-rated"><strong>The best supermarket natural yoghurts</strong></a></p><p>This was a tricky taste test, not least because 70% of these creams tasted pretty much <em>exactly</em> the same, which is a clear reflection of how homogeneous our conventional food system has become (much of our cream is made from milk sourced from thousands of farms across the country and mixed together). Even the packaging is more or less identical, with a printed plastic tub and a peelable plastic lid.</p><p>British double cream is about <a href="https://www.dairyuk.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/FINAL-Compositional-Standards-Cream.pdf">48% fat</a>, which is higher than whipping cream (35%) and just below clotted (55% plus). This matters in practical terms because that’s why it whips more firmly, holds its shape longer and is less likely to split when added to a hot sauce. Conventional cream does the job well (it’s white, neutral in flavour and whips well), but <em>really</em> good cream is thick, gloopy and wildly fatty, with an unbelievably complex taste and remarkably nourishing effect; it’s also eminently whippable. Scooping a blob of cream like that straight from the tub can replenish energy and satiate in an almost alchemical way.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/thefilter/2026/jun/13/best-supermarket-double-cream">Continue reading...</a>