Streets Cornetto vs Aldi Crowns taste test

In these times of belt-tightening, you’ve probably considered switching to cheaper private label products to make the most of your budget.

For staples like fresh milk, pasta and paper towels, switching brands may not seem like a big deal – chances are you won’t even notice the difference.

And some supermarket brand products are actually quite good: take a look at the cheaper supermarket own-brand products that outperform the big brands in our tests.

However, when it comes to indulgences like ice cream, we tend to cling steadfastly to our favorite brands and wouldn’t dream of giving them up in favor of cheap supermarket options.

It’s completely understandable: the price may be right, but will the taste be too? Is lower quality the trade-off for a lower price?

Is the taste of the bargain as tempting as the price? Or is it not for nothing that the Cornetto has been around for 65 years?

In search of an answer, we pitted the old Australian favourite, the classic vanilla Streets Cornetto, against Aldi’s copycat version, Monarc Crowns.

Is the taste of the bargain as tempting as the price? Or is it not for nothing that the Cornetto has been around for 65 years?

The CHOICE staff selflessly scoffed both ice creams at once to give you the answer.

CHOICE employees Mel, Liam and Sharon take ice cream testing very seriously.

How we compared cornettos and crowns

This is what we did:

To ensure there was no bias, we instructed our volunteers to perform a blind taste test, meaning they couldn’t tell which ice cream was which.

Testers were asked to taste each ice cream and tell what they thought of it. We also asked them which one they thought was the real Cornetto Classico, and which one they liked best.

Aldi Crowns (left) and Streets Cornetto (right).

And the winner is…

Here’s the scoop: Aldi Crowns was the crowd favorite, and not just by a little bit.

Every taste tester preferred the Aldi ice cream, and every taste tester was absolutely convinced it was the Streets Cornetto Classico.

That’s right: Aldi’s dupes were so good they fooled everyone.

Had they known the price of each ice cream, our testers might have found the Crowns even sweeter. They cost just $3.49 for a pack of four – that’s 95 cents each.

Not only were the Cornettos less popular with our taste testers, they’re also likely to be less popular with anyone on a budget: They cost a whopping $2.25 each – more than twice as much as the Crowns!

The Cornetto Challenge

Are Aldi’s Cornetto dupes as good as the real thing?

Compare the pair

Monarc crowns

92 cents each

$3.69 for a pack of 4

Ice cream (greater than or equal to 10% milk fat)

Contains palm oil

Made in Australia

Street cornetto Classico

$2.25 each

$13.50 for a pack of 6

Frozen dairy dessert with vanilla flavor (less than 10% milk fat)

No palm oil

Made in Italy

Aldi’s affordable vanilla cones were crowned the winner.

What people said about Aldi Kronen:

The ice cream has more flavor and feels creamier
More nuts and chocolate on top
The cone is crispier and remains crispy to the bottom
The ice cream tastes more like vanilla and is a lot denser
Tasty chocolate, especially at the bottom
More chocolate at the bottom

What people said about Streets Cornetto Classico:

The cone is OK, but nothing special
Cone waffle tastes stale
The ice cream is a bit icy and not very creamy
The waffle was crispy at first, but soggy by the time I reached the bottom
The ice cream doesn’t taste ‘real’; it is less dense and seems like it has more air in it
The flavors taste ‘cheaper’

When is ice cream not ice cream?

While it may sound nitpicky, what we think of as ice cream is technically not ice cream at all.

To be sold as ‘ice cream’, a product must contain at least 10% milk fat and 16.8% solid food ingredients.

There are plenty of products in the freezer compartment that do not meet these requirements and are therefore not actually ice cream (according to the letter of the law).

If you look closely, some products may not have the word “ice cream” on the label at all

If you look closely, some products may not have the word “ice cream” on the label at all; they might be called ‘vanilla classic’, ‘creamy vanilla flavour’, ‘original’ or something similar.

While Cornetto Classico’s packaging refers to “fresh milk and cream,” the nutrition panel is a little more specific about what’s actually in the package: “Frozen dairy dessert with vanilla flavor.”

However, the ice cream in Crowns is the real deal. The packaging states that it “contains at least 10% milk fat”.

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