‘A wonderfully fluffy but crunchy-edged bite’: the best (and worst) supermarket crumpets, tasted and rated

Holey toasters! Some supermarket crumpets are really good – but which ones are best?

• The best supermarket sliced bread

As a crumpet lover, this test was a joy, not least because analysing the inner workings of a crumpet raises some of life’s (almost) most important questions: how holey should it be? Does the number of holes actually matter? What are they made of? And how do they form?

Those holes really do matter, though the number of them on the surface matters less than the crumpet’s internal architecture, which should be well aerated with that classic, honeycomb texture. Remember the old vinegar and baking soda volcano experiment at school? Well, that texture is achieved through pretty much the same process, albeit using food-grade salts rather than vinegar. When the crumpet hits heat, the surface moisture turns to steam, forcing bubbles up through the dough to leave those archetypal surface craters that soak up butter.