On January 6th to celebrate Epiphany, Spaniards typically tuck into a Roscón de Reyes, traditionally a golden brioche ring decorated with candied fruit and sometimes filled with cream.
The cakes, which symbolize the crowns worn by the Three Kings (or Wise Men) on their visit to baby Jesus, traditionally contain a little figurine for children as well as a dry fava bean.
Whoever finds the toy is crowned king or queen of the celebration, while the one who finds the bean has to buy the Roscón next year.
READ MORE: Why Spain loves the Three Kings more than Santa
Photo: Depositphotos
Some come with more valuable prizes, such as a version sold in El Corte Inglés which has hidden one gram gold ingots in 1000 of its cakes sold in the run up to Epiphany, each ingot with an estimated value of around €50.
It has also included three special prizes of a gold ingot weighing an ounce with a value of over €1,000.
Artisan bakeries offer their own homemade varieties but for those who want to pick up one from the store, which one do you choose?
Luckily Spain’s consumer watchdog OCU is on hand to help and has ranked the nation’s roscones according to quality and price which range from €6 a kilo in the cheapest supermarkets to €17 per kg in the Corte Inglés.
The Roscon de Reyes offered by budget supermarket Dia has been crowned the winner as best quality and value for money with its cream filled cake offered at the reasonable price of €9.95 per cake (€11.71 per kilo).
Next in the ranking is Eroski’s version followed by AlCampo.
Behind the top three comes the roscon sold at El Corte Inglés.
The consumer organisation named four roscones as “bad quality”. These are the festive rings from AhorraMas, Mercadona, Aldi, Carrefour and Lidl.
It warned against choosing a cake made with palm oil or vegetable oils instead of butter and cream and advised those who couldn't find one with real cream to opt for the plain variety.
The sweet treat is best teamed with a steaming cup of hot chocolate and the OCU also has that covered with analysis of the best on the supermarket shelves.
La Chocolatera and Reny Picot stand out from the rest as 'very good quality', followed by Valor and Ram, awarded the 'good quality', while Tres cups, Eroski , Alipende (from Ahorramás), Hacendado (from Mercadona) and Paladin only achieve an average quality assessment.
Enjoy!
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