- [Narrator] We are
Sorted, a group of mates who have your back when it
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everything we do starts with you. (upbeat music) - So here we are,
another Pick the Premium. Today two of our normals, Jamie and Mike, will both go head to
head to see if they can blind taste test the difference and pick the premium, more expensive,
of two similar items. How does that sound Mike? - That sounds great. - It sounds like eating food, and I'm always down for that. - We're gonna add a
competitive element to it. The person who guesses the most correctly gets to take all of the
ingredients home with them. - Oh, I like the sound of that. - Aw, excellent. - Are you ready for your first one? - Hit me. (upbeat music) - [Ben] You've got A and B. - Have you given me a
really small loaf of bread? (laughing) - It's a cake. - It is a cake. I have baked you a very
simple Victoria sponge mix, and it is the vanilla that
we're going to discuss. One of these is made with
a vanilla flavouring, and one of them is made with a
more premium vanilla extract. - Lovely moist sponge. - Sweet. - I'm not getting hit in
the face with vanilla. - I'm getting a bit of vanilla. - It's like that subtle
undertone of vanilla flavour that you get in cakes. - Let me try the other one. - Oh, hello. Oh, I'm in Madagascar. That has so much more vanilla to it. - I was very careful to put
an equal quantity of each into each identically weighed out batter. So there is no difference
in the volume that was used. Interesting that you're
getting more vanilla there. - There's an instant difference. This one tastes more vanillary. - It's almost fruity
because of the vanilla. - How often do you get to
just have cake in both hands and just chomp on it? (laughing) - I'm having such a great time. - That is very much a vanilla cake, whereas that is a sponge cake. - But which is the premium? - Oh well now I don't know. - I've been on a journey, but I'm gonna have to
say that this one here tastes far more vanilla
and therefore I think that that's the premium. - B is the premium. - You can take your blindfold off. That's A and B in the right order. You guessed correctly. B is the premium. It's made by basically
macerating vanilla pods from the orchid flower in alcohol. And therefore you get
more than just vanilla. You get all the other
fruitiness of the pod that comes out, which is
why extract, or vanilla bean extract, has a lot more flavour. Whereas the other one,
although it is darker, it has been coloured
with a caramel colouring, is just the vanillin, the chemical that smells like vanilla. - No I thought these would
be the other way around. I thought that would be, the
dark one would be the extract. - Very difficult, usually,
to tell in baked goods I think, in cookies and cakes. Much easier to tell in
a shake or an ice cream. So A works out at £2.63 for 100 millilitres, whereas the Nielson-Massey
vanilla, proper vanilla bean extract, is 11.75 per 100 mil. Quick maths, what is that? Four and a half times more expensive? - On the basis that the
flavour is so much stronger, I think the premium one
is probably worth the cash because you can use less of it, which means it will last longer. But when you do want that
kick of vanilla, it's there. I would buy the more expensive one. - That seems like a no-brainer. I would spend more money
getting the extract. (upbeat music) - Started with cake, can it get better? - I think it might be about to. - Oh yes. - Ah, bread. You can smell it instantly as well. - It feels sourdoughy just in shape. - [Ben] Interesting observation. - Sourdough. - They are both sourdough. - Yes, I shouldn't be a normal. - So one is a sourdough
pre-sliced from a supermarket, and one is a sourdough
that we got from a deli and have sliced ourselves. - Crust on the outside,
chewy on the inside. Taste-wise that delicious mixture of kind of sour, sweet, tangy. - Move on to B. See what you think. (upbeat music) - It's a lot drier. - Taste-wise, this tastes sour, and it's really chewy and delicious. This one tastes nice, but it is denser. It tastes more like bread out of a packet, not freshly cut, freshly baked. - Which is the premium? - I'm going to say A is the premium. - I enjoy this one better. I think this one should cost more. Therefore, I'm going this one premium. - Can you take your blindfold off? - I mean, you're absolutely right. A is more premium. It was bought from a deli,
and we sliced it ourself. B is kind of a premium
higher end loaf, pre-sliced, you'd get from a supermarket. It's got all of the characteristics
that I would associate with sourdough bread, and I
wouldn't have thought twice. And now you give me this and compare it. And this one is more chewy. It's more sour. - I think no matter how
well wrapped packaged is, if you're pre-slicing
bread it is going to go a little bit stale quicker. So another question is that
when can you buy premium? - That's the question, mate. 'Cause it entirely depends on
how much each of these cost. - [Ben] The supermarket sliced
sourdough is £2. And for the same size, weight loaf, the deli one is £4.50. So it is a little bit
more than twice the price. - Throughout lockdown,
obviously one of the massive hobbies that people took up
was making their own sourdough. And I saw so many people
online say you know what, I'm never gonna complain
about paying four pounds or five pounds for a good
loaf of sourdough again. 'Cause they suddenly
appreciated the amount of work that went into making
a really decent loaf. The thought of spending
four or five pounds on a loaf of bread to
me is still a bit alien. But when it tastes that good
and in comparison to that, I would buy it. (upbeat music) (applause) (upbeat music) - [Ben] Spin round. As always, A and B. Two plates this time. Just so you understand what you're eating, it's a plate of penne pasta. It's not the pasta we're judging, it's what it's coated in. - It smells tomatoey. - What are you getting from A? - A rich tomato sauce. - This is gonna be hard. - Try B. Both penne, both cooked
the same time, both seasoned, and dressed in the same way with the same amount of tomato sauce. Oop nearly, try again. - I mean it's a bit of texture there. If it's tomato sauce, I'm gonna
guess it's onion and garlic, but I wouldn't say that there's
massively strong flavours come through there. - They're both close. They're both very close. A is definitely deeper and
richer in terms of tomato flavour than B is. - I feel like this one here
tastes a little bit blander than this one here. I can taste herbs in both of
them, like oregano or basil. - Which one's the premium
if you had to guess? - I don't know. But I'm just gonna have
to say that this one here is my choice for the premium. - Based on flavour, I'd say A is premium. - [Ben] Okay, take off your blindfold. I'll give you a little dish of each. - Instantly on looks,
I'm starting to think maybe I was wrong because this is actually got a redder tinge. It's deeper in colour. - A definitely has bigger flecks of basil. B feels like a tin of chopped tomatoes with some Italian herbs
stirred through it. - Oh, I don't know now. - After seeing it, I'm
happy with my answer. - You actually got that one wrong. - Dammit. - Damn. - The premium, or the
more expensive one, is B. Both examples are made in Italy. It's a higher percentage tomato pulp. They're organic, it's got onions. It's got less tomato puree. Extra virgin olive oil, basil, sea salt. That's it. Whereas A has a lot of extra
herbs, carrot, added sugar, and a few other ingredients,
including as a percentage, twice as much tomato concentrate, which I think probably makes it more tangy and more- - [Jamie] Punchy.
- [Ben] Punchy. - If I was making a tomato sauce at home, I would put as few
ingredients in it as B has. - Price-wise A works out at 50 pence per hundred grammes, whereas
B, where that's your organic, is £1.32 per hundred grammes. So two and a half times more expensive. - As with all of these things,
the artisanal producers will invariably make a better product, and you'll pay more for that. On the other side, you have
to budget with what money you have available, so
it's a bit of give and take in both aspects, isn't it? In complete honesty,
most times I would make my own tomato sauce. However, there are times
when I come home late from work, and I pop by a supermarket. And that's when this information will be really useful to me. - Here's the thing, Ben,
if I want a tomato sauce, and I can't be bothered to make it myself, I'm gonna buy A. If I want a tomato
sauce, and I want to know what ingredients go
into it and the quality of those ingredients,
I'm gonna make my own 'cause I can still make
that cheaper than buying it. (upbeat music) - Okey-dockey, you have
two sides of a scone, slightly warmed with clotted cream and jam. It's the jam we're talking about. You're gonna have to use
your hands for this one, might get it messy. - As if the last
one didn't get messy. - Lovely and fruity,
nice strawberry flavour, quite jelly-like in terms of texture. - I mean, very tasty, B. - [Ben] Okay, oh. (Ben snorts in laughter) - Ebbers. - Right, take two. - That's a different league, Ebbers. - Quite subtle. - I've never said this about jam before, but it's more complex. Texture-wise, it's less jelly-like. It also seems to have an
alcoholic flair to it. - Pick a premium. - Option A is premium. I got a bit of a chunk in there. It tasted very much of strawberry. - B's the premium. - [Ben] Take off your blindfold. - Did I suck it all off,
or were you less generous with the clotted cream? - You went pretty heavy
on the slurpage, yeah. Bang on, you got a point for that. - I'm annoyed I got that wrong. Goes to show like visuals, as
well, make a big difference. - [Ben] B is Confiture
Parisienne, jam reinvented. Traditional revisited
with audacious ingenuity, artisanal attention to detail,
and a splash of fashion. - Sorry, have we moved into a
pretentious ingredients video? - It's grandmother's recipe
for stewed strawberries to keep all the gluttony
of the strawberry heart and the freshness of its juice. The clove is reminiscent
of the woody nodes of the barely picked fruit for a tasting more real than life. (sighs) - Clove is probably what I was feeling with the alcohol. Not burn, but the- - [Ben] The numbing of an alcohol. - The sensation. - And that's probably very fair. - Now I've got a chunk of that strawberry, it does taste amazing. - [Ben] A is supermarket, pretty basic range, strawberry jam. A works out at just 18
pence per 100 grammes. - That's cheap. - [Ben] B is five pounds
98 per hundred grammes. - What? - 33 times as expensive? - There's a C. - [Ben] To add in an extra
element, I made our own. So homemade jam I made
yesterday with in-season British strawberries and vanilla sugar. That was literally it. And that works out at 43
pence per hundred grammes. So more than 10 times
cheaper than the expensive but about twice as expensive
as the supermarket. - Interesting. - The whole fruits is nice. - Now this sits in the middle in price, and absolutely sits in the middle in terms of the balance between the two. - Which is your favourite? - Serve me a scone with
clotted cream and jam, this jam, number A, I would've
been very, very happy. And I'd be happy anywhere that I had that. B is definitely better. - Where is it worth spending the money? - It's worth spending
the money far closer to A than it is to B. (upbeat music) (cheering) (upbeat music) - Last one, two plates. Both of them have steak. - Oh, yes. - [Ben] Both of them
I've done nothing more than season and sear in
a tiny little drizzle of oil and then left to rest. And we've served them
sort of medium rare-ish. - I don't care if it's premium or not. It's steak, and it's delicious. It feels fatty, but actually
when eating it, it's not chewy. You're not chewing through the fat. It does have a lovely
crust on the outside of it. It's well seasoned. Well done, you. A good steaky flavour, I'd say. - Wow. That is so nice. Imagine if this one's the premium. Oh my goodness. - So these are slightly
different in the sense they're not identical products, but though they are both rib eye. One is high welfare, grass
and forage fed beef steak from the U.K., and one
is from Japan, wagyu. - Oh, right, wow. - It feels fattier but
in the best possible way because that fat equals flavour, and that's the best thing about a rib eye. - It's almost 50% fat,
50% meat in a mouthful. And it tastes amazing. And it melts. - The texture is just
completely different. - In what way? - It's like melting butter in your mouth. - Which do you think is the premium? - B is my premium. - I'd say that this is
premium, and this is not. But it's still delicious. - Take your blindfold off. I mean you've scoffed most of it, but- - [Matt] Oh I have. You are bang on. - This is exceptional. - Oh, look at that fat. That steak is almost translucent. - [Ben] We are looking at
premium in terms of price. They are actually both
premium cuts of beef. They're just very different
and priced differently. A, British rib eye, grass and
forage fed, pretty high end on a supermarket range,
25 pounds per kilo. If you're looking at a 200 gramme steak, you're looking at about a fiver. B is black cattle from Japan. It is wagyu, grade A5, shipped to the U.K. and cut here and frozen. This is 200 pounds a kilo, which means your 200 gramme steak is then about 40 quid at cost. - I mean it absolutely tastes phenomenal. - It's not comparable
to an everyday steak. - It is exceptional. When am I going to and going to be able to spend 40 pounds on just one portion of protein for a meal? - When we had the exceptional Wagu at Umu, you think about the size a portion. It was small cubes that
you absolutely savour rather than an eight
ounce or 200 gramme steak. So I think perhaps you eat it
in a slightly different form. - How did you have the nerve to cook it? It feels almost too
premium for me risk losing. - That's a really fair
comment because if you buy in a restaurant, it'll cost
you probably three times that. Because there's gonna be a markup on it. So you'd spend a lot more. So trying it at home is a
much more affordable way of doing it. - You need the confidence that
you know what you're doing to make the most of that. - It tastes amazing. It tastes a lot, lot,
lot better than option A. But option A was still delicious. We're just very fortunate but wow. I mean, if you can get an opportunity, I would 100% say try it once. 'Cause it's worth the money, but you're not gonna
be buying it regularly for steak night are you? (upbeat music) - All in all J, and you
scored four out of five when you were picking the premium. Mike scored three. - Ah. - Yes. - I'm actually really
quite gutted about that 'cause I wanted that steak. - Take out from today? - There are certainly
things that are worth paying for the expertise in making
them, like the sourdough, even if it feels expensive. - Even when you can tell
something is a far better quality, it still doesn't mean
that it's worth spending the money on it. You're more likely to find a happy medium with a less premium but better
value for money product. - But mostly, my take out
is how disappointed I am that I won't eat that wagyu steak again. - You'll have to ask Jamie very nicely. He might share. I doubt it. Over to you guys. What did you think about those five, and, more importantly, comment down below with which ingredient we
should compare next time. - [Narrator] We've also
built the Sorted Club where you can get tonnes
of foodie inspo using the Packs midweek meal app. Discover and share
restaurant recommendations using the Eat app. Listen and contribute to
our Feast Your Ears podcast, and send us ideas for new
cookbooks you'll receive throughout the year. Check it all out by
heading to sorted.club. (upbeat music) And now a blooper. (beep) - Right. Open your mouth. Are your fingers clean? Wipe your fingers. It's like feeding a child.
