Loyd Grossman's Tikka Masala €2.97 for 425g, €6.99 per kg Highs: This sweet sauce tastes quite tomato-heavy, with lots of citrus flavours at the finish. It is very, very mild.
Lows: Loyd Grossman makes some fine products, so we expected much from this but we were mightily disappointed. If it wasn't written on the jar, we'd scarcely have known this was a tikka masala at all. It lacks substance and the flavours are distinctly bland; while it is made with a significant amount of curry paste, it doesn't have any real spiciness. The lemon flavour tasted a little on the artificial side and it is made with a lot of powdered ingredients - onion, apple and garlic - which would have been okay if it had actually tasted nice, which, sadly, it didn't. It's also comparatively expensive.
Verdict: Disappointing
Star rating: **
Patak's Tikka Masala
€2.67 for 540g, €4.86 per kg
Highs: This robust sauce is really very good. It is, perhaps, the most authentic of the options we reviewed. It is widely available, not excessively expensive and beautifully textured. It is wonderfully spicy and has a unexpectedly strong kick to it, thanks to the cracked pepper, paprika and mustard seeds - although it will not blow your head off. It has a nice, creamy texture and the bits of onion and coriander are readily discernible and actually taste of something.
Lows: It really is surprisingly spicy and while this appealed to Pricewatch, it might put some people off. Beyond that, it is very hard to fault.
Verdict: Top notch
Star rating: *****
Cottage Delight
€4.39 for 280g, €15.67 per kg
Highs: Made with nearly 50 per cent yoghurt and 22 per cent tomatoes, this luridly orange sauce has a lovely creamy texture and a beautifully balanced taste.
It is made up of crisp and clean citrus, curry and coriander flavours which compliment each other nicely without any one of them dominating. While it might not be for every occasion (especially at this price), it might be perfect for making an everyday curry sauce into something just a little bit special.
Lows: It is a whole lot more expensive than the competition and the jar is also on the decidedly small side, so you'll struggle to feed more than two people with it. You'll also struggle to find it in all but the most posh of supermarkets and delicatessens.
Verdict: Gorgeous but too expensive
Star rating: ****
Uncle Ben's Tikka Masala
€2.08 for 500g, €4.16 per kg
Highs: While there is nothing special about this cheap sauce, it is grand; had we not been tasting it alongside some of the more upmarket options, it might have fared even better. It is the most widely available option on the market and also the thickest and gloopiest, so it attaches itself solidly to rice. It has a flavour which might be best described as delicate.
Lows: There's a fine line between delicately flavoured and flavourless, and this comes very close to crossing it. It has no real kick, which might disappoint hardcore curry fans. The ingredient list doesn't tell us what percentage of tomatoes are used in this sauce, which seems somewhat remiss. It is also made with "yoghurt powder", which sounds a lot less appetising than plain old yoghurt.
Verdict: Fine
Star rating: ***
Dunnes Stores Tikka Masala sauce
€1.27 for 500g €2.54 per kg
Highs: This is completely different in taste and texture (and price) to the competition and, while it is nothing special, there's nothing much wrong with it either. This very tomato-heavy sauce made a poor first impression (for reasons we can't quite put our finger on, although the absence of any spicy flavours might have something to do with it), but we warmed to it slightly after a couple of forkfuls. It is the cheapest of the options we tried by a fairly massive margin.
Lows: There is no heat to it at all despite Dunne's claim that it is a medium curry sauce and is not at all creamy - just 6 per cent cream and 3 per cent yoghurt. It lacks anything by way of complexity and seems to have no spice at all in the mix - at least we couldn't taste any in this.
Verdict: Cheap and cheerful
Star rating: ***
