9Honey's very official ranking of hot cross bun flavours

In a shock upset, today's 'very official' 9Honey ranking has left one unexpected player out in the cold.

We take our rankings very seriously here, pulling votes from social media, friends, family and colleagues. You only get one shot, and while the voting isn't exhaustive, it is a pretty good cross-section of tastes and consumer behaviours. Which is why today's ranking of Hot Cross Bun flavours has left us truly flummoxed.

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In this hot cross buns round, the list of flavours included everything from classic to Caramilk and savoury options, and while the winner was in some ways unsurprising, one of the biggest losers simply makes no sense to us.

If you want to know what makes a good bun, regardless of the flavour, the guidelines are simple: it should be light and fluffy, any ingredients and flavours should be easy to detect and evenly distributed, it should look nice and have a good shine on top, it should also spring back to the touch, and (of course) taste really good.

You can apply these testing guidelines to any kind of bun, no matter what your flavour preference.

So what was the shocking upset that had us gasping? Well, the winner was no surprise, with chocolate buns of any kind outstripping everything else by far.

They were so far ahead that counting the votes was almost pointless, except when we saw Caramilk buns had absolutely not a vote worth counting, which is shocking when we know — we know — just how popular everything Caramilk-flavoured usually is. This non-interest in the hot cross bun version was astonishing.

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So read on to find out where classic buns ranked and rated.

Gold Standard

As mentioned, chocolate Hot Cross Buns are far and away the favourite, with everything from chocolate-studded to double chocolate ticking the Easter boxes for people. We can only assume it's the combined joy of buns and Easter chocolate that makes them the favourite, because at other times of the year chocolate buns just aren't really a thing.

Fighting Chance

Sitting clearing in second position and with far more votes than anything else on the list from here is was the fruit-free version of a hot cross bun. We like them spiced and crossed on top but sans the fruit and peel. We get it — a nice spicy bun is a thing of joy.

Take It or Leave It

Here's where things get interesting. Classic buns sit here, with both the spiced fruit mix with peel and without peel sitting on-par in votes. We like a classic, but not as much as we used to.

In our ranking, the classic sits side-by-side with two regular Easter flavours — white choc-raspberry and apple-cinnamon. Must be a fruit thing.

Yeah, Nah

Caramilk, savoury-style buns (Vegemite, jalapeno and cheese) and brioche-style buns hardly got a vote between them. Maybe it's too much a departure from what we associate with Easter — you know, chocolate and spice.

We still can't fathom the Caramilk one, though. We're scratching our heads.