All my food threads come to me when I’m eating, lol. Like now, eating breakfast…
Are there any products for you that brand truly matters? For some people it’s ketchup - only Heinz!
For me recently, it’s cottage cheese. Kroger cottage cheese just doesn’t measure up. I try to only buy Good Culture 4% - it is a HUGE difference in taste/texture to me.
Another product for me is jam/preserves. Smuckers is not landing in my cart (although actually it does because that is the only one H will eat!) Bonne Maman, many flavors, is worth the extra price for me. I try and stock up when it’s on sale. I also do a happy dance when Costco occasionally stocks it.
Alternatively, are there products where brand really doesn’t matter - the one that is cheapest is what lands in your shopping cart. I’ll cut corners here with sour cream. I have to have sour cream, but I can make any brand work.
Look forward to your takes. Where food brand matters and where it doesn’t.
I recently bought Kroger cottage cheese and had to toss it. All I could taste was sodium overload. I’ve never had that issue with other brands.
Brand names I will pay more for (but I sale shop as much as possible): Fage yogurt, Kraft/Sargento/Tillamook cheese (I’ve tried store brands - nope), Bob’s Red Mill old fashioned oats, King Arthur flours.
Interesting to note that for me (and many others who have posted so far) that DAIRY products are a popular choice to go name/specific brand.
And to that I’ll add in ICE CREAM. Not just any brand will do. There are a few “go-to’s” that work. Kroger Private Selection is actually decent. Big Homemade Brand fan. Tillamook is also very good. Had a Bonne Maman ice cream that was VERY good in the pint size field.
Carr Valley makes great, great cheese. Every time I go up to Wisconsin to visit the folks, I grab some from the small store/cheesemaking facility located five minutes from their house. It’s the most awarded cheese company in the world, but you wouldn’t know it from the look and size of that store.
I love cheddar, and theirs are the best I’ve ever had. I usually grab a 5-year, a 3-year, and a 1-year. Sooooooo good. They make like a hundred kinds of cheese, and they are available online. They’ve won hundreds of awards at the state, national, and international levels. Highly, highly recommend.
At least for us it’s the fact of presence of hormones in milk that makes us consider organic or brands with the least amount of ingredients for dairy products specifically.
Agree on cheese. Instead of go for brand, we mostly do by type and always made in Europe. We avoid American cheese and do not buy shredded. We are shredding from a brick at home to avoid all chemicals added for not caking. For soft ones if made in France and got to the US, it is most likely good. We are cheese family. I always have at least 4-7 types of cheese in the fridge.
on Diet Coke