Summer Taste Test Extravaganza!

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Speaker 12 If you haven't scraped the cookie with your teeth off your thumb and your finger, you haven't lived. Did you have, like, did summer even happen? Exactly.

Speaker 12 I'm Christine Zier-Clissette. I'm Kyra Blackwell.
I'm Rosie Guerin, and you're listening to The Wire Cutter Show.

Speaker 12 This episode is called Summer Taste Test Extravaganza.

Speaker 12 Hey, guys. Hey there.
Hi. So today we're doing something a little different.
We're headed on a field trip. Woo! I have been waiting for this moment.
I know, I know. Today is the day.

Speaker 12 We're headed to Wirecutter's test kitchen to do some summer taste testing. I love my job.

Speaker 12 That's right. Wirecutter does some epic taste tests.
We have really fun reviews to things like ramen and barbecue sauce and all sorts of stuff.

Speaker 12 And our team, not surprisingly, does crazy work on these reviews. They go out and they look at everything that's out there and they figure out what to taste.
And it's really, it's pretty fun.

Speaker 12 And so this episode, we're going to taste three summer classic foods. Summer staples.

Speaker 12 Summer staples, if you will. So we're going to try out ketchup, potato chips, and ice cream sandwiches.
Fun. Sounds like a really weird meal, but we'll each be tasting one of these foods.

Speaker 12 Right, we played rock, paper, scissors to figure out who's doing what.

Speaker 12 So, we're gonna talk to some experts today on our kitchen team about how they actually whittled down all these options to make their top picks because there really are so many options.

Speaker 12 And then, the fun part, we're gonna do some taste testing ourselves. Right now, we're gonna take a quick break.
And then, first up is Christine with Antara Sinha tasting ketchup. See you in a sec.

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Speaker 12 Welcome back to the show. We are here in the test kitchen at Wirecutter with Antara Sinha, an associate writer on our kitchen team.
And Antara, I'm really pumped to be here with you today.

Speaker 12 We are going to be talking ketchup, which is something that you know a lot about because you wrote an entire guide to ketchup. Welcome to the show.
Thank you. What did you do for this guide?

Speaker 12 How many ketchups did you taste and what were you kind of looking for in the ketchups?

Speaker 12 Right, so there's actually a whole wide world of ketchup out there, more than we even expected in the research process.

Speaker 12 And so for this guide, we really decided to narrow it down to classic ketchup, nothing flavored or artisanal or local, and specifically to ketchups I can get at grocery stores around the country.

Speaker 12 So, we narrowed it down to 13 ketchups. 13? That seems like a lot.

Speaker 12 It was quite a bit.

Speaker 12 And I think the fun part of this guide is that we also had some kids taste, and they didn't taste 13, but they did taste kind of the big four supermarket ketchups. I was actually at that tasting.

Speaker 12 We had a Bring Your Kid to Work Day, and it was really fun.

Speaker 12 And I was peeking in at all these like toddlers to teenagers tasting ketchup and yeah they were kind of tough i think they have an elevated palate that little an elevated palate but also the best feedback yeah because i was seeing notes that was like this kid didn't eat any ketchup but licked all the salt off the fries and that was a note that i got for you know whatever brand but it was yeah it was fun to read through the notes for that okay so i want to know what makes a good ketchup?

Speaker 12 What were you looking for? Most of our taste tests really break down to the fundamentals, flavor, and texture.

Speaker 12 And so for a ketchup, it really comes down to that balance of we want it to be acidic, tart, sweet, punchy, a really pronounced tomato flavor, but not overly stewy or tinny or preserved.

Speaker 12 And I think we with our eyes first. So texture-wise, we wanted it to be smooth, homogeneous, glossy, not so pulpy, not so much of the water separating from the ketchup itself.

Speaker 12 We also really tested it for how it clinged to fries. So

Speaker 12 we did a little dip test. Yeah.
Now, can you tell me, is ketchup something that we as Americans are into? Are there people in other countries that really like ketchup?

Speaker 12 Like, is it an American condiment, basically? It's ketchup, the way that we eat it in the U.S. is a very profoundly American product.

Speaker 12 Or this guide I interviewed, Professor Amy Bentley, who is a professor of food studies at NYU and is like the de facto ketchup expert in the country. Does she help out on her, like on her bio?

Speaker 12 Not specifically, but we really got into it because she really studies not just the history, but also just kind of the political implications of ketchup.

Speaker 12 Which I don't know if we have time to get into. Oh my gosh, political.
I'm all here. Let's hear about it.
Yeah.

Speaker 12 She really, I don't want to flatten her work, but she did a lot of research about how during the Reagan administration, ketchup was being used as a tool in school lunches, as like ketchup should count as a best vegetable.

Speaker 12 I remember that. I was in school in the 80s, so I remember this.
Exactly.

Speaker 12 But we got into the history, which is really fascinating, which is that ketchup just used to mean preserved fish product. The origins are in China.

Speaker 12 And just by waves of colonization through trade, it made its way to England where it became kind of like any preserved product. Period.
Tomatoes were introduced much later.

Speaker 12 What is the most surprising thing beyond that that you learned? I mean, that feels like maybe the most surprising thing.

Speaker 12 I think the most surprising thing for me was I was fascinated by how much we were all kind of indoctrinated by Heinz.

Speaker 12 My editor and I went into this really thinking we would find some sort of unsung condiment Isle Hero.

Speaker 12 And I think we all have pretty discerning palates, but despite the blind taste test, we all kind of zeroed in on Heinz as our favorite. Yeah.
And the same thing with the kids, too.

Speaker 12 The taste test was for kids between two and 12. And they were using words like, this one tastes the most normal or the most regular.

Speaker 12 And so I think Heinz ketchup has become sort of like the way that Kleenex is tissue, the way that Tupperware is food storage.

Speaker 12 Heinz ketchup on our palate is ketchup and everything else is the deviation from that. I feel like I am a two-year-old.
Like I am all about Heinz.

Speaker 12 So I'm excited to try these ketchups that we're about to try. I do have to ask you, though, what is your opinion of artisanal ketchups? Do you have a pro-con?

Speaker 12 I am pro with the caveat that I want to be warned that it's not Heinz ketchup. I went to like a really lovely cocktail bar with some friends and we got fries with ketchup.

Speaker 12 And I looked to my friends, I'm like, I think something's wrong with this ketchup. And we found out after that, it's like a barrel-aged whiskey ketchup.

Speaker 12 And I'm like, that makes sense with that context.

Speaker 12 All right, so now we're going to taste ketchups. Antara, you have set out this beautiful plate of three different ketchups in front of me.

Speaker 12 I can see the back of the bottles, but I cannot actually see the front. All three of these are picks.
One of these is our organic pick. Okay.

Speaker 12 And then we have one that we like just because it's a little bit different from our standard classic ketchup. And then we have a very classic ketchup.
Okay. That's our top pick.
Okay, great.

Speaker 12 I think I know which one is the Heinz just by the glossiness of it. That Heinz has this like classic fake food gloss to it because it's, I don't know, what is it? What's in it?

Speaker 12 They take their viscosity very seriously. They have a special tool to make sure that the viscosity is homogenous globally.
And is that what makes it so glossy and shiny?

Speaker 12 Yeah, I think it's also just how they process the tomatoes. It's really finely made into this paste that you will notice chunks and flecks of whole tomato in some of the other picks that we have.

Speaker 12 But yeah, I think just really working the tomato paste. Okay.
All right, great. So where should I start?

Speaker 12 Let's start with this one over here. All right.
I am dipping some delicious crinkle fries that you just made in a toaster oven right behind me, which is awesome, into this ketchup.

Speaker 12 This one looks a little chunkier and a little, like, it's very deeply red. I, the, the color is very pretty.
So I'm going to try it. Yeah.

Speaker 12 Oh, whoa. It's good.
It is very tomatoy.

Speaker 12 And it's got a very vinegary taste to it. I'm really tasting the vinegar.
Some of the tasting notes we got for this one was that we were getting some citrusy notes happening in there as well.

Speaker 12 Yeah, I can see that. Yeah.
Yeah. That one, I like that.
I wouldn't be mad if I had that on a hamburger. Yeah.

Speaker 12 I think this is probably closest to maybe some sort of like artisanal or homemade dupe from our picks. Yes.
Okay. All right.
Number two. Let's try number two.

Speaker 12 This one looks a little bit more like tomato paste to me. It's a little bit like a darker red and not as glossy looking.
All right. Let's try it.

Speaker 12 Hmm.

Speaker 12 That one is sweeter. We got a lot of notes because some people said brown sugar, some people were getting even warm spices, like some clove, some nutmeg, some cinnamon in this one.

Speaker 12 We really enjoyed this one just because it felt like not, I don't want to use the word elevated, but like something extra beyond your standard classic ketchup.

Speaker 12 And some people said it would be great to make like a barbecue sauce if you want to base over a meatloaf. Yeah.
Yeah. All right.
I like that. All right.
I'm trying the glossiest. Yeah.

Speaker 12 I think I know which one this is. It's very, very glossy, and it's the most sort of like fire engine red of all of them.
Yeah, I think this is your classic Heinz.

Speaker 12 I'm going to take a, take a wild guess.

Speaker 12 It is definitely the least exciting of all three of these from standards. I'm a little bit surprised.
I thought I would like this one the most.

Speaker 12 It's kind of like a little bit more muted in all the flavors. The other two felt like they were really picking a lane much stronger.
And this one feels like a little bit less everything, a little bit.

Speaker 12 I mean, the texture is great. It's really, really smooth.
And I see why two-year-olds like it. Yeah, for sure.
Yeah. So this is obviously Heinz.
They're top. The third one is Heinz.
Heinz.

Speaker 12 The first one you tasted was Trader Joe's Organic. Oh, wow.
And the second one that you tasted was Whole Foods 365.

Speaker 12 We didn't specifically taste for different categories of sugars, but Trader Joe's is also our pick that uses cane sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup or corn syrup in general.

Speaker 12 So for folks who are looking for that, that's a great tasty alternative. And then Heinz was just, it was just a winner all around.
Kids loved it. We loved it.
You're not going to go wrong.

Speaker 12 You wouldn't go wrong with any of these, I think. I think they're all great, but I'm kind of biased since I wrote the guide.

Speaker 12 Going into this tasting, I really thought that I was going to pick Heinz, but I have to tell you that after tasting these three, I think I'm going with the Trader Joe's.

Speaker 12 I actually felt like that was a much more complex, interesting flavor than the Heinz. And the Whole Foods one was a little too sweet for me.

Speaker 12 I liked the very powerful tomato flavor of the Trader Joe's. So I think that's my pick.
Yeah, that was definitely the most punchiest of our picks on the show.

Speaker 12 Antara, thank you so much. Thanks for having me.
This was so much fun. This was really fun.

Speaker 12 When we're back, we are going to have Kyra on the show with another kitchen writer, Rachel Wharton, tasting chips. We'll be right back.

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Speaker 8 Renovations, extensions, even buying your next property.

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Speaker 12 Welcome back. We're here in the test kitchen, and I'm here with Rachel Wharton, who is a senior staff writer on the appliance team.
Hi, Rachel. Hello, how are you? Thanks so much for having me.

Speaker 12 Of course. So Rachel basically tests all large appliances that have to do with food and cooking.
I'm really excited to talk to you because you actually have a master's degree in food studies, right?

Speaker 12 Academic study of food. So today we are going to be talking about chips.
Rachel, you wrote the guide on chips and let me tell you. You lived the guide on chips.
You really did your homework, right?

Speaker 12 Yes. So can you tell me about the testing process and what you were looking for?

Speaker 12 Well, basically, basically, I had this like workout routine where I moved giant boxes of chips every day for like six months. Nice, but I digress.

Speaker 12 So, actually, I think step one, man, we all had it in our hearts that we were just like, oh, this little chip company from a potato part of the world is gonna win.

Speaker 12 So, what we really wanted to do was our due diligence to try to call in as many small brands as possible, the ones that anyone could order anywhere. So, we spent a lot of time.

Speaker 12 There's a lot of potato parts of the country, and we tried to call a lot of them in. Step two was really tasting them, obviously.
So, we do it blind, put the chips in a bowl.

Speaker 12 We have people fill out their wire cutter spreadsheets, thinking about texture, color, the way they look, salt balance.

Speaker 12 But number one, the first thing we did was we knocked out anything that had defects. Okay.
So we talked a little bit up front about what a defect might be, which is a rancid oil.

Speaker 12 Which, if you know what rancidity tastes like, you can call it out immediately. And if you don't, it kind of just like makes your mouth feel weird.

Speaker 12 And there's like kind of off, sometimes bright flavors.

Speaker 12 There's like the taste of of soil if there's too many eyes or green pieces of the potato. So the first step was we got rid of all the defects.
And then we tasted them again, blind again.

Speaker 12 And again, people filled out what they thought about texture and salt flavor and balance and roastiness and toastiness.

Speaker 12 And then we just talked through all those results to try to weed out any subjectivity to see like where it's salt preference as opposed to like this is a little bit over fried.

Speaker 12 And then we whittled them down to our favorites.

Speaker 12 And amazingly, the two top picks, like the kettle pick and the plain potato chip pick, were like solid winners across the board, which I love it when that happens.

Speaker 12 That always makes me feel like we're doing something right when everyone's like, this is the one. Can you tell me a little bit about why you chose to test plain potato chips?

Speaker 12 Because you got to lay a foundation. You got to lay a base so that we can taste all those magical flavors later on.
So this is the control, and hopefully you're going to branch out. I hope so.

Speaker 12 I mean, we tasted plain because it's very hard. Like the job of comparing flavors, I mean, do we just like pick the best flavor, like the best flavored potato chip of all? Like that's a hard decision.

Speaker 12 And so it's easier to compare plane to plane to plane. But I'm really glad we did because I definitely rediscovered the magic of the plain potato chip.
And how many chips total did you test?

Speaker 12 Oh, I think 70. I think we ate 70, probably like 30 more came.
Oh, my God. Came late.
And then your final contenders, how many picks did you have in your guide? Good question.

Speaker 12 I think it was like seven. I actually don't remember because it was so many because there's potato chips fried in lard, and then there's like three runner-up kettles.
We have a lot of options. Yeah.

Speaker 12 I want to learn what is the most surprising thing that you found during this testing without revealing anything about the pics that we might be tasting today. Well, I was surprised.
I think

Speaker 12 kettle chips, there are a lot of defects in kettle chips, which are fried in different ways than plain chips.

Speaker 12 The oil temperature changes, and they're often small batch, and we found a lot of defects in that category, which kind of surprised me because it's kind of like the beloved hot potato chip category right now.

Speaker 12 And we also found a ton of defects in international brands, which are always more expensive. And we thought that they would taste better because they were Spanish olive oil.

Speaker 12 We found there's a lot of defects there, and there's also a lot of defects in the smaller brands, which may be because they are meant to be eaten there, where they're made, and not to be shipped.

Speaker 12 to a New York City kitchen and sit around on the floor in a box for two weeks before we taste them.

Speaker 12 So we were surprised that the things we thought would be the most beloved actually turned out to be the least good. Okay, my last question for you before we start tasting.

Speaker 12 What is your perfect setting for eating a potato chip? There are two favorites.

Speaker 12 One is actually on a road trip, like and you find a local bag of potato chips and you have it in the car and it's like open next to you while you're driving. That's good.

Speaker 12 Or two to your dog in the back seat because they have to enjoy two. That's number one.

Speaker 12 And the second one is with a hoagie from Philadelphia because Philadelphia makes the best sandwiches in the world. So you like chips with the sandwich, maybe in the sandwich.
Yes.

Speaker 12 Maybe crushed up on a hot dog. So those are my two faves.
Oh, good choices.

Speaker 12 Okay, Rachel. So I see we got three bowls and we got three bags, but each bag does not match with the bowl.
So which one should I taste first? You should taste the one that's closest to you first.

Speaker 12 Okay. It just looks like a chip to me.
I'm not really a chip expert, so I'll just taste it. Like the heather's nice and whole.
That's right. It's got a little golden.
Yeah. Not too greasy.

Speaker 12 There's not too much sheen. Yeah.
And it's got little bubbles.

Speaker 12 Smells like a potato. Excellent.
That's an excellent sign. They're so cute.
Look at those potatoes.

Speaker 12 It's definitely not kettle fried because it's still soft-ish and crispy. It doesn't have much salt to it.
It's very perfectly balanced, roasty, a little roasty, a little toasty, a little salty. Yeah.

Speaker 12 This is like a classic.

Speaker 12 I can imagine getting a bag of these at like summer camp and not being mad at it. Yes.

Speaker 12 Which one should I try next?

Speaker 12 Try these right here that are a little bit paler. Definitely thinner.
And you can see some like brownie spots. Yeah.
But these don't have the air bubbles like the first chip. Yeah.
They're very thin.

Speaker 12 Maybe a little bit more sheet. Right.
See a little transparency there. You can look right through it.
And it doesn't have much of a smell.

Speaker 12 This one actually isn't my favorite. Did you like that one better? No.

Speaker 12 This just tastes like potato. Oh, and very wearable.
Like a real potato, but a potato. Okay.
Very simple. So this is the last one.
I can tell that it's kettle cooked. Yes.

Speaker 12 They're like wrinkly and roller coastery and dark brown and all curled up on on each other. Roller coastery, yeah.
This one's going to take me for a ride. Yeah.
Amazing.

Speaker 12 Listen to that crumb.

Speaker 12 This one's.

Speaker 12 She is a ride. Yeah.
It's a lot to get through.

Speaker 12 Definitely more like oil-heavy, that fried taste.

Speaker 12 It's got a little bit more salt, like a little bit more flavor.

Speaker 12 Yeah, fully flavored chips. Yeah.

Speaker 12 Honestly, the kettle chip is just so different from these two. Yeah, that makes sense.
The ones you like the most are our top pick. And, oh man, they're from Amazon Fresh.

Speaker 12 We tasted them blind. We didn't know who was going to win.
Really? But our top pick is Amazon Fresh potato chips.

Speaker 12 You know, they're obviously hiring the best potato chip maker in the country so that they can have thousands and millions of these chips shipped out everywhere, anywhere, all at once, and they taste really good.

Speaker 12 They're really good.

Speaker 12 We were all really surprised. So what are these? Those are Clancy's.
Those are from Aldi. And these are the ones that actually our salt lovers on the panel like really like these.

Speaker 12 They're a little bit saltier. I remember someone saying they have an oil flavor like McDonald's in a good way, which is actually like the highest praise in any tasting panel ever, typically.

Speaker 12 Those are really good too. Okay.
And a little toastier. Yeah.
And then the last is our Deep River kettle chip pick, which everybody loved. And kettle chips, there was not a lot of love.

Speaker 12 So it was like really nice to find one that everybody liked. I mean, I do like it.
It's a good kettle chip.

Speaker 12 Thank you so much for being here, Rachel. Thank you so much for having me.

Speaker 12 Coming up next, Rosie is going to join Marguerite Preston in the test kitchen to talk about probably the most summary of all treats: ice cream sandwiches.

Speaker 12 I'm here with Wirecutter's editorial director of Home, Marguerite Preston. Hello.
Hello. Nice to see you.
Nice to be here. Today we're talking ice cream sandwiches.

Speaker 12 How did the idea to do a guide on ice cream sandwiches come about? So this was actually one of our like really early taste tests. This was kind of like deep in the pandemic.
We were all a little sad.

Speaker 12 We wanted to do like a fun summer set of things. And so the writer Rachel Saricola pitched us on a taste test of ice cream sandwiches and we couldn't say no.

Speaker 12 How did you decide what was going to be included in terms of there's always a place where you need to start because you can't test every single ice cream sandwich that's ever been made so where did you figure out was the place to start?

Speaker 12 So we decided that the sort of obvious place to start was the really classic chocolate wafer vanilla ice cream ice cream sandwich. Quintessential.

Speaker 12 Yeah, it made it easier to do like apples to apples comparison rather than like, well, I like coffee ice cream and I like mint chip.

Speaker 12 And for the purposes of this, this was just like the most straightforward way to do it. But you did test some non-dairy options in addition to the straight classic vanilla ice cream center.

Speaker 12 Yes, that's right. We thought it was important for people who don't want to eat dairy for whatever reason.
So we did nine dairy ice cream sandwiches and then we did three non-dairy.

Speaker 12 So what were the criteria that you guys were looking at? I mean, obviously there's the flavor. There's the flavor of the cookie and there's a flavor of the ice cream.

Speaker 12 And for me, it's like the cookie is supposed to taste a little bit like chocolate. You know, it's not a super, none of these are super chocolatey, but it shouldn't taste.

Speaker 12 Some of them legit tasted just like a graham cracker or something. And that, to me, was not

Speaker 12 what we were going for. Yeah.
There's also the textural thing. A lot of ice cream sandwiches use kind of a more inexpensive ice cream.
It has a lot of air churned into it.

Speaker 12 you know, is going to be kind of foamy on the tongue, maybe not tastes like much of anything. The better ones, it tastes like vanilla ice cream.
It's a nice, thick, creamy texture.

Speaker 12 It has some real vanilla flavor in it. Yeah.
And then, you know, the textural, there's the sort of textural experience of the whole ice cream song.

Speaker 12 I am familiar. Tell me about that.
What fruit cream? It's got to be soft. It's got to have kind of like melded with the ice cream a little bit.

Speaker 12 The nightmare is it all sticks to the wrapper and like you can't, you know, you're like scraping it off with your teeth. You need some stickage to know that it's going to be right, exactly.
Yes.

Speaker 12 If you haven't scraped the cookie with your teeth off your your thumb and your finger, you haven't lived. Did you have, like, did summer even happen? Exactly.

Speaker 12 Let's do this.

Speaker 12 Okay.

Speaker 12 Oh, they're in this freezer.

Speaker 12 Okay, so if I'm like, if I have a Thanksgiving plate, I eat through the thing that I like the least first. First.
So I'm going to start with that. For the non-dairy.

Speaker 12 Or what I imagine is the non-dairy.

Speaker 12 Let's taste.

Speaker 12 Strong vanilla flavor, strong coconut flavor, which is suggesting to me that this is a non-dairy

Speaker 12 coconut alternative. Love.
I can appreciate and really like this for what it is.

Speaker 12 But like, don't give me tofu. and tell me that it tastes like chicken.
I love tofu. It doesn't, it's not chicken.

Speaker 12 I feel exactly the same way.

Speaker 12 I like the coconut flavor, but it is better than the flavor of soy ice cream.

Speaker 12 No, I will say the consistency is nice.

Speaker 12 The ice cream tastes nice. I'm not, I don't have any complaints.

Speaker 12 Okay, so let's go.

Speaker 12 Let's go square. Let's go around the horn.
Go square. Okay, stickage test.

Speaker 12 Yeah.

Speaker 12 Getting sticky.

Speaker 12 Right off the bat. This is full.
This is like pushing out the sides, which I kind of like.

Speaker 12 Oh, that's so good. I don't get a lot of the cookie because there is a lot of ice cream here.
It is jam-packed.

Speaker 12 I'm just so happy with the stickage, and I really like the taste of this ice cream. To me, this is like that fluffed-up thing that you're talking about.
Yes, and you're right.

Speaker 12 I think in the guide, we described this as like the cookie is basically a holder for a scoop of ice cream. The cookie doesn't give that much.
It also like doesn't taste that chocolatey to me.

Speaker 12 It tastes like this is a little graham crackery. There's nothing that's screaming chocolate.

Speaker 12 Round.

Speaker 12 Fine stickage.

Speaker 12 I'm fine. But nothing special to you? No.
No. And an aftertaste I don't care for.
Oh, interesting. The ice cream's okay.
It's a little more like Oreo-like to me. This is not it for me.
Really?

Speaker 12 This isn't making me that happy. What do you like about this? If you let the ice cream melt a little bit, it's very smooth.

Speaker 12 I think it has a real vanilla flavor. Some of these, I think, are probably using vanillin, which is artificial vanilla, which is a vibe and kind of gets at that nostalgic ice cream sandwich thing.

Speaker 12 I get chocolate from this cookie. I get like Oreo from this cookie, which I like.

Speaker 12 Okay, so then this to me is

Speaker 12 what's better than this? It's gorgeous. Just like a very satisfying

Speaker 12 shape and weight. Yeah, to me, this looks like a Nestle or a hood or a,

Speaker 12 you know, one of the like a good humor if you look closely you can see the ice cream though has this kind of like nice ivory color it does yeah they might have made this ice cream with a little bit of egg yolk

Speaker 12 does it taste like summer

Speaker 12 this is it for me so perfect ratio it's just right yeah solid cookie it's solid it's not as sweet as the second one the square one was very very sweet

Speaker 12 I want to eat a whole thing. Okay.

Speaker 12 Do you want the reveal? It's right here. What am I eating? Whole Foods 365.
Wow. This is our top pick.
It is a top pick.

Speaker 12 I mean, you know, these taste tests, they're all subjective. We have a handful of picks, but this was kind of, I think, yes, the unanimous favorite.
Classic.

Speaker 12 The most what you might grab on an ice cream truck. Yeah.
Yeah. What we used to have as kids.
I think it's a little elevated from what you might grab on the ice cream truck.

Speaker 12 Like the ice cream is a little better. Yeah.
And the cookie was nice too. It was everything you want and nothing you don't.
Exactly. What is the second pick here?

Speaker 12 So our round one is Alden's Organic. Real organic vanilla.
Yeah.

Speaker 12 It didn't lean far enough in one direction or another. Yeah.
It did everything fine.

Speaker 12 That's fair. I get that.
For me, this would be the one I might buy for myself. Okay.
So then what about the square one? What was that? The square one was fat boy. Thick and creamy since 1925.
Yeah.

Speaker 12 It's like an old school brand. See, this one is not for me because it's too much ice cream for me.
But I do think the flavor flavor is good. Solid option, especially if you like ice cream.
Cool.

Speaker 12 And then the first one, was I right? So delicious vanilla bean coconut milk. This I thought was actually very, very, very nice.
Yeah. I liked this a lot.
Yeah.

Speaker 12 This was the best of the three non-dairy ones that we tried because of the coconut, I think, tastes most dirty. But we also did the Tofuti Cuties.
Okay. Classic for a reason.

Speaker 12 And then Aldens makes a non-dairy version of this ice cream sandwich.

Speaker 12 It's a mishmash. It's got some coconut, it's got some other stuff.
Got it. I think we found that that one tasted the most kind of like real vanilla-y to us.

Speaker 12 Yeah, like the dairy version, the non-dairy version was more expensive. You got the four-in-the-box.
Like, you know, there we go.

Speaker 12 I feel pretty heartened that the one I hoped would be the winner was the winner.

Speaker 12 Thanks, Marguerite. Thanks for having me.
This was really fun. This was great.

Speaker 12 We're back in the studio. Yeah.
We are wiser now. We are wiser.
We need solar. That's right.
What did you all like? What were your favorites? Ooh, can I go first? Yes, please.

Speaker 12 So I've learned that I have a problem, and is that I think I eat too much salt. Oh.
So I tested potato chips and all of them tasted good, but not salty enough for me. Interesting.

Speaker 12 Interesting. Yeah, I think I need to, I don't know, refine my palate, but I was really surprised to find that the Amazon chips were the best out of the bunch that I tasted.

Speaker 12 I just kind of don't want to hear that. And nobody wants to hear it, but it also isn't surprising.
Like, who's making those chips for Amazon? Probably somebody pretty good. Yeah.
Like Jean-Georges.

Speaker 12 You never know.

Speaker 12 Fair enough. Christine, how'd you do? I was surprised.
Going in, I thought I was going to like Heinz because that's the classic. I know the kids like it.

Speaker 12 I get kind of grouchy when I go to a restaurant and there's like artisanal ketchup. I just want the Heinz.
But actually, I liked the Trader Joe's, which was really surprising.

Speaker 12 Yeah, I love the Trader Joe's ketchup. I have gotten that Trader Joe's ketchup and been like, oh, we should have Heinz and gotten the Heinz.
But you're more mature.

Speaker 12 Well, yeah, but it was just much more pronounced, the tomato flavor. It just tasted really good.
And the Heinz was not bad. It just kind of tasted a little bit flat.

Speaker 12 There's a reason why it's a good sort of like, everyone likes it kind of a thing. Trader Joe's also does like the organic thing, right? So it it doesn't have the high fructose whatever.

Speaker 12 You know, I think that's probably right. I need to go back and look at the back of the bottle, but I could go back to my fridge and look because I do have some in there.
What about you, Rosie?

Speaker 12 I am a purist when it comes to ice cream sandwiches. So I actually liked what I thought I would like.

Speaker 12 However, I was surprised that it came from Whole Foods 365. They're like sort of house brand.
Another Amazon take. I know.
I know. Oftentimes these house brands do pretty well in our taste tests.

Speaker 12 You see whole foods pop up. You see Targets.
Targets. Yeah.
Now we've got Amazon. Yeah.

Speaker 12 They're doing something right. Yeah.
I'll tell you what. That tasted like

Speaker 12 the summer of your.

Speaker 12 It was everything you wanted. The right consistency, the right distribution of ice cream to cookie.
Was it the right size? It was the perfect size. Fit right in.
Was it a rectangle?

Speaker 12 It was a rectangle. We don't mess around.
You just don't, you don't need to mess with a good thing. I will also say, I liked the so delicious vegan.
Yeah, the coconut cream ice cream. Who knew?

Speaker 12 Oh, I love those. They were really, really nice.
The consistency was nice. The cookie was nice.
There was not quite enough ice cream in there pushing out to the sides like I like. I like it robust.

Speaker 12 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 12 But all in all, it was close. I really liked those.
Shout out to the vegans. Yeah, the coconut headwinds.
Yeah.

Speaker 12 If you want to find out more about Wirecutter's coverage of these summer staples and so many other delicious items, check out the website and check out our video on YouTube where you can see us sort of getting real scientific testing chips, ketchup, and ice cream sandwiches.

Speaker 12 It's a fun time. We went deep.
That's it for us till next week. Thanks for listening.
Bye.

Speaker 12 The Wirecutter Show is executive produced by Rosie Guerin and produced by Abigail Keel. Engineering support from Matty Mazziello and Nick Pittman.
Today's episode was mixed by Catherine Anderson.

Speaker 12 Original music by Dan Powell, Marion Lozano, Alicia Baitoup, and Diane Wong. Wirecutter's deputy publisher is Cliff Levy.
Ben Freeman is Wirecutter's editor-in-chief. I'm Christine Sear Clissette.

Speaker 12 I'm Kyra Blackwell. And I'm Rosie Guerin.
Thanks for listening.

Speaker 12 That's it for us next web.

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