Taste Test
Have you ever wondered if the brand of food you are buying is really the best tasting option on the grocery store shelf? Twice a month, my wonderful brother-in-law, Richard, provides us with an organized taste test for the Winterton family as part of our extended family Sunday dinner. The taste test results are often surprising to me in that I am NOT a generic food buyer. I do LOVE to save money and am a real professional when it comes to money saving strategies, I organized my mind years ago to believe the name brand foods were superior in quality.
The Winterton taste test clan typically consists of 8 voting adults. We meet at my Mom-in-law’s home for her great meals. Richard organizes his blind taste test as an appetizer OR an after dinner snack.
- His goal is to see if we can figure out which is the generic brand
- My goal is to decide if the generic brand is as good as the name brand variety
Richard is a Target Store Shopper, so the generic brands he provides for our taste tests are either Archer Farms or Market Pantry. Last week we tested 1) microwave popcorns and 2) cashews.
- The name brand popcorns were Pop Secret and Orville Redenbacher’s
- The name brand cashews were Planters
Popcorn – There was no difference in quality between the popcorns. The popped corn was cold, so of the options offered, a large majority of us preferred the NO FAT TARGET MARKET PANTRY generic brand over the Orville Redenbacher’s Movie Theater OR Pop Secret’s Movie Theater OR Double Butter types
Cashews – There was no difference in quality between the cashews. The Planters brand looked to be darker in color and seemed to taste saltier. We actually preferred the Target Market Pantry generic brand. It tasted and looked a little less oily.