The Best Aldi Product We Tasted in 2023

The best Aldi products are delicious, affordable, and you can only get them at Aldi. That’s part of what’s cool about the increasingly ubiquitous discount grocer: Almost all of what they carry is proprietary, so everything costs less and every time you go you’re sure to find something fun you just wouldn’t find anywhere else. We tried a lot of Aldi products this year. We taste tested all of their cheeses, breakfast cereals, pasta sauces, chocolates, and ice creams. Suffice it to say, we’ve gotten used to keeping a quarter in our pockets in case we need to make an Aldi run. It wasn’t easy to narrow it down to the two best Aldi products we tried this year, but we did come up with two items we’ve continued talking about and buying for our own kitchens. These are the two best Aldi products we tasted in 2023.

Runner-Up

Sundae Shoppe White Chocolate Caramel Ultimate Cones

Instacart

When we taste tested sundae cones, we were blown away by these Sundae Shoppe caramel-white chocolate cones. The caramel is gooey and plentiful, but our favorite part is that the white chocolate ice cream actually tastes like white chocolate rather than glorified vanilla ice cream. This is such a decadent frozen treat. If you find these at your local Aldi, buy a box asap.

Read the full ranking of the best sundae cones

Rating:

10/10

Sporks

Best of the Best

Priano Pesto Rosso

Aldi

I personally taste tested 16 jars of Aldi pasta sauce, and even though I suffered from a bit of pasta sauce fatigue, I lost my mind for this red pesto. It’s not like any pesto you’ve had before. Rather than pine nuts and basil, this is made with sundried tomatoes and cashews (plus a couple of hard, nutty cheeses). What you get is a sauce that’s bright and sweet and packed with umami. Yes, you can mix this into a big bowl of spaghetti, but it will also make a great sandwich spread. This is a permanent fixture in my fridge door now.

Read the full ranking of the best Aldi pasta sauce

Rating:

10/10

Sporks

About the Author

Howdy! I’m Gwynedd, Sporked’s managing editor. I live in Los Angeles and have access to the best tacos the U.S. has to offer—but I’m a sucker for a crunchy Old El Paso taco night every now and then. I’ve been at Sporked since 2022 and I’m still searching frozen mozzarella sticks that can hold a candle to restaurant sticks. Why you should trust me: I’ve been a journalist for 20 years (yikes), a consumer of food for 40-plus years, and I’m truly hard pressed to think of foods I don’t like (or that I can’t tolerate at the very least). Oh and one time I cooked my way through Guy Fieri’s cookbook and wrote about the journey through Flavortown. What I buy every week: Trader Joe’s Original Savory Thins. Fat free plain yogurt (usually Fage or Nancy’s). Honeycrisp apples. Sweet cream coffee creamer for my at-home Americanos. A frozen cauliflower crust pizza and some jarred mushrooms to top it with. Old El Paso Stand ‘N Stuff taco shells and Gardein Ground Be’f, even though I think “be’f” is a nightmarish contraction. Favorite ranking: Stouffer’s frozen dinners. I don’t own a microwave (I get my cancers the old fashioned way!), so I love taste testing things that I don’t really buy to eat at home. Least favorite ranking: Soy sauce. Don’t get me wrong, I love soy sauce—but consuming that much sodium in one sitting is probably illegal in some countries. Our frozen enchilada taste test was a close second; the smell of microwaved corn tortillas still haunts me.