I fall asleep to the Food Network. I live in a Northern New Jersey town featured prominently in The Sopranos. I work in an Italian restaurant. So I don’t go two seconds without someone asking if I want balsamic glaze or discovering that it’s already made its way into my food.
But while I’ve never had any complaints about balsamic glaze, I’ve also never really gotten to know it. Thus, taste test time.
I sourced a veritable mound of mozzarella cheese and one very patient friend to help me compare nine rich, sweet, sour balsamic glazes in search of the best balsamic glaze. I tried all of these glazes both with cheese and straight down the hatch, which was, thankfully, a lot closer to taking a shot of concentrated grape juice than it was to taking a shot of balsamic vinegar. Part of me thinks I now have the license to turn my nose up at my favorite Italian deli when they dare drizzle a sub-par glaze on my caprese, but a much larger part of me now knows that even the worst balsamic glaze was pretty good.
Here’s our ranking of the best balsamic vinegar glaze brands to buy.
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- DeLallo Glaze
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Did you trade your Halloween haul Tootsie Rolls for WarHeads? Good, Tootsie Rolls are trash; way to take advantage of those Tootsie loving suckers with no taste. If you lean towards a sour-up-top-but-still-sweet flavor, this is the best balsamic glaze for you. It won’t get you close to a masochistic WarHeads pucker, but it’s definitely less sweet than its counterparts. Its acidic, tangy flavor will lend a bite and brightness to your dish, while still maintaining the flavor and some sweetness that’s characteristic to a balsamic glaze.
Credit: Liv Averett / DeLallo
- Modernacetti Glaze
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After smelling and tasting this one, my tasting buddy and I were both shocked by how not sweet it was, considering the syrupy consistency and dark color. It was not only less sweet than we expected, but it also tasted more true to balsamic vinegar. Many of the balsamic glazes we tried reminded us more of grape juice than balsamic vinegar, and even the more sour options managed to be sour without tasting like balsamic. This definitely has the consistency and cling of a glaze, but beneath some sweetness it really does taste like someone just concentrated the flavor of balsamic vinegar without too much other distraction. If you’re looking for reduced balsamic vinegar in a bottle (which is essentially what balsamic glaze is and should be), this is the best balsamic glaze brand for you.
Credit: Liv Averett / Amazon
- Monari Federzoni Glaze
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The thickest of the bunch, this balsamic vinegar glaze tastes as syrupy as its viscosity suggests. It’s rich and deep in color, and does have some sourness in the background but is primarily sweet, to the point where it juuuuuuust crosses the line into sickly when eaten straight. It was tamed by the subtle cheese, but honestly? Lean into the sweetness of this one and put it on some vanilla ice cream, crush up some toasted pistachios, and call it a day. I am docking points because of how much it looks like a cross between a bottle of McCormick vanilla extract and a bottle of Baileys, but, admittedly, I’m easily confused.
Credit: Liv Averett / Walmart
- DiBruno Bros
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I’d describe this balsamic glaze the way I’d describe the perfect brooding male lead in a romance novel: dark, deep, shockingly sweet, best accompanied by cheese. This is the kind of glaze that’s not meant for solo work. It really does benefit from a mild cheese to tamp down its powerful flavor. And its high viscosity helps to coat the cheese with a confident, substantial layer of its sweetness. While it is tasty, it doesn’t taste a ton like balsamic vinegar, and the somewhat faint sourness tastes more like it comes from sour cherries. I know that’s not actually the case, but I feel how I feel. Still, it’s the best balsamic vinegar glaze to drizzle onto some chunks o’ cheese.
Credit: Liv Averett / Instacart
- Bertolli
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As my tasting buddy and I spent our evening gorging on cheese and balsamic glazes, I worried for a moment that nothing would ever snap me out of my antipasto induced bliss. I was wrong, and I was happy to be proven wrong. Most of the other glazes were more or less on the same plane in terms of enjoyability, but Bertolli was good enough to command our attention, earning the top spot from both of us. It has a syrupy texture and deep color that begs to be drizzled on top of fresh tomato. And it is the perfect mix of sweet and sour while still maintaining the integrity of the flavor of balsamic. This is the best balsamic glaze for caprese salad, no donut, but it’s also the best store bought balsamic glaze overall.
Credit: Liv Averett / Walmart
Best Tart
Best Balsamic Flavor
Best Sweet
Best Cling
Best of the Best
Other balsamic glaze brands we tried: Alessi, Colavita, Nonna Pia’s, Felipio Berio
Thoughts? Questions? Complete disagreement? Leave a comment!