I Set Out to Find the Best Tasting Eggs—and the Results Were Surprising

What kind of eggs do you usually buy? Personally, I’m all over the place. Most of the time I try to balance being a responsible, humane shopper with being a frugal shopper. That was harder a few months ago, but post bird flu, the egg market seems to have stabilized, so now I can go back to feeling better about myself for always picking the free-range eggs and imagining that the chickens who are supplying my breakfast enjoy a somewhat better quality of life. (Wishful thinking, I know.) 

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But the question remains: Which eggs taste the best? Are brown ones better? Do “happier” chickens make better tasting eggs?  

How I tasted the eggs 

I busted out my Dash egg cooker—aka my favorite appliance—and hard boiled all of the eggs. It takes out the guess work and steams the eggs perfectly every time. I cooled them, peeled them, and then tasted them all back to back. 

So what are the best eggs??

As much as I’d love to give you a straight-forward answer, it’s more complicated than that. I took notes as I tasted and noted which brands seemed to have bigger yolks, a deeper color, and what I’d describe as a more umami flavor, but this was a toughie, even for a professional food taste tester™. 

In fact, I looked back at a J. Kenji Lopez-Alt article from 2019, and he ran into similar issues. His taste test involved a whole group of testers and half of them said they really couldn’t distinguish a difference in flavor, although the other half favored eggs with more omega-3s. I tried SIX different brands of eggs, but I’m going to point to two that I thought tasted the best, one of them on the pricier side and one the cheaper side: Happy Egg and Great Value. 

Happy Egg Co. Organic Free Range ($6.99/dozen)

These brown eggs are laid by hens that, according to the carton, have free range on eight-plus acres of land. That’s why they’re “happy” eggs, see. They’re also raised without hormones, antibiotics, or pesticides. These eggs are big but not weirdly big, and they have a nice, deep-yellow yolk. A much deeper yellow than other brands. From a flavor perspective, what I like about these is that they taste less salty but they have a more umami flavor profile. 

Great Value Cage Free Large White Eggs ($1.47/dozen)

So, what’s the difference between “cage free” and “free range” eggs? Well, cage free is kind of a joke, to be honest. The brand is guaranteeing the hens aren’t kept in literal cages, but they’re usually kept in crowded barns all the same. Studies have also shown that free range eggs contain more omega-3 fats, and those were the better-flavor common denominator in Lopez-Alt’s taste test, so take that into consideration, too. But if you’re buying on a budget, these large white eggs from Walmart are SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper and they still tasted really lovely. The yolk is a much paler hue, but the overall flavor is still rich and umami. If you served these to me and I didn’t see the shell, I wouldn’t know they weren’t more expensive eggs. 

Other brands of eggs we tried:

Pete & Gerry, Nellie’s, Marketside, Eggland’s Best