The Sporked team is composed of delightful individuals with a passion for food and stomachs of iron (okay, we might get some help from Tums every so often). And we each have our own individual tastes and opinions. While we work together to determine which products make it onto our rankings, we couldn’t all agree on a single best product we tasted in 2024. So, read on to find out what the best of the best products of 2024 are, according to each Sporked taste tester.
I spent a decent amount of time poring over all the foods I’ve tasted this year and I kept coming back to this plain hummus from Little Sesame. It’s not flashy. It’s not some crazy culinary innovation. It’s hummus. But it’s really stupid good hummus. It’s extremely creamy, with a good balance of tahini and chickpea and garlic. But what makes it really pop is this underlying flavor of preserved lemon. Seriously, I can’t wait to eat this hummus again. Yes, I’m actually excited to eat store bought hummus. What has this job done to me? It’s made me a very cool person, that’s what!
Mezzetta’s Mediterranean Peperoncini Hot Sauce tastes exactly like a blended up peperoncini. It’s the perfect pizza hot sauce. Writing this blurb is making me salivate because just the thought of the bright, tangy, lightly spicy, zest is enough to trigger a full-body response in me. This is one product from the year I will continue to buy over and over again.
I love Club crackers about as much as the next guy, but I’ve always had a pretty casual relationship with them. If a restaurant gives me some plastic sleeves of Club crackers to go with my bowl of soup, chili, or ceviche, I’m going to eat a shameful number of packets (I might even stuff the plastic wrappers in my purse so I don’t leave behind any evidence of my gluttony), but I can’t recall going out of my way to buy them at the grocery store. Well, these new Club crackers have changed that. Sweet Hawaiian Club crackers are ultra buttery. A generous sprinkle of salt ensures they’re more savory than sweet, but they have just a tinge of pineapple juice sweetness that, in concert with the butter, makes them taste almost caramelized. Pile them with Swiss cheese and thinly sliced deli ham for a highly satisfying snack that will make you reevaluate the virtues of Club crackers.
This gluten-free Stelline pasta proved to me, once and for all, that gluten-free pasta can not only match wheat pasta in taste and texture, but actually surpass it. I enjoyed it simply with a little Kerrygold butter and salt, and it was soft yet firm. It had a starchy texture and impeccable, slightly nutty pasta flavor. I totally get that Giadzy’s artisan pasta line isn’t cheap, so let me say this: If you have a gluten-free friend or relative that you want to surprise with a delicious, adorably packaged, game-changing gift this holiday season, I really recommend a box of these tiny (and festive!) star-shaped pastas. As someone with close loved ones navigating the challenges of a Celiac diet, this pasta felt like a small, joyful victory. The simplest comfort foods really do make all the difference.
We ate our way through hundreds of products this year to find the best. Now it’s time to honor the best of the best.
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Thoughts? Questions? Complete disagreement? Leave a comment!