Costco is huge. Even the smallest Costco is 80,000 square feet. And while browsing one of the chain’s warehouses is our preferred method of exercise, it’s not the most efficient way to find the best things to buy at Costco. Luckily, we have done a ton of taste testing and found the best Costco items to add to your grocery list.
When we talk about the best Costco items, we’re talking about Costco brand items—labels like Kirkland, Milton’s, and La Terra Fina. We searched through all of our rankings and found the Costco products that scored the highest. Here they are for your perusal—it will take you a lot less time to read this list than it would be to even get to the Costco dip aisle. Here’s the best Costco food we’ve tasted so far.
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- Kirkland Signature Turkey Jerky
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Flavored with a mix of tamari, vinegar, brown sugar, and spices, this Costco turkey jerky has a sweetness that pairs well with the savoriness of the meat. It’s extremely tender. In fact, it’s so tender that contributor Danny Palumbo questioned whether this actually counts as jerky in our ranking of the best turkey jerky. But, regardless, it’s a good, protein-packed snack.
Read the full ranking of the best turkey jerky
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- Kirkland Creamy Almond Butter
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If you regularly eat almond butter in things like overnight oats, acai bowls, smoothies, or even simply on toast, then you should have this huge jar of reasonably priced almond butter in your pantry. “A scoop of Kirkland Creamy Almond Butter would thrive in any recipe that needs a bit of creamy nuttiness,” senior staff writer Jordan Myrick wrote in their ranking of the best almond butter. Costco roasts the almonds before blending them, so you get a good, deep flavor. And it’s 100% almonds.
Read the full ranking of the best almond butter
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- Kirkland Thick Sliced Center Cut Bacon
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“Honestly, I’d probably eat clumps of sod if they were wrapped in this center-cut bacon from Costco,” managing editor Gwynedd Stuart wrote in her ranking of the best bacon. It really is made for wrapping. Use it to wrap scallops or dates or scallops or cheese-stuffed peppers or hot dogs! Anything! It’s just thick enough and just salty enough to add texture and flavor.
Read the full ranking of the best bacon
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- Kirkland Cheese Pizza with Breadcrumb Crust
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Costco’s pizza game is strong, and that doesn’t begin and end at the food court. We particularly like Kirkland Cheese Pizza with Breadcrumb Crust. Why? Read that name back and tell us a single thing that sounds better on a cold winter’s Friday night than a cheese pizza with a breadcrumb crust. This is good pizza, plain and simple. The crust is crispy, the cheese is thick, the sauce is sweet, and most of all, it is cheap. We are talkin’ four-large-pizzas-for-$12 type of cheap. That’s a steal for good pizza.
Read the full ranking of the best cheap frozen pizza
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- Kirkland Italian Style Meatballs
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Here’s one of the best things at Costco to buy to stock your freezer. These frozen meatballs taste like Italian sausage. They’re super savory and spiced just right. “There’s delicious pork flavor in every bite of Costco’s frozen meatballs, more so than any other meatball we tested,” Danny wrote in our ranking of the best frozen meatballs. They practically taste homemade.
Read the full ranking of the best frozen meatballs
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- Kirkland Signature Organic Pure Maple Syrup
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Costco makes the best, cheap maple syrup. If you regularly make pancakes or waffles, you need this Kirkland brand jug of maple syrup. It’s not fancy, but it’s full of rich, maple flavor. It’ll certainly do the job if you’re feeding a crowd of hungry kiddos.
Read the full ranking of the best maple syrup
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- Kirkland Signature Variety Pack
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If you like White Claw but you want to save a little bit of cash, buy Costco’s hard seltzer variety pack. All of the flavors are good, but Black Cherry was our favorite. Unlike most cherry hard seltzers, it actually tastes like cherry. These hard seltzers are low cal, gluten free, and 5% ABV—pack a cooler with these babies the next time you’re heading to the beach.
Read the full ranking of the best hard seltzer
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- Kirkland Basil Pesto
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There’s a reason Kirkland pesto has such a dedicated fanbase. It’s incredibly rich and cheesy with bright pine nut flavor and a delicious base of fruity olive oil. “It’s not overloaded with garlic, which is a mistake a lot of people make when they make pesto,” Danny wrote in our ranking of the best jarred pesto. This just has a pure nutty, cheesy, oily, and herby flavor.” Find it in the refrigerated aisle!
Read the full ranking of the best jarred pesto
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- Kirkland Butter Toffee Cashews
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Costco is a great place to buy office snacks in bulk. And these nuts are so good you can feel good about committing to a giant bagful. They will be eaten. “The candy-coated cashews are so buttery, so toffee-y, so crunchy. They taste like a carnival,” editor-in-chief Justine Sterling wrote in her ranking of the best Costco snacks. They’re equally good as a mid-morning snack as they are as a 4 p.m. pick-me-up.
Read the full ranking of the best Costco snacks
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- Kirkland Signature Margarita Mix
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This is one of the best deals you can find at Costco. You get two 1.75L bottles of Margarita mix per purchase. And the mix is really good! It’s citrusy without being too sour. It’s just sweet enough to take the edge off a measure of tequila. If you’re hosting a BBQ, this is definitely one of the best Costco items to buy for sure.
Read the full ranking of the best Margarita mix
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- Kirkland Brut Champagne
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Most of the cheap Champagne you buy at the grocery store isn’t actually Champagne. It’s sparkling wine from other regions. No shade—there are some good, affordable sparkling whites out there!—but this is actual Champagne. It’s toasty, a little lemony, and wonderfully effervescent. And you can toast to the fact that it costs less than 30 bucks a bottle. Cheers!
Read the full ranking of the best cheap champagne at the grocery store
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- Kirkland Breaded Panko Shrimp
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If you have room in the freezer, we insist you buy this big box of fried shrimp. They’re big and sweet, the breading is crispy rather than soggy, and the oil they’re fried in tastes fresh—the shrimp taste like they came from a good restaurant kitchen rather than a grocery store’s cooler. Serve them as an appetizer or make them a meal—when you have 50 of these suckers in the freezer, the possibilities are endless.
Read our ranking of the best frozen fried shrimp
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- Kirkland Signature Shrimp Cocktail
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Ditch that ring-shaped shrimp cocktail platter with the itty-bitty shrimp, and buy this for your next party instead. Okay, Costco’s shrimp cocktail may not have the same aesthetic effect as a ring, but would you look at the size of those shrimp? They’re huge. And sweet. And flavorful. Even if you aren’t hosting a swanky little get together, this is the shrimp cocktail platter to buy if you like cold shrimp salads—we also wouldn’t judge you for just eating the whole thing for lunch.
Read our ranking of the best shrimp cocktail platter
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- La Terra Fina Artichoke & Jalapeno Dip
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We tasted all the Costco dips we could find and La Terra Fina Artichoke & Jalapeno Dip took the number one spot. It’s rich. It’s tangy. It’s briny thanks to the artichokes. It’s zesty and bright thanks to the jalapenos. “If you’ve had the artichoke and jalapeno dip from Trader Joe’s, this is similar but 100 times better,” Jordan wrote in their ranking. This is dip you can eat with a spoon.
Read the full ranking of the best Costco dips
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- Cuisine Adventures Puff Pastry Bites
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If you are looking for mini apps to feed a small army, look no further than Costco. And once you are at Costco, look no further than these: Cuisine Adventures Pastry Puff Bites. They come in four flavors: Roasted Red Pepper & Cheddar; Spinach & Parmesan; Artichoke, Monterey Jack & Jalapeno; and Caramelized Onion & Ricotta, and we especially like the Spinach & Parm and Caramelized Onion & Ricotta. The next time you’re throwing a fancy app party, this is the best Costco product to toss in your cart.
Read the full ranking of the best frozen mini appetizers
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- Cream Cheese Danish
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Grocery store pastries can be hit or miss. Sometimes you end up with a weirdly gelatinous chocolate cake or an absolutely rock-hard baguette. And as much as we love Costco, we can’t say every single pastry you get there is a winner. But oh ho ho, this danish. This we like very much. The pastry is buttery and flakey, the cheese filling is creamy, sweet, and ever so slightly tangy, the pastry comes slathered with icing—truly a very delicious danish and a very reasonable price. If you’re grabbing something from the Costco bakery for friends, family, or coworkers, you can’t go wrong with these
Read the full ranking of the best Costco bakery items
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Best Costco Jerky
Best Costco Nut Butter
Best Costco Bacon
Best Cheap Frozen Cheese Pizza
Best Costco Frozen Meatballs
Best Maple Syrup
Best Budget Hard Seltzer
Best Pesto
Best Costco Snack
Best Margarita Mix
Best Cheap Champagne
Best Frozen Fried Shrimp
Best Shrimp Cocktail
Best Costco Dip
Best Frozen Mini Appetizers
Best Costco Bakery Item
The last few times I’ve gotten the Kirkland pesto, it tasted off, like soapy in a weird way. It used to be so good.
If La Terra Fina Is a Costco brand why can I buy it at my local Kroger chain (king Soopers)? However I do agree, their dips are delicious and I’m glad I don’t need a membership to a store to get them
I gave up my Costco card. Have you been to BJ’s? Taste test their brands?