10 Bettergoods Items From Walmart That Are Worth Every Penny

In an effort to make upscale eating more available to budget-conscious shoppers, Walmart has introduced bettergoods, a line of thoughtful foods that span categories across the grocery section. It's a collection of gourmet-adjacent items that prioritize taste, enjoyment, and quality without putting a pinch on your pocketbook. Unlike the Great Value label that incorporates Walmart versions of nationally-branded snack foods, pantry staples, and clever fast food dupes that blend in with their pricier counterparts, bettergoods features brightly-colored packaging designed to stand out among the racks and shelves they occupy. They're easy to spot, easy to afford, and refreshingly easy to enjoy, thanks to an incredible amount of care applied by the food creators behind the products.

Though the bettergoods items are available in most sections of Walmart's grocery offerings, several standout as undeniable gems; buys that provide some of the best-made store brand eats and treats formulated with an eye on a more upscale experience. I did some reconnaissance on customer reviews to see which bettergoods purchases were absolutely worth the money and set out to give them a try for myself. Nothing beats first-hand-ish experience for helping shoppers hone in on better ways to spend their money on better goods.

Not satisfied with the same old corn based tortilla chips bettergoods has come up with a version that uses cassava flour instead. These chips are enhanced with Hatch chile flavor and fried in avocado oil, distinguishing them even further from the usual triangular crisps. My main concern was the texture. Would this alternative flour be too different from what I already know and love in popular grocery store brand tortilla chips? Reviewers love how similar bettergoods chips are to the usual brands, and it's important in life to try new things, so I put aside my apprehension and happily discovered that these highly rated crisps aren't missing anything, and in fact may be a step up from the overly-familiar corn based strips.

After a generous sampling session, I've decided I have a new favorite flavored tortilla chip in these cassava flour crisps. The seasoning introduces just the right amount of verdant pepper without being overly spicy, and the chips are as crisp and easy to chew as regular corn-based chips. Other than reading the facts on the bag, I would never have known these weren't Tostitos or Doritos. I only meant to try a couple but they were so tasty I just kept reaching back into the bag and taking a couple more. The delicate reimagining of how Dorito showers its chips with flavor dust should make for some interesting conversation around the snack table at your next party. As for me, I'll be heading back to Walmart for a second bag once this one is empty.

When I saw that cinnamon roll cookies were part of the bettergoods packaged snack selections, my eyes and my taste buds gravitated right to the listing on the Walmart website. The fact that they're soft-baked was initially a secondary consideration that suddenly seemed like a primary concern; if you're going to emulate the flavors of a cinnamon roll, it makes sense to capture the texture of one, too. How possible could that be in a boxed cookie?

It's both possible and not, but that isn't a bad thing. These tender, buttery cinnamon roll cookies are filled with cinnamon and brown sugar like a Pop Tart, awaiting in the package as nine individual cased discs that better resemble sugar cookies rather than their coiled pastry namesake. All the cinnamon excitement is rolled up in the dough with no additional swirl needed. The cookies are sheathed in blood orange sugar glaze, which does a fair impression of the usual cinnamon roll icing without making a mess in the box or getting your fingers unnecessarily sticky. Bettergoods seems to be aiming for a Pepperidge farm like presentation. The soft-baked status doesn't come through as clearly as the name implies, but the delicate crumb is distinctive enough to set these treats apart from the crowd. Reviewers even mention microwaving them for a few seconds to enhance the softness, which is an approach I'll be trying next.

Unless you stroll the aisles of a full blown bakery, you're not likely to find macarons (yes, macarons, not macaroons ... there is a distinct difference between the two) sitting about on shelves at any of the national brand grocery stores, unless there's some sort of unique occasion at hand. Bettergoods puts these prime French treats front and center in its frozen treats collection to keep them as fresh as possible. It's a clever way to provide a variety of flavors that allows unfettered creativity.

It's a dangerous thing to have bite-size macarons this tasty hanging around the house. The package contains two each of five of the finest macaron flavors around: lemon, pistachio, chocolate, coffee, and raspberry. I let them thaw in the fridge before sampling a lemon flavored version and was blown away by how vibrant the citrus essence is in these miniature marvels. I had to know if the more earthy flavors were just as powerful, so I gave the coffee version a try; it's more subtle than lemon, but no less impressive. It shouldn't be surprising that they're made in France, but considering that I found them in a Walmart freezer case in Arizona, I'm pretty amazed. Having authentic European Macarons nearby in my neighborhood big box store at a price that doesn't set me back too far financially is an inspired grocery twist I never saw coming. Good on ya, bettergoods!

Bettergoods goes the extra mile when it comes to frozen pizzas by opting for Italian wood fired mushroom and truffle as one of its premium offerings. Few other frozen pizza producers offer this sort of elevated topping combination — and at just a little bit more than what a far lesser frozen pie would cost — bettergoods does a great job at capturing the shopping public's pizza loving imagination. This pie happens to be the highest-rated item in the bettergoods collection, with customers raving about how fresh the mushrooms taste and how handmade the crust feels — all of which is high praise for a frozen pizza.

Needless to say, I was highly charged up for this sampling. This pizza was the item I was most stoked about trying, since I usually stick with straight-up cheese pies when my plant-based diet takes a sharp left turn into Cheatsville. Having mushrooms and truffles to flavor the situation set my pizza-loving heart aflame and got my hopes up for something truly special. And I was not disappointed; this pizza has the personality of a craft pie, from the random distribution of the veggies to the rustic shape and texture of the crust. I'm duly impressed by what bettergoods has come up with here, and I'll be revisiting this choice the next time my pizza tooth gets all (wood) fired up.

My first experience with better goods was in the frozen foods section, specifically the ice cream case where I found non-dairy frozen dessert that suited both my plant-based eating habits and my family members dairy-free dining requirements. We were duly impressed with the silky consistency and incredible taste of Plant-Based Salted Caramel Oatmilk Non-Dairy Frozen Dessert, a formulation that didn't feel at all like a compromise from dairy-based ice cream. It turns out other shoppers who've left reviews are just as impressed with this specialty selection, especially those with dairy allergies on the search for premium substitutions.

This silky-smooth oatmilk iced dessert is just as it was the first time I tried it, creamy and flavorful to a fault. It's every bit as luxurious as dairy-based ice cream, with a caramel ribbon that runs rings around the bigger brands. Even though there's no dairy in this delicious carton, it's definitely not a health food; high saturated fat and sugar counts in a 200-calorie serving are enough to encourage cautious enjoyment. Provided you can control your cravings, you have a sweet alternative to full-power ice cream that's just as delicious.

It's no big deal these days to jump on the alternative milk bandwagon, which isn't really a bandwagon anymore but more of a party bus filled with variety that few dairy drinkers could have seen coming just a few years ago. Bettergoods' Plant-Based Unsweetened Original Almondmilk is one of the line's best-loved items overall, a fantastic indication that paying a little less for milk made from plant-based ingredients doesn't have to wring you dry of your hard-earned cash.

Plain almond milk is usually a blank slate that lends itself to whatever you put it on. The hope is always that its unsweetened nature won't come across as gritty or watery. Thanks to cleverly-executed creaminess, the illusion of sweetness is cast in this carton, making it ideal for the Cheerios I poured it into without adding more sugar to the bowl. Though I don't usually drink milk as a beverage, I took a swig to see how it stands up on its own and learned it's a prime beverage to behold, rich in calcium and vitamins A and D just like dairy. Overall, everything you need to know about almond milk from bettergoods is that it's ... well, everything you need.

Soup may dominate your home dining decisions during colder seasons, but bettergoods offers jarred soups you can heat up any time of year for a premium restaurant-level meal. Customers really seem to love the Slow Cooked Southwest Roasted Tomato Black Bean Soup, which is not only a mouthful to say, it's also a mouthful of incredible flavor with a variety of textures and seasonings that make for a very bold bowl. With reviewers proclaiming it nourishing comfort food made with healthy olive oil, it has the sensibility of a much pricier product.

It isn't often you find a top-shelf store-label soup that doesn't toss in either milk, meat, or both to make the contents of the jar heartier. Bettergoods has no need for animal ingredients, thanks to the smoky Southwestern seasonings and sturdy tomato base. The deep russet hue arising from the roasted tomato goodness makes the soup feel more like sauce than bisque, which may require a bit of thinning down with milk or water. But the pitch-perfect flavors and scattering of corn and tomato chunks give the jar prestige over lesser creations in the soup aisle. Its nearly-$4.00 price point is easily justified, considering the jar provides three hearty servings. I can picture this as a fall favorite with a dollop of vegan sour cream and a crumble of tortilla chips on top. In short, it's soup-erb (go ahead and groan ... I did).

Though I'm not generally a dairy-based yogurt eater, I recognize a sensational deal when I see one. The Whole Milk Honey Vanilla Greek Yogurt carton offered by bettergoods is one of those purchases, something that feels like a sneaky steal. Considering the price of much smaller cartons of Greek yogurt ring up at just under the $4.00 mark of this much larger 32-ounce container. It's only a little more expensive than Great Value Greek yogurt

The light honey sweetness of this yogurt is a relief and a revelation. Even plain yogurts tend to have a tartness that can catch in the back of the throat, while the more sugar-laden yogurts can make a sticky film on the tongue. But the creaminess here is off the charts, making it more like a dessert than a breakfast food. If yogurt was part of my usual diet, I would prioritize this carton over other store brands, turning it into sweet dishes and granola parfaits that don't need additional sweetening, all the while knowing my money would be well-spent.

The darker the chocolate, the healthier the candy, or so say the experts who have vaulted extra dark chocolate into the realm of exceptional antioxidant consumption. But the cocoa content that works best should be 82% or higher, a fact that bettergoods takes into consideration with its Premium Swiss 90% Dark Chocolate Bar. This 3.5-ounce beauty is a stellar buy, considering that other luxury chocolate bars of the same percentage and size will set you back close to twice the price for their better-known brand names.

The snap of this chocolate bar sparked excitement that told me the 90% sustainably-sourced cocoa would be a sharp-edged delight, and it certainly was. This is the sort of candy bar true dark chocolate connoisseurs dream about, one where the cocoa takes the reins bar rather than becoming mired in milky sweetness. Of course, a cocoa quotient this high is bound to produce a bar that's more bitter than sweet, something for a seasoned palate to appreciate. I'm happy to say that my taste buds have become accustomed to this more refined way of enjoying chocolate, and for producing a mid-priced candy bar that carries through on its promise, bettergoods gets high marks from me as well as customers who left praise on the website.

Having a bag of frozen chicken wings waiting in the freezer is a real problem-solver for last-minute dinners and impromptu snacking opportunities. Bettergoods offers several varieties with zesty flavors like you'd find on your favorite fast-casual and bar food menus. The best-rated version seems to be the simple garlic butter with an add-it-yourself dry rub, so I snatched up a sack of these small bites to see what the buzz was all about. Since I'm strictly no-meat in my eating habits, I enlisted my adult children to take on the task of testing them out to see if they measure up to all the stars they've garnered online.

My wing eaters were all too happy to dive into these bar bites, reporting that the skin was crispy, the chicken tender, and the flavor of the breading robust without being too saucy. They could easily do a squeeze-over or dip them into their preferred sauces without the extra flavor feeling like overkill. The dry rub sampling was a tasty addition that comes as a separate package to give you control over how much you add to each wing. It's the perfect set-up for making custom orders out of a single bag to suit a variety of tastes.

While I knew that bettergoods was appearing on shelves in Walmart's grocery section, I had no idea that the line had expanded to include so many different options. I consulted the website to see what exactly was available in each category and searched for the items within each list that had the highest number and highest average star review to choose for my shopping excursion. These seemed like the most likely candidates for optimal choices from bettergoods, and though they spanned several different sectors, each one stands as an exemplary offering in its own right.

I was able to taste test most of these items myself, thanks to bettergoods' dedication to providing many upmarket plant-based and vegetarian products that don't ring up much higher than Great Value products of lesser quality. For the chicken wings, I enlisted my twenty-something kids to engage their discerning palates and weigh in with their opinions. The biggest challenge I faced was keeping my sample size to a serving or two; as the reviews indicate, these items seem to be the best of bettergoods, and an enormous amount of self-control was required to not overindulge. Fair warning: You might experience the same phenomena. Shop cautiously and prepare to be delighted.