I Tried And Ranked 8 Store-Bought Cream Cheese Brands, And This Was My Favorite

Cream cheese and I have a longstanding culinary love affair. It's a key feature in my family's favorite cupcakes — both stuffed into the middle of chocolate batter while baking, and in the luxurious cream cheese frosting on top. It's what sets apart a ho-hum bagel from a great one. And it's the base ingredient for a variety of dips and desserts, including Buffalo chicken dip and the best cheesecakes you can buy.

There are countless cream cheese products on store shelves these days. You can purchase the traditional blocks, buy it whipped for easy bagel spreadability, or find a variety of dairy-free alternatives. But when it comes to the core ingredient, is there really a big difference in quality from brand to brand of cream cheese?

I've been watching my grocery budget closely in recent months, and there can be a huge difference in price from generic blocks of cream cheese to the nationally distributed brand-name versions. With that in mind, I set out on a mission to compare eight cream cheese brands head-to-head to see which one is the best. I picked up several brands from various grocery stores in my area, and taste-tested each one in multiple ways to compare the flavor, texture, and more. I compared cream cheese blocks for this quest, since they tend to be the most versatile for spreading on breakfast carbs, baking, or blending into dips. While a few were very similar to each other, one stood out as the clear winner.

I wanted to give this cream cheese alternative a fair shake, but there's no getting around it: Violife's version just isn't a great stand-in for the traditional flavor of cream cheese. Some dairy products have great-tasting substitutes, including a number of good alternative milk brands. But the hunt for a solid cream cheese replacement continues.

This version did have great spreadability straight out of the package — a small point in its favor. Violife uses main ingredients including coconut oil, potato starch, and bamboo fibers to mimic the texture of cream cheese. The texture is indeed smooth and creamy, but the flavor is absent of any of the inherent tanginess that's intrinsic to cream cheese. Instead, it has an odd aftertaste that seems overly processed and maybe even fruity or floral in nature, despite the fact that I couldn't pinpoint any ingredients that would provide those flavors.

I understand that you probably won't pay $5.14 for a cream cheese alternative unless the point is to be vegan or dairy-free. So in that regard, I'll say this: I wouldn't put this plain on a bagel, especially since it gets a lot of detractors on Reddit for how it melts and doesn't hold its consistency on toasted versions. It could be good in cold dips or desserts that have fruity components, since it already seems to take on that profile. But since I'm happily committed to a dairy lifestyle, I won't be sticking around to find out.

Target isn't known for its wide array of grocery brands, so you're likely to be faced with two options when you're shopping for cream cheese bricks at the brand's superstores: one Good & Gather option — its largest owned food brand — and one nationally-distributed brand name that's likely to be a couple of dollars more expensive.

This version of the cream cheese block was in a foil-esque interior wrapper that was slightly different than some other generic brands (more on that in a minute), and had a classic cream cheese flavor. It was tangy and creamy. However, when I ate some plain and tried it on a bite of a bagel, it was incredibly dense. It stuck to the roof of my mouth and didn't dissolve easily, giving me concrete vibes.

This block avoided some of the liquid condensation inside the wrapping that other generic brands had trouble with — perhaps because of that slightly different packaging. However, the dryness combined with a dense cream cheese recipe meant the texture needed some work for spreading on a bagel. This block sells for $1.69 in my area, which is definitely affordable, but also slightly more expensive than other private-label brands. I wouldn't purchase this again for bagels, but if I was making a baked dip or baking on a budget and already picking up other items at Target, this is technically edible.

This store brand from a popular grocery chain in the Northeast also isn't anything to write home about, for a few reasons. The block of cream cheese itself was creamy and tangy with a hint of salt to balance out the flavor.

That said, this block of cream cheese was incredibly dense, and needs significant time to soften for ideal spreadability. Or, for that matter, for whipping into dips or desserts. This is the kind of cream cheese that can easily end up clumpy in your mixing bowl, refusing to incorporate nicely with other ingredients. I've been there with this particular brand of cream cheese in the past. While it works for budget-friendly dips when it's just the right temperature, it softens like an avocado ripens. For an hour it's too cold to use, it's the perfect consistency for one whole minute, and it turns into a pile of goo that sticks mercilessly to the silver wrapping for any amount of time afterward.

The "foil" wrapping is one place where manufacturers saved money on this block: the packaging didn't tear easily, and wasn't breathable like some finely-perforated versions are. The result was that the packaging wasn't easily resealable, and the brick of cream cheese inside was simultaneously waxy and watery on the edges where it wasn't totally flush with the wrapper. At $1.50 on sale this is an affordable block, but not one that is going to win any awards.

I found this block of cream cheese and the one that follows it eerily similar to the cream cheese from Giant. This one had subpar packaging that led to watery edges, with a very dense block of cream cheese inside. The flavor was tangy and the texture was creamy; it just felt claggy on the palate instead of smooth.

I wouldn't be shocked if Great Value's cream cheese is made by the same manufacturer that creates the Giant or Aldi cream cheese; the flavor and textures of these were almost identical, and so was the foil packaging inside. Walmart contracts a variety of big brand names to produce Great Value products, but those contracts tend to be confidential. Consumers normally only get official confirmation that a product is made by the same manufacturer when recalls are announced — and even then it's not a guarantee that the recipe is the exact same.

I didn't find any recalls involving Great Value cream cheese from recent years, and the packaging for these brands doesn't provide a definitive link. But given how close these are in terms of texture and taste, I found them to be about the same level of quality. I ranked Great Value's cream cheese block higher than Giant's because it didn't have as much of a waxy edge to the block when I unwrapped it; it had a slightly better mouthfeel as a result. At $1.56 on sale, it was also a comparable price.

Aldi's store brand isn't the last generic option on this list, but it is the last one that costs less than $2. Apparently, paying more for cream cheese really does get you better results. Aldi's block of cream cheese isn't much different than the other generic brands on the list so far. It tends to be watery around the edges because of the cheaper packaging, and slightly waxy in some bites as a result.

That said, the classic tangy taste was balanced well with the salt content, and I would put this up against any other store brand on the list so far. If you're looking for a truly luxurious cream cheese, this isn't it. Like the other generic forms, the stabilizers in it like guar gum, carob bean gum, and xanthan gum are just a little too noticeable, given its stick-to-the-roof-of-your-mouth tendencies. These ingredients give the cream cheese a thicker texture and help to prevent crystallization during packaging and shipment, but it can be a bit too much of a "good" thing.

Aldi's ranks the best of the regular store brands purely because of price. I picked up this block of cream cheese for just $1.45 at my local Aldi — no special or sale price required. I wouldn't necessarily always buy this, but if I needed a cheap block of cream cheese that wasn't going on my bagel, I'd add this to the list of the best foods at Aldi for under $3.

A jump in price allows for better packaging, better ingredients — and better taste. This cream cheese block from Organic Valley has a base of organic milk and cream and is a certified organic product by the USDA. If organic products are important in your household, this cream cheese delivers, even if the price ($4.49 for one block) is a little steep compared to other offerings.

The foil packaging inside was flush with the cream cheese block and seemed to be slightly better quality than the predecessors on this list, which meant there weren't any off-putting textures near the edges of the block. I thought the cream cheese was tangy and maybe a touch salty compared to the other cream cheeses I tried, although I welcomed the flavor contrast on the bagel. I thought the texture was just the tiniest bit gritty — perhaps from the salt content — but I only thought about it when I tried a little bit of it by itself. It wasn't noticeable when spread on a bagel. Despite that minor note, I found this cream cheese to have better flavor and texture than the generic versions before it on the list. It also has only one stabilizer in it (organic locust bean gum) compared to the three that are used in the previous brands. If you're trying to limit processing ingredients, this block gets you closer to that goal than the cheaper options. (That's also true of the next two brands on the list).

I bought the Organic Valley block from Giant, and picked up this Whole Foods generic version across town. I didn't do a blind taste test for these cream cheese options, but I thought they were literally identical in taste, texture, interior packaging, and appearance. So much so that I put on my Sherlock hat trying to prove they're the same recipe.

Much like Walmart's Great Value products, the truth about Whole Foods' 365 brand is that the company contracts with multiple suppliers to produce the foods and personal care items sold under the private label. Again, one of the only ways to be sure the same company makes them is through product recalls — of which there were none.

There are, however, some indicators that the 365 version and Organic Valley's are very close. The ingredients are exactly the same, in exactly the same order. There are only five ingredients, though, which doesn't seal the argument. Manufacturers also use "closed dating," or codes printed on products for tracking inventory, and factory locations that produced a specific product. These are suspiciously similar in several spots on these boxes, including an identical "WB" code after the best-by date. However, since these closed dates aren't standardized, I can't definitively say they're the exact same product.

Does all of this matter? Maybe not. But what does matter is that the 365 version was $3.49. If you want organic cream cheese, save yourself a dollar and pick up this one instead.

The Philadelphia brand was the first mass-produced cream cheese, and it's still the best more than a century later. This brick has been packaged pretty much the same way since the 1800s when it was first created, and the foil wrapping on Philadelphia's cream cheese is much higher quality than the others on this list. It keeps out moisture and oxygen and seals in the perfectly balanced, tangy flavor and a Goldilocks amount of saltiness to balance it out. It's rich without being claggy and creamy, with no off-putting textures.

When I need to save money on groceries, I'll admit I purchase one of the generic blocks lower on the list. (Again, any will do; they're pretty interchangeable). Philadelphia's bricks retail for $3.69 at its normal price in my area, though I got mine on sale for $2.50 at the time of writing. Even on sale, it can be one of the more expensive options. But if I'm looking to ensure that my cream cheese-based recipes are of the highest quality, texture, and flavor, I buy Philadelphia.

For what it's worth, Philadelphia cream cheese was actually first made in New York, though it took on the Philadelphia brand name because of the city's reputation for high-quality dairy products at the time. Though I don't associate Philly with supreme dairy anymore, the brand name is still synonymous with the best of the best in cream cheese-dom, and for good reason.

To ensure comparisons were as close as possible to rate the cream cheese brands for value and quality, I selected as many brands of cream cheese bricks as I could find in my local area, including one dairy-free option. I tried to find brands like Tillamook blocks and others for an even greater variety of brands and price points, but included the ones I could find across purchases at several stores over the course of multiple days. I chose to evaluate the bricks instead of spreads or whips for two main reasons. One, they would be easier to compare quality in head-to-head taste tests, since it would be easy to see if packaging and flavor were affected by the brand's recipes. Spreads and whips are types of cream cheese that incorporate more air into the recipes, and can ultimately affect texture, spreadability, and sometimes taste depending on the ingredients.

I allowed each block to soften at room temperature for several minutes. Then I tried each one by itself, and each one on a slightly toasted bagel to compare flavor, texture, and appearance. I also noted the packaging quality, since that can affect the longevity and overall quality of the cream cheese. Finally, I took cost into account, especially since a few of the blocks were very similar in taste and texture.