I’ve by no means been inclined to eat a spoonful of bitter cream by itself—and but, I by no means depart the grocery retailer with out it. A bath of sour cream has myriad uses, together with dolloping on baked potatoes and bowls of chili, folding into cake batter, and making creamy sauces and dips. The query is: Which bitter cream is value shopping for? To search out out, the Critical Eats crew tasted 12 totally different bitter lotions you’re prone to discover at your native grocery store. We positioned every into bowls, then sampled them with out realizing which bitter cream was which. After our editors tasted their means by 12 bowls of bitter cream, we tabulated the outcomes and topped an general winner we’d be pleased to prime our nachos with or incorporate into our favourite dip—and perhaps even eat by the spoonful like we did in our style checks. We additionally recognized a few excellent runners up.
Critical Eats / Amanda Suarez
The Standards
Bitter cream needs to be creamy, tangy, and easy. It shouldn’t be skinny, watery, or gummy, nor ought to it’s so stodgy that you just suspect you’ve bought cream cheese. It needs to be simply thick sufficient to dollop, maintain its form effectively, and have a shiny sheen. It ought to style like cultured cream—good and tart—however not a lot that it runs the danger of tasting rancid. It also needs to not be excessively candy, as a result of…candy nachos? No thanks.
General Winner
Cease & Store Bitter Cream
Each editor who participated on this taste-test gave Cease & Store’s store-brand bitter cream a glowing assessment. Our affiliate editorial director Megan thought it was “very thick and lusciously creamy,” with a pleasing, delicate tanginess. Like Megan, our editorial director Daniel and affiliate visuals director Amanda loved its full physique and tart taste.
Runners Up
The Finest Nationally Obtainable Bitter Cream: Daisy Bitter Cream
When you do not stay close to a Cease & Store, you’ll be able to’t go mistaken with this bitter cream, which was an throughout crowd pleaser in our style check. “Good and creamy and mildly tangy,” Megan wrote. Like our profitable choose, Daisy bitter cream has simply the correct amount of tang, with a easy texture that’s thick and scoopable. The Daisy bitter cream’s ingredient record consists of simply cultured cream, whereas some others we examined additionally comprise enzymes that encourage coagulation or thickeners comparable to nonfat milk solids.
The Finest Natural Bitter Cream: Natural Valley Bitter Cream
Daniel thought this tasted “basic” and appreciated its glossiness. Although it was thick sufficient to dollop, it was barely thinner than the opposite bitter lotions we tried. This was a plus for Megan, who thought it was “fairly bitter and tangy,” with a looser texture that she truly preferred. This thinner texture is probably going as a result of Natural Valley’s bitter cream is made with each nonfat milk and cream, whereas many different bitter lotions are made with simply cultured cream.
The Contenders
- 365 Natural Bitter Cream
- Alexandre Household Farms A2/A2 Natural Bitter Cream
- Bowl & Basket Pure Bitter Cream
- Breakstone’s All Pure Bitter Cream
- Daisy Bitter Cream
- Fage All Pure Bitter Cream
- Friendship Dairies Bitter Cream
- Good & Collect Bitter Cream
- Good Tradition Bitter Cream
- Natural Valley Bitter Cream
- Cease & Store Bitter Cream
- Wegman’s Bitter Cream
In Conclusion
General, our editors loved a lot of the bitter cream manufacturers we sampled—in truth there have been just a few we would not gladly eat once more. Many of the bitter lotions we tasted comprise simply two or three substances—cultured cream, enzymes, and pleasant micro organism comparable to acidophilus and bifidus cultures—although some comprise milk, nonfat milk, and/or milk solids. All of our winners had a great steadiness of tanginess and wealthy creaminess and steered away from the dreaded sweetness.
Critical Eats / Amanda Suarez
Our Testing Methodology
All style checks are performed with manufacturers utterly hidden and with out dialogue. Tasters style samples in random order. For instance, taster A could style pattern one first, whereas taster B will style pattern six first. That is to forestall palate fatigue from unfairly giving anybody pattern a bonus. Tasters are requested to fill out tasting sheets rating the samples for numerous standards. All information is tabulated and outcomes are calculated with no editorial enter so as to give us essentially the most neutral illustration doable.
Trending Merchandise
