The Food Tasting Extravaganza

I had an assignment for my Food Preparation in the Home class about comparison shopping. I had to select three items to compare the national brand to the store/generic brand. I chose to taste Macaroni & Cheese, frozen orange juice and wheat crackers. Nick really wanted it to be a blind taste test, so I prepared the food while he did something else like watch Clone Wars. Below is the experiment/our dinner.

Can you tell which one is Kraft and which is the Safeway brand?

I was delighted with exhibit B. It was creamier and Nick posited that it was in fact "The Cheesiest" He was right. Exhibit B was Kraft. And it dominated Safeway's Mac & Cheese. HARD. Now, cost wise, the Safeway brand was $.75 for the box, or $.103/oz, while Kraft was $1.09 for the box, $.150/oz. Two words for Kraft: Worth. It.

Kraft = Winner!

Safeway = Suck it.

Next up was the wheat crackers. We tested Wheat Thins and Safeway's Thin Wheat crackers. The Wheat Thins were kind of pricey at $3.59 for the box ($.399/oz) while the store brand crackers cost much less at $1.99 ($.221/oz).

We also noted the nutritional information. They were close, but not identical.

Here's the Nickster tasting a Thin Wheat. Which he actually preferred, though he believed that it was the Wheat Thin.

Thin Wheat = Winner!

Wheat Thins = What the Heck, Wheat Thins?!

Next we tested the frozen OJ. I didn't get a photo of the juice drinking, but here are the cost stats. We drank Minute Maid for the national brand. It cost $2.50 ($.208/oz). The Safeway brand cost just $2.00 ($.167/oz). Now, the juice was a little difficult to make as we only own one pitcher. I had to make the first juice, pour the test glasses, then pour the rest into a big bowl while I mixed up the other batch. Our test looked like a mad scientist's lab for a while there. Anyway, the store brand OJ tasted like an orange peel, while the Minute Maid was yum-tastic.

Minute Maid = Winner!

Safeway OJ = thanks for playing.