A cheesecake taste test across four grocery chains ended with one clear winner. A Business Insider writer tried New York-style cheesecakes from Whole Foods, Walmart, Costco and Trader Joe’s, judging each on flavour, texture and value. Only one earned a second purchase. Costco took the top spot with a dense, creamy and tangy cake that cost $20 for 72 ounces. The other three fell short in different ways, from a bland filling to a weak crust.
How the cheesecake taste test worked
For the cheesecake taste test, the writer bought one cheesecake from each chain and tasted them side by side. The test covered the classic New York-style cake: a dense, tangy cream-cheese filling on a graham-cracker crust. Each cake was judged on how it looked, how it tasted, and what it cost. The four ranged in price from just under $8 to $27, and in size from 30 ounces to 72 ounces.
Whole Foods looked the best at first glance. Its 40-ounce cake cost $27 and came topped with berries and cream, with flecks of vanilla bean through the filling. Trader Joe’s sold the cheapest cake, a 30-ounce frozen cheesecake for just under $8. Walmart offered a presliced 40-ounce cake for $13. Costco sold the largest cake by far, 72 ounces for $20, and it was the only one that came with frosting, in a ruffled piped border.
Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s fall short
In the cheesecake taste test, Whole Foods disappointed once the writer took a bite. The filling tasted more sweet than tangy, and it lacked the dense creaminess the writer expects from a New York-style cake. Instead it was light and mousse-like, and the writer found it not at all cheesy. The cake looked like the best of the four, but the taste did not match the appearance. At $27 for 40 ounces, it was also the dearest per ounce of the four.
Trader Joe’s fared worse in the cheesecake taste test. The writer is usually a fan of the chain’s products, but found its cheesecake bland. The flavour was faint at best, with none of the tang or richness that marks a New York-style cheesecake. The cake came frozen, the only one of the four sold that way, and the writer had to thaw it before tasting. At just under $8, it was the cheapest cake in the test, but the writer still would not buy it again.
The two cakes failed for opposite reasons. Whole Foods spent its effort on looks, with berries, cream and vanilla bean, and lost the filling. Trader Joe’s kept the price low and lost the flavour. Neither gave the writer the dense, tangy bite that defines the style.
Walmart offers value, with a weak crust
Walmart sat in the middle of the cheesecake taste test. The writer likes most of the chain’s food products and had high hopes for its presliced 40-ounce cake at $13. The filling was heavier than the others, and the writer called it a decent option for the price. The flavour was a bit mild, but overall the cake was pretty good.
The crust let it down. It was thin and floury, and it left visible grease at the bottom of the pan. A good graham-cracker crust should taste buttery and hold its shape when sliced. Walmart’s crust did neither. The cake still offered fair value for a crowd, since it came presliced and cost less than half the price of the Whole Foods cake. It did not, though, match the winner on taste.
Why Costco won the cheesecake taste test
Costco won the cheesecake taste test on the cake itself. The writer loved how dense, creamy and tangy it was, and found the crust nailed the classic buttery graham-cracker flavour. The cake was the only one in the test not marketed as New York-style, but the writer thought it tasted authentic. The frosting on top, with its ruffled piped border, was a bonus rather than the point.
Price sealed the result of the cheesecake taste test. At $20 for 72 ounces, the Costco cake cost less per ounce than any rival, and it was nearly twice the size of the next largest. The writer called the price for such a large cake hard to beat. For a party or a holiday table, the size alone would make it the practical pick. The taste made it the only one the writer would buy again.
The cheesecake taste test carries a plain lesson for shoppers. A pretty topping and a high price do not guarantee a good cheesecake, and the cheapest cake can be the blandest. The cake that won was the biggest, the cheapest per ounce, and the one that tasted most like the classic it claimed to be.