Every so often, we at Cheapism like to take a break from our regular editorial duties and sink our teeth into a taste test. During the past 12 months, we’ve sampled everything from instant coffee to fast-food cheeseburgers to pasta sauce — some good, some bad, and some downright awful. Here’s a look back at our favorites of 2020. And we’ve gathered all of our taste tests for shoppers and diners with even more appetites to satisfy.
Yon C./Yelp
Because we enjoy a challenge, we sent our fast-food expert over to Wendy’s to sample not one, not five, but all nine of the chain’s breakfast sandwich options. This gut-buster of an assignment was a challenge, but our writer relished every moment. In general, Wendy’s biscuits outshone their croissants and sandwich buns.
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Nothing makes for an easy weeknight meal like a jar of sauce with a favorite pasta. It’s quick, cheap, and filling. Also, there are a bazillion options at the store. To find the best cheap pasta sauce, we tasted store-brand marinaras from Aldi, Target, and Walmart. To make it even more challenging, we compared them with top-rated Rao’s, a pasta sauce that costs four times as much.
Target
In July, we sought refuge from the summer heat by taste-testing vanilla ice cream sandwiches from Klondike and Blue Bunny and comparing them with cheaper store brands from Walmart, Target, and Aldi. Of the 16 ice cream sammies we sampled, two were top-notch, one was very good … and one was just yucky.
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Okay, you may not want to pop a cheap can of chardonnay if the queen drops by for dinner, but drinking canned wines can be remarkably good for everyday. From crisp whites to fruity reds, we rounded up 13 canned wines for an informal taste test to determine whether any are worth drinking.
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If you’re like most Americans, you’ve been drinking more coffee at home in 2020. But that increased consumption can take a bite out of a wallet if you’re not careful. We turned to our resident coffee snob loose to suss out the best ground coffee under $5 that wasn’t Folgers or Maxwell House. The verdict? Some of it was pretty darn good, especially the brand owned by Starbucks.
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Of course, not every coffee drinker goes for the “fancy” ground stuff. Some prefer instant coffee, which is even cheaper. Our coffee expert rounded up 13 kinds of instant coffee from top-selling brands such as Folger’s, Maxwell House, Cafe Bustelo, and Starbucks in a quest to find one that tasted like freshly brewed. Truth be told, no instant coffee can match the complexities that just-ground beans or even pre-ground coffee can. But one came close.
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Know what tastes good with a cup of coffee (or a glass of milk, if coffee isn’t your thing)? A couple of chocolate chip cookies. For this taste test, we bought 16 bags of chocolate chip cookies from well-known brands such as Keebler, Pepperidge Farm, and Nabisco, as well as house brands from stores including Walmart, Aldi, and Trader Joe’s. We weren’t too surprised by the winners — Tate’s and Pepperidge Farm are regular taste-test winners — but the runner-up from Walmart sure did.
Art C./Yelp
Sure, nothing beats a homemade cheeseburger, but for those of us in a hurry, fast food will do just fine, thank you. We compared burgers from six chains — McDonald’s, Jack in the Box, Carl’s Jr., Wendy’s, Sonic Drive-In, and Burger King — to find out which is best.
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French Fries
Ronald C./Yelp
How else would you accompany your fast-food burger than with a big basket of fast-food fries? For the longest time, consensus was that McDonald’s french fries were the best. Could Jack in the Box, Carl’s Jr., Wendy’s, Sonic Drive-In, or Burger King unseat Mickey D’s? Yes!
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Next to hamburgers, hot dogs are about as American as food gets. Our food critic grilled up 11 brands of beef, pork, and turkey hot dogs, sampling them plain and with ketchup and mustard. Surprisingly, the turkey dog came out near the top, though hot dog purists will be relieved to see what the top picks are.
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The market for plant-based meat substitutes is booming, with more and more products competing for floor space at grocery stores. We sampled Beyond Beef Plant-Based Ground Beef, Lightlife Plant-Based Ground, and Pure Farmland Plant-Based Simply Seasoned Protein Starters, then compared these meat-free foods with ground beef. Much to our surprise, one sample nearly fooled us into thinking it was the real thing.
Amazon
Whether you’re planning to observe Dry January after a month (or more) of holiday indulging or just prefer to keep your drinks booze-free, nonalcoholic beer is a great beverage option, and there are more choices than ever. Cheapism rounded up a sampling of 15 non-alcoholic beers and tasted them to see how they compare with a bottle of Budweiser. We were disappointed in some of the brews, but one was a true standout that even die-hard beer drinkers would probably enjoy.
CheapismStaying hydrated is easy, but drinking all that water sure gets boring. In a quest to keep our taste buds happy, we sampled packets of powder, squeezable bottles of liquid, and dissolvable tablets from brands including Crystal Light, Gatorade, and Propel. Some of our samples were practically undrinkable, overwhelming assaults of artificial flavor. But one water flavoring rose to the top.
