Tested: this is the tastiest (and nastiest!) supermarket mozzarella
Many cheeses get better when they are aged for a long time, but mozzarella is best eaten as fresh as possible. That is why you buy the tastiest—and therefore freshest—mozzarella at a specialized cheese shop. But what if that specialty shop is already closed, isn’t nearby, or you don’t have time to go there? Then the supermarket offers a solution, because there are plenty of supermarket mozzarellas for sale. Which supermarket sells the tastiest, and which one is better left on the shelf? FavorFlav’s test panel investigated it for you.
For our test, we included eight supermarkets: Dekamarkt, Lidl, Dirk, Albert Heijn, Vomar, Coop, Plus and Jumbo. All the mozzarellas were bought and tasted on the same day. Aldi had run out of mozzarella, so it couldn’t take part in the test.
Supermarket mozzarella
The same mozzarella
Every supermarket sells Galbani mozzarella, but we specifically looked for supermarkets’ own brands. Albert Heijn sells two different own-brand mozzarellas, regular mozzarella and Italian mozzarella—both were included in the test.
At Dirk, the same (own) brand of mozzarella is sold—Fresca d’oro—which is also sold at Plus. The Castelli brand is sold at Plus, Vomar, Dirk, Dekamarkt and Coop.
Blind tasting
As always, the test panel tasted everything blind; only the note-taker knew where each mozzarella had been bought. All the mozzarellas we bought were made with cow’s milk; we did not include buffalo mozzarella in the test. The origin of the mozzarellas (the place of production) is not stated on the packaging.
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- Castelli Mozzarella. Bij Dirk: 0,99 ct, bij Plus €1,29, bij Dekamarkt €1,19, bij Vomar €1,19, bij Coop €1,29
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- AH Mozzarella. 0,89 ct
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- Fresca d’oro Mozzarella. 0,69 ct bij Plus, 0,57 ct bij Dirk
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- AH Italiaanse Mozzarella. €1,89
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- Mozzarella Lidl. 0,69 ct
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- Jumbo Mozzarella Kaas. €1,48
Notable: white versus yellowish
Once we have taken all the mozzarellas out of their packaging, it immediately stands out: the creamy versus putty-like texture and the color—white versus yellowish. But how does it taste?
The most appetizing
Those are numbers 1 & 2. They look the creamiest. Numbers 3 & 6 look like bouncy balls. No creaminess to be found. The proof of the pudding is in the eating, so here we go. Number 1 is very stringy, which we consider a plus. To make mozzarella, curdled and drained cheese is heated in water or whey until it becomes a stringy, elastic substance. It is then shaped into balls. The fact that we are actually dealing with a stringy ball is encouraging. Louise: ‘it looks delicious.’
Lauretta: ‘This is 100% from Albert Heijn. I recognize it. Lovely and creamy.’ Delilah: ‘a little salty, but I don’t mind that.’ Lauretta: ‘nice and creamy and milky.’ Sharon: ‘perfectly good supermarket mozzarella. Both in terms of looks and taste. Add a little olive oil and pepper and you’re ready to go.’
Lots of moisture
A lot of moisture comes out when cutting number 2. In terms of texture and mouthfeel, it resembles number 1, but number 1 has more flavor. Louise: ‘I find the flavor rather flat.’ Delilah: ‘not much flavor. A little watery.’ Lauretta: ‘also perfectly fine, but I like the first one just a little better. I would definitely buy this for my salad.’
Gummy
You can cut number 3 into slices, it’s that gummy. Lauretta: ‘no, this isn’t tasty. It tastes like whole milk, like the kind I get at my grandmother’s, with those skins on top, yuck.’ Delilah: ‘this tastes almost rubbery. Not only is the texture rubbery, the taste is too.’ Sharon: ‘the texture really puts me off. I don’t want to have to chew mozzarella.’
Looks very stringy
Number 4 throws you off. It looks stringy, but cuts into slices—huh? Louise: ‘what did I just taste? I can’t taste anything!’ Lauretta: ‘this is the absolute definition of nothing.’ Sharon: ‘if this is your Tinder date: walk away immediately.’
Sweet & soggy
According to Delilah, number 5 is ‘cloying and sweetish.’ Lauretta: ‘I’m missing salt here.’ Sharon: ‘nasty aftertaste. Fake.’
Bouncy ball without flavor
Number 6 is a bouncy ball. What a strange, hard substance. Sharon: ‘this is completely devoid of love. Good mozzarella is like taking a bite of heaven; you can’t do this to anyone.’ A world of difference from number 1, which is everyone’s favorite when tasting it again.
The winner
That is number 1, which, contrary to Lauretta’s certainty, is not from Albert Heijn but from Jumbo. Kudos! Number 2 is Albert Heijn’s creamy Italian mozzarella. Number 3 is the gummy mozzarella from Fresca d’oro. Castelli turns out to be number 4; number 5 comes from Lidl—it is actually the first time we have been disappointed in Lidl in a FavorFlav test. We really consider this mozzarella substandard. Albert Heijn’s cheap mozzarella is also many times less tasty than the more expensive variant from this supermarket.
Numbers 1 (Jumbo) & 2 (Albert Heijn; the creamy Italian mozzarella) are also the two most expensive mozzarellas we tasted; the Jumbo one costs €1.48, while Albert Heijn’s costs one cent more. So we can conclude that when it comes to supermarket mozzarellas: pay a little more, and you get a lot more.
