Tested: the best (and worst) mozzarella from the supermarket

Say wine, snacks or haute cuisine and the gourmands at online food magazine FavorFlav know where to drink, how to eat it and what to cook. This time our cheffies serve you: Tested: the best (and worst) mozzarella from the supermarket

Many cheeses improve with long aging, but mozzarella is best eaten as fresh as possible. That's why you buy the tastiest, and freshest, mozzarella at a specialized cheese shop. But what if that specialty store is already closed, not nearby, or you don't have time to go there? Then the supermarket offers relief, as there are plenty of supermarket mozzarella options available. Which supermarket sells the tastiest and where should you avoid it? FavorFlav's test panel investigated this for you.

In our test, we included eight supermarkets, namely: Dekamarkt, Lidl, Dirk, Albert Heijn, Vomar, Coop, Plus, and Jumbo. All mozzarella was purchased and tasted on the same day. At Aldi, the mozzarella was out, so it could not participate in the test.

Same mozzarella
In every supermarket, mozzarella from Galbani is sold, but we specifically looked for the private label of supermarkets. Albert Heijn sells two different mozzarella types under its private label, regular mozzarella and Italian mozzarella – both were included in the test.

At Dirk, the same (private) brand of mozzarella is sold (Fresca d’Oro) that is also sold at Plus. The brand Castelli is sold at Plus, Vomar, Dirk, Dekamarkt, and Coop.

Blind tested
The test panel tastes everything blind as always, only the note-taker knows where each mozzarella was purchased. The purchased mozzarella is all made with cow's milk; we did not include buffalo mozzarella in the test. The origin of the mozzarella (the place of production) is not indicated on the packaging.

Notable: white versus yellowish
When we take all the mozzarella out of the packaging, it immediately stands out: the creamy versus the putty-like texture and the color: white versus yellowish. But how does it taste?

The most appetizing...
…are numbers 1 and 2. They look the creamiest. Numbers 3 and 6 resemble 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, and we consider that a plus. To make mozzarella, curd (coagulated and drained cheese) is heated in water or whey until it becomes a stringy, elastic substance. This is then formed into balls. The fact that we are actually dealing with a stringy ball is promising. Louise: ‘It looks delicious.’

Lauretta: ‘This is 100 percent from Albert Heijn. I recognize it. Nice and creamy.‘ Delilah: ’A bit salty, but I don’t mind that.‘ Lauretta: ’Nice and creamy and milky.‘ Sharon: ’Great supermarket mozzarella. Both in looks and taste. A bit of olive oil and pepper, and you’re ready to go.‘

A lot of moisture
With number 2, a lot of moisture runs out when cutting. In terms of texture and mouthfeel, it resembles number 1, but number 1 has more flavor. Louise: ‘I find the taste quite flat.’ Delilah: ‘Not much flavor. A bit watery.’ Lauretta: ‘Also fine, but I find the first one just a bit tastier. I would definitely buy this for my salad.’

Gummy
Number 3 you cut into slices, it’s that gummy. Lauretta: ‘No, this is not good. This tastes like full milk as I get from my grandma, with those skins on top, brrr.’ Delilah: ‘This tastes almost rubbery. Not only is the texture rubbery, but the taste is too.’ Sharon: ‘I really can’t stand the texture. I don’t want to have to chew on mozzarella.’

Looks very stringy
Number 4 puts you on the wrong foot. It looks stringy, but cuts into slices, huh? Louise: ‘What did I just taste? I taste nothing!’ Lauretta: ‘This is the big nothing.’ Sharon: ‘If this is your Tinder date: run away immediately.’

Sweet and soggy
Number 5 is according to Delilah ‘waxy and sweetish.’ Lauretta: ‘I miss salt here.’ Sharon: ‘Nasty aftertaste. Fake.’

Bouncy ball without flavor
Number 6 is a bouncy ball. What a strange, hard substance. Sharon: ‘This is loveless, you know. Good mozzarella is like taking a bite of heaven, you can’t serve this to anyone.’ A world of difference from number 1, which is everyone’s favorite upon retasting.

The winner
So that is number 1, which is not, as Lauretta was sure, from Albert Heijn but from Jumbo. Kudos! Number 2 is the creamy Italian mozzarella from Albert Heijn. Number 3 is the gummy mozzarella from Fresca d’Oro. Castelli turns out to be number 4, number 5 comes from Lidl – it’s actually the very first time we are disappointed in Lidl in a FavorFlav test. We really find this mozzarella subpar. The cheap mozzarella from Albert Heijn is also really much less tasty than the more expensive variant from this supermarket.

Numbers 1 (Jumbo) and 2 (Albert Heijn: the creamy Italian mozzarella) are also the two most expensive mozzarella types we taste; the one from Jumbo costs €1.48, the one from Albert Heijn a cent more. We can thus conclude that with supermarket mozzarella, if you pay a little more, you also get a lot more.