This is the tastiest garlic baguette 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: this is the tastiest garlic baguette from the supermarket.

Pavlov's dog started drooling when it heard a bell, because it knew that food would follow. We get that same Pavlov reaction when we smell such a ridiculously cheap garlic baguette: HUNGRYYYYY! No matter how many you've eaten, crashed on the couch to fend off the hangover, they remain delicious. Which supermarket sells the best? And which scores the worst? We went to test them – without a hangover.

Everyone in the editorial team has a thing for those garlic baguettes. You buy them for a few cents and they give you an instant feeling of happiness, such a warm baguette with melting garlic butter. Disadvantage: afterwards, that awful taste in your mouth cannot be removed with any mint, so make sure to share your garlic baguette with housemates or loved ones to avoid the misery of dragon breath.

Longer in the oven
We tested seven garlic or herb baguettes from the supermarket, all from the store brand. Prices range from 0.48 euros for the baguette from Dirk, to 1.48 euros for the fancy garlic baguette from Albert Heijn. Notably: the baguettes are all the same size and weight, but the recommended oven times and temperatures vary. What does it matter, anyone who has ever baked such a baguette knows that they definitely need to be longer in the oven than stated on the packaging and that the oven can be quite hot to get a nice color on the bottom. We baked them all at 190 degrees and they definitely needed to be in for at least 13 minutes (and for some baguettes we thought: a little longer wouldn't have hurt).

Brown and not tasty
The big loser from our test is the most expensive baguette, from Albert Heijn. ‘The packaging doesn't look appetizing,’ says Rick. ‘A bit brown, and not appealing.’ We taste it and no one really gets excited. ‘Bland, little seasoning, little garlic,‘ summarizes Louise. When the tasters hear that this baguette costs a euro more than the cheapest one in the test, their mouths drop open. ’Nothing better than the other baguettes, this is really the big loser.‘

Bland
Plus also doesn't score well. Little garlic butter, strange aftertaste, bland: no one is happy about this. The baguette from Jumbo drips with butter and that's not necessarily a good thing. Rick: ‘You really can't eat this in front of the TV.’ But for people with a pack of napkins, this is a good buy: ‘Lots of butter, plenty of garlic flavor and a good smell,’ according to Louise. Vomar doesn't disappoint this time: decent baguette, enough garlic butter but little garlic. ‘It seems like there's Boursin on it,’ Bo tastes critically. But well: ‘Even without butter, this was a decent baguette,’ says Louise.

Fortunately
The winner: the cheapest, from Dirk. Bo: ‘I could easily eat a whole loaf of this, really very tasty.’ It's striking that this is the only bread that needs to be stored in the freezer, the other baguettes come from the refrigerated section. Our tip: stock up, because these things are good for a long time into the next century and you always have a garlic baguette nearby. Testers are happy with the ‘sticky’ inside and the strong garlic flavor. Just a really good garlic baguette. Add a cheap tomato soup and you have a great meal for a rough Sunday afternoon. For practically nothing, because seriously: 48 cents for a baguette of this quality, that makes everyone happy.