I’m always looking to save a few pennies on my grocery budget – food has gotten expensive in general, but for my family (the gluten-dairy-peanut-tree nut-semi soy-free family) it can be downright ridiculous. Fortunately the local real estate magnates decided to lease Aldi land to build a lovely store about 8 miles from my house. Aldi, if you don’t know, is a private label, no frills grocery store, where the prices are generally 40-50% lower than the regular store.

Recently Aldi put in a full (and growing) line of gluten free products. Knowing that the way Aldi does it is to privately contract with popular brands to make the products and slap an Aldi brand package on the outside, I knew that whtaever I bought there would be close (or identical) to *some brand* that is already nationally distributed.

Our local Aldi finally got in the much buzzed about shelf-stable loaf bread that I’ve wanted to try, so I bought a loaf to take home and review:

Size:
The Aldi Loaf weighed in at 12oz, which runs about the size of the Udi’s Bread, and smaller than Rudi’s (14 oz), Schar (14.1 oz), Canyon Bakehouse (18oz), and Three Bakers (19oz)

Price:
At our Aldi, the bread was being sold for $3.99, and the total slices were 12 slices, making the cost per serving $.33 per slice.

The normal cost for a loaf of white bread in the US is currently about $2.37, for 19+oz, and 11 2-slice servings, making normal per slice cost $.11. So comparatively, the cost of the Aldi bread is about 300% of the normal cost of gluten filled bread.

COMPARISON

I wanted to compare the cost as well to the most popular gluten free competitors bread – because let’s face it, that’s what we’re really comparing it to…:

• Udi’s: $5 per loaf, 14 slices. $.36 per slice (Aldi savings: $03, about 10%)
• Rudi’s: $5 per loaf, 14 slices. $.36 per sice (Aldi savings: $.03, about 10%)
• Schar: $5.89 per loaf, 13 slices. $.45 per slice (Aldi savings: $.12, about 40%)
• Canyon Bakehouse: $5 per loaf, 15 slices. $.33 per slice (Aldi savings: none)
• Three Bakers: 6.59 per loaf, 14 slices. $.47 per slice (Aldi savings: $.14, about 40%)

Id you regularly buy Udi’s, Rudi’s, or Canyon Bakehouse, you can see that the Aldi brand isn’t saving you any money per slice.

In addition, the Aldi slices are small (at 26g per slice), so if you’re comparing apples to apples, you’d want to take into account you might need to eat more ‘servings’ of their bread to feel the same level of satisfaction compared to some of the others (Three Bakers weighs in at 34g per slice).

In comparing the cost per g for the Aldi ($.01 per g) v. Three Baker’s ($.01 per g), for instance, there was no savings on the cost.
Texture and Flavor:
Right out of the bag the texture was soft and spongy – you could even squeeze the crumb of the bread and it sprang back instead of squashing down. Initially we were pretty impressed with the smell and appearance.

However the same sponginess that was appealing to touch translated into what I can only describe as dry and cottony texture in the mouth. My sons both told me that the bread was ‘pretty good after you toast it’ – which used to be the standard response for gluten free bread, but in this day and age isn’t acceptable anymore. My feeling is that the cottony texture came from the addition of psyllium AND cellulose AND chia, in addition to cellulose gum – that’s a lot of extenders and binders!

The taste was bland – neither offensive, nor outstanding. Once again, ‘cottony’ was the word used almost universally here.

If you’re looking for who the closet analog to this bread would be in the US, I’d say Schar or Ener-G may be – it has very similar physical characteristics for each of these brands. That’s not a compliment. I have had a MUCH better experience with Canyon Bakehouse and Three Bakers Breads, and a somewhat better experience with Udi’s breads.

Rudi’s, Schar, and Energy (for me at least) have always fallen into the court-of-last-resort category in terms of mouth feel, flavor, moisture level, and ease of preparation (does it need toasting first?). The Aldi bread falls at or below the lowest category – great in a pinch, but not worth the price of admission, especially as it’s not a huge savings..

Allergens:
Top Eight: Our bag listed Egg.
In addition, there is Corn listed (as corn starch)

Available Online?

No. Unless you have a local Aldi, you’re not going to find this bread.

TASTE OR TOSS

Based on the low quality of the bread compared to other brands, the small slice size, and the relatively low savings per serving when compared to other brands, I’m placing this in the TOSS category.

Feel free to weigh in on your own impression of this brand in the comments section below <3

naomi