Product Review: New Grains Gluten Free White Bread - Better Batter Gluten Free Flour

Product Review: New Grains Gluten Free White Bread

Ah, yes, affordable, delicious, gluten free bread. You are the holy grail, and our members are on a never ending journey to find you… As you may remember, in a previous product review, I […]

Ah, yes, affordable, delicious, gluten free bread. You are the holy grail, and our members are on a never ending journey to find you…

As you may remember, in a previous product review, I compared the Aldi Live Gfree White Bread against  some of the other alternatives out there. A great little company contacted me and asked if I’d be willing to compare their bread against the Aldi brand, for taste, texture, cost, etc. Well, heck yeah, I would! Who would turn down the opportunity to try a new brand and maybe find a great new alternative bread provider? A few days later a package was hand delivered to our office door… and I was suitably impressed by what the package contained. Read on:

new grains white bread

 

Size:
The New Grains Loaf weighed in at 32oz – that’s the size of a Real Loaf of bread (remember those?).  Compared to the Aldi Loaf, which weighed in at 12oz, this is a pretty big difference.

I thought it would also be good to compare it to the Udi’s Bread (about 12oz), Rudi’s (14 oz), Schar (14.1 oz), Canyon Bakehouse (18oz), and Three Bakers (19oz).

As you can see, this bread weighed in by almost a pound more than even the heaviest loaf. That’s impressive.

Price:
The New Grains bread retails for about $6.99 per loaf in stores.
Online (which is the only place I could buy it) you would also need to pay for shipping. On Amazon, the extra shipping is about $7.50 – bringing the total cost to about $15.00.

On the New Grains Website, the shipping was $14 for up to 2 loaves , $18 for 3-4 loaves , and an additional $11 for each set of 2 loaves after that, making multiple loaf orders the best option, with 4 loaves being the best deal (bringing the total cost per loaf to $11.49)

It was important to me to look at the real world cost of the bread, both for in store purchase and for online purchase, when comparing it to the Aldi brand in particular – for money saving reasons – and to the other brands in general.

The New Grains Bread weighs in with 16 slices per 32 oz loaf.

Using these figures I came up with the following per serving cost:

In Store New Grains Bread ($6.99):  $.44 per slice

From Amazon New Grains Bread ($15): $.94 per slice

From New Grain Website at best rate ($11.49): $.72 per slice

 

COMPARISON

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 New Grains bread  is about 400-850% of the normal cost of gluten filled bread. No surprises there.

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, and to Aldi in particular, since that’s what the company requested…:

  • Aldi, $3.99, 12 slices, $.33 per slice (New Grains Savings: none)
  • Rudi’s: $5 per loaf, 14 slices. $.36 per sice (New Grains Savings: none)
  • Schar: $5.89 per loaf, 13 slices. $.45 per slice (New Grains Savings: none to $.01 per slice)
  • Canyon Bakehouse: $5 per loaf, 15 slices. $.33 per slice (New Grains Savings: none)
  • Three Bakers: 6.59 per loaf, 14 slices. $.47 per slice (New Grains Savings: none to $.03 per slice)

So in terms of the cost per slice, there isn’t really a savings there, HOWEVER, you also have to take into account that the New Grains bread weighs in at a whopping 60g per slice. I’ve written before about how this is important – if you are eating something that isn’t as filling, you may ending up eating more of it to feel satisfied. So comparing the weight is as important as comparing the units…

In comparing the cost per g for the New Grains (range from $.007 per g to $.02 per g)  v.  Aldi ($.01 per g)  for instance, the actual cost per g was much cheaper if locally available, and about identical if you bought it at least 2 loaves at a time from the site.
Texture and Flavor:
With the cost being either more expensive (based on per slice analysis) or the essentially the same (based on per gram analysis) , the key differentiation for me would come down to the taste and texture.

Right out of the box, I gave the loaf a squeeze – the only think I can think is that it had the ‘real bread’ feel of fresh bread. Aldi also has this, as do many of the competitors, but for some reason, this particular bread felt a bit ‘softer’ than I’ve become used to. The texture of the bread itself was soft and spongy – you could even squeeze the crumb of the bread and it sprang back instead of squashing down. My children and husband were pretty impressed with both the smell and appearance. Compared to the Aldi brand, this was about the same amount of texture.

The New Grains bread tells you to refrigerate the products when you get them – this really wasn’t necessary in our house, but then again we have a cool house in the autumn, so YMMV. We didn’t like the texture of the bread cold, as it stiffened up. Once out of the fridge though, it needed no toasting or nuking to become soft again, which is another great bonus.

As for taste – the New Grain bread  was infinitely better in our mouths. If you recall, I felt the Aldi bread was a bit dry and cottony, and my kids agreed. The New Grain bread was NOT dry or cottony in any way.  It was moist – even after 5 days stored at room temperature. It took well to toasting, plain eating, french toast… with 16 slices per loaf we could experiment quite a bit.

The taste was bland –  essentially what you’d expect out of a white bread, although we noticed that it developed a ‘sourdough’ scent about 4 days at room temperature – this was not offensive – likely since we ignored the directions to refrigerate it after the first day or so. In taste, this bread really outshone the Aldi bread. My family personally prefers whole grain flavor… but New Grain also has these options available (whole grain, cinnamon, sourdough etc) as well as tortillas, so this really isn’t a problem.

Allergens:
Top Eight: Our bag listed Egg.

Note: Vegan options are available!

Available Online?

Yes, prepare to pay shipping both at Amazon and at the company’s website.

TASTE OR TOSS

Considering that the cost per g and texture was about the same, and the mouth-feel and  taste were markedly  superior , if you’re able to source this at a local store you should definitely consider trying it.

Even online this is really a good deal, as long as you’re willing to buy 2 loaves or more. Ideally you’d order 4 loaves from the company, as this would bring your cost per g to slightly less than the Aldi brand cost.

I was really surprised at how favorably my family received this bread, and I personally plan on ordering again, by the case.

naomi

 

Save

Save