Canada is home to many iconic sweets, from the butter tart to the Nanaimo bar, but finding a good version of these treats can be difficult, especially if your only option is your local No Frills.
It's hard to beat homemade treats, but No Frills does try, so I went and tried all of the most Canadian confections and bakery items I could get my hands on at one of the nation's top grocery stores.
Why No Frills? Well, because it's a store that markets itself as a place with the lowest prices in Canada, and I wanted to find out if those low prices can get you a Canadian confection that's just as tasty as my grandma used to make.
After stalking the aisles of my local No Frills, I was able to find plenty of iconic Canadian baked goods and other treats. And while some of my finds aren't necessarily something you'll find in your family recipe book, you can't deny that they are authentically Canuck in their flavours and ubiquity across Canada.
So yes, No Frills has a lot of Canadian snacks. But are they any good?
Here is my rundown of four famously Canadian treats I found at No Frills, their prices, and their rankings as determined by me, a seasoned food tester at Narcity.
Butter tarts
Farmer's Market brand butter tarts.
Tristan Wheeler | Narcity
There are few desserts that are more Canadian than the butter tart.
It's a little cup of tasty, flaky pastry with a sweet, sugary, caramel-flavoured filling made across the country, from B.C. to the Atlantic.
The butter tart is widely considered one of the top treats in Canada, but how does the bargain No Frills Farmer's Market brand stack up?
To put it mildly, they were not good.
The first thing I noticed was that the tart's pastry was quite thick and had a genuinely unpleasant taste. It didn't have the buttery notes you'd hope for. As a matter of fact, it was almost sour.
As for the filling, there was a moment where I thought the filling was okay, but when I had it by itself, it also had a sour-ish, preservative-heavy taste that honestly turned my stomach a bit.
I don't think I could recommend the butter tarts — unless of course you were in a pinch and really needed nine butter tarts to appease a group of kids or something like that.
They just weren't good!
Price: $7.00 for nine tarts
Score: 1/5
Nanaimo bars
Farmer's Market brand Nanaimo bars.
Tristan Wheeler | Narcity
Speaking of iconic Canadian treats, the Nanaimo bar could be called the official dessert of Canada — or at the very least of British Columbia. It's easy to make the three-layered confection, per a recipe by CBC: on the bottom is a crumb base made with chocolate, nuts and coconut, the middle is made of yellow custard cream, and the top is a thin layer of chocolate ganache.
It's a mainstay for the holidays and more, but what if you don't want the hassle of preparing them?
Well, if you go with picking up some of the bars from No Frills, I think you'll be in good hands.
Taking a bite of the Farmer's Market brand Nanaimo bar, I was surprised at how melty and soft the entire thing was. Maybe this was a symptom of the warm weather, but it didn't have that more solid bite, with the firm chocolate shell on top, that I've come to know and love when it comes to the Nanaimo bar.
Despite its softness, I did think that the chocolate on top was rich and tasted really good. The crumb base was also doing a good job, but I think it could have had a bit more flavour to it beyond just chocolate.
As for the custard in the middle, that was maybe the worst part. While it tasted good in the entire bar, on its own it really tasted like icing you would get from a container.
All in all, though, I would definitely consider getting the Nanaimo bars from No Frills again.
Price: $5.50 for eight bars
Score: 3/5
Jos Louis
A box of Jos Louis.
Tristan Wheeler | Narcity
While not something a lot of people are making at home, there's no denying this is an authentically Canadian confection. The Jos Louis hit shelves in Canada in the 1930s and is one of the few treats you can only get north of the border, according to CBC.
What is it? Well, it's made from two pieces of red velvet cake sandwiching a bit of whipped cream and all covered in a milk chocolate shell.
They're something that I don't think I've ever had before, but I could really see myself throwing them into the rotation. The chocolate was nice and just crumbly enough to provide some fun texture to each bite with the soft cake and that creamy, almost marshmallowy centre.
This is another quite sweet concoction, and even though I found it super light, the sweetness caused me to only have a few bites.
Price: $4.49 for six cakes
Score: 4/5
Ultimate Maple Crème cookies
Ultimate Maple Crème cookies.
Tristan Wheeler | Narcity
Is there anything more Canadian than one of these delicious little maple concoctions?
If you've never had a maple crème cookie before, they're really simple and, spoiler alert, really good. This treat is simply two maple leaf-shaped cookies sandwiching a bit of pressed maple-flavoured filling.
And my God, are these good.
These cookies, unlike everything else I tasted for this article, were just perfectly sweet. I only took a few bites of the other treats I tested, but I actually was able to take in two whole cookies with no problem.
It honestly made me want to bust out a glass of milk, sit on a chair too big for me and swing my feet back and forth like a little kid — it tasted like something I would have loved as a wee boy!
Price: $2.49 for a box
Score: 5/5
The next time you head to No Frills looking for something Canadian to satisfy your sweet tooth, look no further than some of these. While not everything was amazing — I'm looking at you, butter tarts — I think you can't go wrong with most of what I tried, especially those maple cookies.
Just please, please, please don't get the store-brand butter tarts. You'll thank me later.
Happy snacking, Canada!
