I'm a big fan of baked goods, so I was naturally eager to take on a muffin taste-test comparison. I bake quite a bit, and muffins are one of my go-tos because they're so versatile, always delicious, and can be good for breakfast, a snack or dessert depending on what you put in them.
I was curious how popular grocery store muffins would hold up against my own, so I went to No Frills, Walmart, and Costco to put them to the test.
And let me tell you — I was shocked by the results. It was surprisingly a close race, but one still came out on top.
Read on and find out where to get your next batch of muffins.
No Frills muffins
A cranberry lemon muffin beside its package of Farmer’s Market muffins.
The first muffin I tried was the cranberry lemon option from No Frills. The store had a large display of Farmer's Market brand muffins, all for $6 each. The selection was good, too — I debated between this flavour, the morning glory option, and then classics like blueberry and chocolate chip.
Overall, I was very pleasantly surprised by this No Frills muffin. The texture was soft and moist, not at all stale. It had an almost cake-like texture throughout; one downside is that the top didn't have that crunchy muffin top texture you get with homemade muffins.
Flavour-wise, it had a strong lemony flavour—tart and not too sweet. There weren't as many cranberries as I would have liked, but overall they contributed to a nice flavour. I even wrote in my notes, "doesn't taste fake," which seems surprising looking back, but it was a solid muffin! Nutritionally, they probably can't pass as a health food (370 calories for one with 18 grams of fat and 24 grams of sugar), but they make a great snack.
- Price: $6 pre-tax for six 100-gram muffins ($1 each)
- Rating: 4/5
Walmart muffins
A chocolate chip muffin beside a supermarket pack of banana chocolate chip muffins.
I would say this was a solid store-bought muffin. Banana flavour is always a dead giveaway that something is not homemade, as I find it always has that fake flavour. This one had a strong banana flavour and did taste fake, though not in a terrible way. It wasn't overly sweet and had a really good amount of chocolate in it, so that balanced things out.
Texture was also very moist, soft, and fresh. Nutritional information was similar to No Frills (i.e. basically a cupcake).
- Price: $6.48 for six 100-gram muffins ($1.08 each)
- Rating: 4/5
The winner: Costco muffins
A Costco Canada muffin served with milk beside a package of Kirkland muffins.
I've had Costco muffins plenty of times and always thought they were good... Until I recently tried their blueberry muffins during a Costco bakery taste-test and was very disappointed. Fresh off of that experience, I had low expectations for these banana walnut muffins. But let me tell you: my faith is restored. These were really good.
I thought that they had a really mild but tasty banana flavour — almost homemade in that it didn't have a fake aftertaste. The crunchy walnuts on top were a great contrast to the soft muffin. This one was more dense than the others, less cake-like. They are made with buttermilk, which always adds a really nice texture and flavour.
The nutritional information is not on the packages, but some online sleuthing leads me to think these muffins top 400 calories.
- Price: $7.99 for eight 106-gram muffins ($1 each)
- Rating: 4.5/5
This is probably the closest taste-test competition I've ever done. Flavour, quality, cost and nutritional information were nearly the same across the board, with Costco taking a slight win. Who knew muffins were a grocery store's star product?
The opinions expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Narcity Media.