5 Best And 3 Worst Kirkland Dairy Products To Buy At Costco

There are three things that make Costco special: low prices, reliably high-quality products, and large sizes. Their house brand, Kirkland Signature, for the most part is able to accomplish these three things in their products. However, not every product can be a hit, and some items — even fan-favorite ones — can end up being discontinued by Costco. 

We are always looking for a good bargain, but sadly, even with Kirkland Signature, the brand name alone is not enough. I went through Costco's Kirkland Signature dairy products to find some of the best and worst items by the brand. To make this determination, I looked at the price, quality, and quantity. Each product had to stack up well in each category. The caveat on quantity, especially dairy products, is that they have to be usable or freezable before they go bad. Otherwise you could argue that you are not getting the full benefit of the product. This is not an all-encompassing list, but a list with a selection from each dairy area. 

I'll explain more about our methodology at the end, but for now here are some of the best and worst Kirkland Signature dairy products you can buy at Costco.

What's not to love about a can of whipped cream? This sweet, creamy topper is great on hot chocolate, on sundaes, or straight into your mouth. With each pack of Kirkland whipped cream, you are getting three 15 ounce cans for just under $10. What a deal! A single can of Reddi Whip in a 13 ounce can at a local competitor was $4.98. Basically, here you are getting a bonus can. 

Plus, while you are committing to three large cans of whipped cream, the good news is it lasts a long time in the aerosol containers. Based on the package I bought, I have over four months to use this whipped cream. While that might still be too much whipped cream for a single person, based on consumption in this house, it will be gone before we know it. Sadly, whipped cream in a can does not freeze, so you will have to store it in the fridge.

The real question here is, does it taste good? And the answer is a resounding yes. Costco previously had a light whipped cream which came with a blue lid but it was not as tasty as this one. Reddit posters agree with my assessment: this whipped cream is creamy, light, and delicious. It ticks every box.

The problem with Kirkland Signature milk isn't so much the milk itself. This is fine. It tastes like milk. It behaves in cooking and coffee the way you would expect it to. However, when you get a generic brand, especially something from Kirkland, you expect a good price for what you are buying. That is not the case here. One gallon of Kirkland Signature milk costs exactly the same amount as a gallon of milk at Walmart: $4.75.

Now, this would typically put them on at least equal footing if it weren't for the one additional major drawback of the Kirkland Signature milk gallon: the bottle. I don't know why Kirkland thought they needed to reinvent the wheel with this one, but they reinvented the bottle in possibly the least ergonomic way possible. Sure, it's probably better for stacking the bottles for shipping, but this bottle is hard to hold and pour, which are the only two things the consumer needs to do with it besides drinking it. 

Also, there is nothing exceptional about a gallon of milk. You can buy a gallon of milk at just about any grocery store, so you aren't even getting the expected Costco bulk amount to help your dollars go further.

Costco sells a lot of butter, which makes sense as butter makes pretty much any dish tastier. I am focusing here on the Kirkland Signature Grass-Fed Butter. This butter comes in a 2 pound pack, which is comprised of four 8 ounce blocks of butter. It comes in just one variety: salted. This butter has a pleasant yellow color and light but rich buttery flavor with just a hint of brightness from the salt. The butter itself is made from 95% grass-fed cream.

Costco also sells Kerrygold Irish butter and this is clearly meant to be a competitor. Now, the two are similar but are not exactly the same. Kerrygold is Irish, and Kirkland Signature is New Zealand; this does cause subtle flavor differences in the butter but one is not inherently better than the other. Kirkland Signature butter stays slightly firmer at room temperature and is good for baking because of this. Both butter brands are excellent choices for a high fat, high-quality butter that is perfect for spreading on toast. Both are made with just cream and salt. The one significant thing that sets these two apart is the price.

Costco already has a decent price on Kerrygold, but it is still $14.99 a pack at my Costco, whereas Kirkland Signature Grass-Fed was $9.99. That is a remarkable price difference. If you want a nice table butter, it is Kirkland Signature all the way. Plus, you can freeze the excess for when you're ready to use it.

Kirkland Signature mozzarella cheese is another example of Costco simply giving way more than is necessary. On the surface, the Kirkland Signature Mozzarella is a good deal. For what equates to about 24 cents per ounce, you get fresh mozzarella. This is a steep discount from others where competitors easily cost 49 cents per ounce. The problem is that you are committing to over two pounds of mozzarella cheese.

To put things in perspective, I have a household of five people. We do "make your own pizza night" every so often, where the main cheese is shredded fresh mozzarella. I have never once finished this pack of cheese without it going bad. Fresh mozzarella is incredibly wet and does not last very long. Even fully sealed, the package I bought could be kept for less than a month. Fresh mozzarella can technically freeze, but it will change the taste and consistency. This cheese isn't a good deal if you are throwing half away.

Also, the Kirkland mozzarella is pre-sliced. I like a Caprese salad as much as the next person, but having it pre-cut limits doing other things with it. Costco offers varied Kirkland cheeses, and there are better ones out there.

It is no secret that many store brands are just repackaged versions of other brands and the same is true for Kirkland Signature premium vanilla ice cream. Costco reportedly gets its ice cream from Humboldt Creamery, based in Humboldt, California. The creamery has a long history and they know how to make ice cream. While this ice cream isn't dirt cheap, you are getting excellent bang for your buck.

A Kirkland Signature vanilla pack comes with two half gallons of ice cream, or one gallon total, for $14.99. But this isn't just regular generic ice cream; this is super premium ice cream. Ice cream labels have to follow certain legal definitions. For example, to be called ice cream, a frozen dairy dessert has to contain a certain percentage of fat and milk solids. There are also categories for labeling, which designates how much air is in ice cream. "Super Premium" states that there is less air churned into the ice cream, which creates a thicker and better-tasting end result.

The result is that Kirkland Signature Super Premium vanilla ice cream is thick and delicious. It has a lovely vanilla flavor and is rich and decadent. Sure, you can find some cheaper options, but the price to quality ratio here is unmatched.

This is the second cheese on our list that simply does not stand up to the test. These massive bags of cheese are heavy enough they have to be held together with an additional plastic handle so you can lift them. Altogether you get two 2.5 pound bags of cheese. That is 5 pounds of cheese total. Cheese is great but this is a lot of cheese. The good news with these bags of cheese is that shredded cheese does freeze, which is nice. But even freezing one, you are still left with a lot to go through. That is the equivalent of five 8 ounce bags of cheese you will have to go through in just a week or so.

Now we can't argue about the price. $14.59 for 5 pounds of cheese is a great deal. It is roughly $0.18 an ounce, which is a crazy good price. But again, not if you are throwing half of it out. Additionally, because this cheese is shredded, you are limited in what you can do with it. It doesn't melt particularly well for things like mac and cheese. And in my experience, the shreds are so thin they don't taste as good when melted for foods like nachos. Some of the other store brands, which are only nominally more expensive, taste better than the Kirkland Signature shredded cheese. Here the price and volume simply do not make up for quality and usability.

Now, while the Kirkland Signature shredded cheese is one of the worst products, Kirkland Signature blocks of cheese are amazing. A block of Kirkland Signature cheese is 2 pounds. This is still larger than you would typically find in a grocery store but also a usable amount. There are also far more uses for a block of cheese. It can be shredded, if you want. It melts velvety, unlike pre-shredded cheese, with anti-caking agents affecting the texture. Most importantly, this cheese is delicious. It is tangy and sharp, and it makes a killer grilled cheese. And yes, you can freeze blocks of cheddar cheese if you need to.

Finally, this cheese is cheap. A 2 pound block of cheese was just $6.29 which is roughly $0.19 an ounce. Even Walmart's Great Value is more at roughly $0.26 an ounce. The price, quality, and quantity are all right here, making this a great buy.

Last but certainly not least, we have the Kirkland Signature Greek Yogurt. This yogurt is clearly meant to be a competitor of Fage, which Costco also sells, and is located right next to it in my store. The Fage, though, is noticeably more expensive. The Kirkland Signature Greek Yogurt costs $6.79 for a 48 ounce package. Not only is 48 ounces larger than the standard 32 you will find at other stores, but that equates to just $0.14 per ounce, which is significantly less than the $0.20 you will pay for Fage at Walmart.

This yogurt is also delicious. It is thick, creamy, tangy, and teeming with live and active cultures. Because it is just plain yogurt, it can be used to make sweet or savory foods. I have used it in baking and smoothies, but also to make savory sauces and toppings. Greek Yogurt doesn't freeze well, so this is one item you will have to use up. Generally, after opening you have a week or two to use up this yogurt, but if you are a yogurt for breakfast person, you will use it up quickly and return for more.

To determine which Costco products were the best and worst, I looked at three main criteria: the price, the volume, and the quality. For the price, I compared the Kirkland Signature price against other competitors of the same quality. For example, Kirkland Signature super premium ice cream was compared to other super premium ice creams, not regular or over churned ice cream.

Next, I looked at the volume. This is the total amount of a product that Costco sells. The expectation is that Costco, as a wholesaler, will offer a larger quantity than the standard store. This also factored into the price, as the price was figured at a per unit — such as price per ounce — rather than a price per item. With this, though, the item still needed to be usable within a reasonable time. This means either everything can be reasonably used before it goes bad or the product can be frozen and used later.

Finally, I looked at quality — the product needed to taste good. Not every product can be a hit. Kirkland Signature has discontinued items in the past and has revamped formulas. We can see with the Whipped Cream that Kirkland Signature made a change for the better.

Costco offers a huge selection of dairy products, so I chose a smattering of products across sections of the store to give a breadth of information and provide a fair and even critique.