6 Best And 5 Worst Breakfast Foods To Buy At Aldi

Of all the incredible deals Aldi offers, one of the most price-friendly sectors of the store is the breakfast food collection. Signature brands such as Millville, Simply Nature, and Friendly Farms do their best to replicate familiar fare at fairer price points than the originals offer, even when they're side by side on Aldi shelves. It's a generous offering from a company that seems to understand its customers are willing to take a chance on boutique labels as long as they can trust the quality and enjoyment factor. And when it comes to starting the day with a satisfying spread, quality and enjoyment are essential, regardless of what you pay.

To figure out whether Aldi has its breakfast hat on straight, I sped on down to my location and wrapped my arms around 11 breakfast staples, then wrapped my head around just how well these second-tier selections do their jobs. From bagels that could use a little topping to round out their tastiness to cereals that give convincing imitations of the better-known originals, the options I chose turned out to be a rented cartful of mix-and-match breakfast bargains that get the job done while leaving dollars on the table. While several rise above their label-conscious competition, others provide just a so-so breakfast experience, and some just don't rise to the occasion.

It's nice to have a more down-to-earth cereal option with nostalgic vibes on the Aldi breakfast carousel, and Millville Crunchy Granola Raisin Bran merges two of the best possibilities into a single box of old-fashioned goodness. Having a more affordable raisin bran would be a super find on its own, but knowing that Aldi goes to the trouble of tossing in a crunchy nuggety granola element is enough to get the grownup cereal set salivating. I say this as a staunch member of the club who gravitates toward the earthier end of the cereal spectrum, both as a breakfast option and as a snack throughout the day that keeps me out of the candy jar.

It's an easy red flag when grocery shopping at Aldi for breakfast items that you may not get what you bargained for in a B-list home brand, which makes this box something of a mixed bag. The granola crunch and sprinkling of raisins create a welcome pairing with the bran flakes, per the familiar cereal script. What threw me a bit was the sugary coating on the flakes, an opaque glaze that bumps this box a few pegs down on the ranking. If only the sweetness were left to the raisins, Aldi would have a major cereal hit on its hands. This one is for the bran fans who don't mind if their favorite cereal shakes the sugar tree a little too hard.

It may be called Breakfast Best, but this pale imitation of a classic Egg McMuffin is anything but. Even the image on the box looks a little overexposed, like the photographer did their best with a super-white English muffin and washed-out egg disk to work with. A hint of pink peeking out from the Canadian bacon and bendy orange corners from a slice of American cheese-food are the only hues on the palette, and even those threaten to evaporate. Not a good sign for the food inside.

With all the elements in place, you'll be ready to chomp on a McBreakfast specialty as you drive into work, but be prepared to pump the brakes on your enjoyment here. I enlisted the help of my omnivore offspring to keep my no-meat eating policy in check and received back a report of "I've had better." When pressed for further details, he explained that everything tasted like the flavor was almost present, but not quite. There's always a chance that his palate is too picky, having experienced more proficient stacks in the past. Others may find great enjoyment when the microwave beeps. But I interpret the younger Luna's opinion to mean that if you know the difference, you too will not be impressed with this disappointing morning muffin. I'm dubbing it one of the worst foods to buy at Aldi for day-starting fare.

How closely does a Millville tart align with the Kellogg's blueprint? For starters, the crust is just as tender and chewy in untoasted form as it is in the original brand-name pastry. There are differences between the two products as well, though not all of them are in favor of Pop-Tarts. Though it's true you're not likely to find jazzy flavors like Frosted Apple Cinnamon Apple Jacks or Frosted Lemon Blueberry Crumble in Aldi aisles anytime soon (the only two options I found when I shopped were chocolate and the frosted brown sugar and cinnamon), you also won't find synthetic colors in the recipe, a fact proudly called out on the front of the Millville box. That's one boast Pop-Tarts can't make.

In a blind taste test, I wouldn't be able to tell the difference between Aldi's Millville Brown Sugar and Cinnamon Toaster Tarts and branded Pop-Tarts. Maybe the formula is so straightforward that there's no way to get it wrong, but the quality of this version is such a convincing imitator, I'll never spend the $2.99 chain grocers charge for the real deal again. Why would I when I can grab Millville for under $2 and get 12 tasty tarts without strange dyes instead of eight pastries in unnatural neon hues?

Don't let the name on a box of pancake mix fool you into thinking this is simply a breakfast standard. You can put this versatile baking staple to use in myriad ways in the kitchen to make everything from breakfast dogs to your favorite take on homestyle biscuits. Having a hearty stack of flavorful flapjacks waiting in the morning is a singular joy in the world of breakfast, but if you don't start with the right recipe for the mix, you could be staring down a dining disaster that steals happiness from the remaining daylight hours.

And this is exactly what happens with Millville Buttermilk Pancake Mix. I noticed immediately the overwhelming lack of anything that tastes like buttermilk in the mix. There's very little sweetness too, which is fine, considering the finished cakes are likely to be slathered with peanut butter and syrup. But the more I ate, the less I tasted, until all there was at the end of my fork was sadness and sugar. I took a look at the ingredients to see what might cause such a sloppy situation and found that of all things that come together to make this buttermilk pancake mix, buttermilk is the very last thing on the list. Shocking, right? I was hungry, so I kept eating, but it was one of the sadder days in my breakfast life. Never again.

Even the most casual oatmeal eater is bound to know that packaged instant oatmeal is one of the less advisable choices on the shelf. The broken-down version of the grain combined with sugary add-ins does your blood sugar no favors first thing in the morning, creating glucose spikes that can start you on an energy roller coaster that's difficult to get off of. And the texture can often be more mush than a breakfast bowl should contain.

Keeping all of that in mind, there's both good and bad news to report after decrypting the label and cooking up a bowl of these easy-to-make oats. First the good: Everything on the label is organic, from the oats to the cane sugar to the maple syrup, food facts that should put the cleaner eaters at ease. And the bad: the inclusion of sugar in more than one form means that, like its boxed brethren, Simply Nature oatmeal packets aren't meant for the oatmeal lovers looking to keep their sugar levels on the lower side. If you take that into consideration and you're cool with a more natural take on instant oatmeal, the flavor is a winner, pouring on a surprisingly light sweetness despite what the ingredient list would have you believe. I'd keep this in a desk drawer for a handy work breakfast on days when my eating schedule gets away from me.

It can't be difficult to do pancake syrup, no matter which brand puts it in the bottle. It's essentially corn syrup and maple flavoring, sometimes with a few extra layers added to ramp up the pourable personality. Consulting the label on the Millville original pancake syrup bottle clued me in on just how universal the not-so-secret formula for this breakfast table-topper is. Sure enough, corn syrup and its perplexing cousin high fructose corn syrup are present and accounted for at the head of the line. Thankfully, they aren't followed by sugar, but there are a bunch of hard-to-pronounce chemicals closing out the listing. It's par for the course with food this processed.

As far as the taste is concerned, yep — it's pancake syrup, floating in that strange limbo of a liquid that makes neutral breakfast bites sweeter while imparting a maple essence despite there being no evidence of real maple in the recipe. There are only natural and artificial flavors, which result in a maple-adjacent layer that keeps the goo from being just simple syrup dyed brown. At least the price is slightly lower than grocery chain versions of the same slurpy concoction.

Aldi has something to crow about with its morning mastery of Friendly Farms yogurt. You may think there's no wrong way to make yogurt, which means you've never had the gelatinous cylinder other grocery brand dairy sections so casually call "yogurt." There's an art to balancing taste, texture, tang, and sweetness without creating a mess. Happily, I knew when I pulled back the label on my cup that the contents would be a satisfying ride. I may not eat yogurt on the regular, but I used to, and I know what I like.

Friendly Farms churns out yogurt that's creamy to the point of being luscious (yes, luscious) with just the right amount of tangy, sweet, peachy flavor to make itself known without feeling overly flavored. This isn't a popsicle, after all; it's breakfast food, albeit one with a high enough sugar count to fit as an after-dinner option. But done right, yogurt can become a food that transforms into whatever you want it to be — breakfast parfait, mid-morning snack, brunch trifle, or fruit-packed dessert. And if it's $0.65 a cup? Even better.

Bread prices are almost as silly as egg prices in an economy where inflation seems to be just the way things are. So finding an affordable option like L'oven Fresh plain bagels among the Aldi bread offers a refreshing change of pace that holds back some of your shopping funds so you can spend them on the more exciting middle-aisle items. It also allows bulk shoppers to stock a freezer for future breakfasts with bread selections that thaw nicely when the moment arrives. But they have to taste good, don't they? They sure do.

Aldi hits several bagel benchmarks right off the bat, including the toothy outer crust and chewy interior that makes early morning bagel-snacking a familiar comfort. Too bad the flavor falls flat — and these were plain bagels I was trying without fancy shenanigans for the core essence to hide behind. Something is definitely missing here, most likely in the form of sweetness; the L'oven label doesn't go in for corn syrup, opting instead for sugar, which comes smack-dab in the center of the ingredient list. It's an admirable move from a nutrition standpoint, though it ends up being a bit of a misstep from an enjoyment perspective. I'll finish the bag, but these bagels are no must-have item on a first trip to Aldi — or any subsequent trips, for that matter.

There's something to be said for a grocery chain that takes its granola seriously. Aldi pulls no punches in this sphere, landing a left hook of a breakfast box with its Simply Nature Organic Pumpkin Seed & Flax Granola, a crispy, crunchy funfest that shakes up your senses while it gets you fueled up for the fight ahead. I'm a big granola snob, and I've tried enough off-brand, store-brand, and national-brand versions to know that sometimes, food producers try to pass off a cardboard cutout of the real deal. Not so with Simply Nature, which combines oat crumbles with pumpkin and flax seeds in a fully organic cereal that tastes like a celebration in a bowl. That's not overselling it, either; there's light sweetness and fresh texture in every bite, enough to make me wonder why I've been missing out all this time.

It's a petite bag waiting in the box, but it's still a great deal at $2.39 at my location. Even Great Value goes harder at the cash register than that. And thanks to Simply Nature Organic Pumpkin Seed & Flax Granola being a regular part of the Aldi cereal aisle, you don't have to wait until autumn rolls around to rack up premium Aldi pumpkin season finds. If there's a conquering champion in the world of Aldi store-brand breakfast foods, this granola handily clobbers the competition.

There's no need to pay fast food prices for quick and easy breakfast items when Breakfast Best French Toast Sticks are available in Aldi freezer cases at a fraction of the price. Their nature as a sweet pastry-like morning standard easily transforms into a dessert personality that allows flexibility for the home cook who likes getting more bang for their hard-earned bucks. It all sounds a little too good to be true, which it sort of is. That also makes it just questionable enough to be real. How confusing should a breakfast food be, anyway? Probably a little less than this, especially once my taste test took place.

These eggy, sweet strips of lightly fried bread are trying to be one of the most delicious Aldi finds of all time, and they're very good at replicating drive-through dining flavor, but that comes with a greasy undertaste that's impossible to avoid. I suspended my plants-only eating principles to take a bite of these tempting microwaved tidbits dipped in a bit of the Millville maple syrup to get the complete experience. But even with the sweetness slathered on top, I couldn't shake the sense that they'd come straight out of a deep fryer. This isn't a total deal breaker, especially if you favor the flavor of grilled breakfast foods. But if you're used to a more homemade take on French toast strips, you won't get it here.

From a distance, you might actually mistake a box of Millville Marshmallows and Stars cereal for a package of authentic General Mills Lucky Charms. The closer you get, though, the more obvious it becomes that unless the Mandela effect has been applied to the Aldi breakfast arrangements, this is not your mom's box of Lucky Charms ... and it isn't your grandma's box, either. No, this brave box comes with its own challenges, from the not-entirely-convincing leprechaun figure to the colorful marshmallow shapes sitting on that strange cat food-like cereal, which takes star forms in this instance. Cereal can be so weird.

Though the box announces zero high fructose corn syrup, there is corn syrup used in addition to sugar here, which may not make much of a difference overall. But Millville is quick to point out its use of natural fruit and vegetable colorants rather than chemical dyes, which is a magical touch even Lucky the Leprechaun can't conjure up. As for the flavor, this is one of those unicorn Aldi products that are better than the original, which proves that sometimes an offbeat second-rate version of a well-known breakfast food can transcend the template it's stealing from.

I was pleasantly surprised to find out how strong Aldi's breakfast game is. I tried to choose items from all sectors: cereal, breads, dairy, and frozen foods. This seemed a representative sampling of the various possibilities that make up the breakfast spectrum. There were a few items missed, staples like waffles and breakfast bowls, though the sacrifice was made to keep the list to a sensible size. I also tried to get a range of nutritional compositions to emulate a shopper's actual decision-making process.

I tasted each item individually, comparing it to the name-brand equivalent while gauging ingredients, taste, texture, and overall enjoyability. Pricing factored in sometimes as well, since many of these items are priced low enough to try, though not all are worth a second purchase. Though I set aside my egg- and dairy-free eating to sample many of the items on the list, to keep in check with my staunch no-meat policy, I engaged my son to weigh in on the breakfast sandwiches for me.