Discontinued Aldi Items That We Miss The Most

When it comes to low prices, it's difficult for any supermarket in America to compete with Aldi. Their business model demands strict efficiency, whether that means potentially ruffling feathers by charging you for shopping bags, demanding a quarter for a shopping cart, or discontinuing popular items.

If you've been shopping at Aldi for any length of time, you've probably felt the pain of one of your favorite items disappearing from their shelves. However, the fact that they are routinely found to be the most inexpensive grocery store in the United States helps to dull that pain and heal all wounds. Most of us are willing to forego luxuries and amenities found at other supermarkets as long as we are able to keep more money in our pockets.

We've kept track of all the popular items that Aldi has discontinued over the years. Here are the products that we miss more than all the rest.

Starting your day with a healthy breakfast can be difficult, especially when there are so many delicious cereals on the market that you really shouldn't be eating. That's the reason why it was so disappointing that Aldi discontinued their Fit & Active Whole Grain Waffles. These waffles were both healthy and yummy. But, now, they've gone the way of the Dodo bird.

Per waffle, Fit & Active Whole Grain Waffles had only 75 calories and one gram of sugar, while having a notable amount of protein, iron, calcium, and vitamin A. Plus, as the name suggests, its main ingredient was whole grain.

Taste-wise, these waffles compared favorably to the competition. While you might have been tempted to douse them maple syrup, they were flavorful enough to eat on their own or with a small amount of melted butter.

Aldi had a similar product called Fit & Active Multigrain Waffles but that has also been discontinued. These waffles didn't taste as good as the whole grain variety but it's a shame that both have disappeared.

If you love soft cookies that taste like they just came out of your grandmother's oven, you would have loved Benton's Homestyle Chocolate Chip Cookies. These goodies, which were exclusively sold at Aldi, literally melted in your mouth and the rush of flavors tantalized your taste buds. It was magical.

Not only were Benton's Chocolate Chip Homestyle Cookies discontinued, so was the entire line of "homestyle" cookies under the Benton brand. The other flavor options included Benton's Oatmeal Raisin Homestyle Cookies and Benton's Peanut Butter Homestyle Cookies. While all the flavors were delectable, there was just something so amazing about the chocolate chip variety.

Aldi still has Benton's Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies available to purchase but they're just not the same, as these cookies are similar to Chips Ahoy and simply don't have the texture or the taste that reminds you of the homemade cookies from your childhood. The closest thing you can sometimes find in Aldi are made by Matt's Cookies, however they are much more expensive and not quite as good as the discontinued homestyle cookies.

Making fantastic Mexican food at home was never easier than when Aldi sold cans of Pueblo Lindo Red Enchilada Sauce. All you needed to do was add it to a tray of enchiladas and the perfectly blended spices and flavors would do the rest of the heavy lifting. This enchilada sauce was so good that even your abuela would be impressed by your culinary skills. Tragically, Aldi has taken it off their shelves and they haven't replaced it with anything that is even remotely comparable.

Sure, Pueblo Lindo Red Enchilada Sauce had a ton of sodium, but it was high in vitamin A and vitamin C and it was low in calories. Compared to making enchilada sauce from scratch, it also saved a lot of time.

Aldi also discontinued the Pueblo Lindo Green Enchilada Sauce but that one wasn't nearly as big of a loss. It wasn't as authentic as the red sauce and there are other brands that can replace it.

Coming back home from a shopping trip at Aldi with cheap, great tasting beer could brighten even the gloomiest of days. Unfortunately, Aldi discontinued their Hop Lift IPA, which was arguably the best Aldi beer they've ever sold. Adding to the sadness is the fact that you could purchase four 16-ounce cans for about $7, which made it an unbelievable bargain.

This beer, which was made by Third Street Brewhouse in Minnesota, got good marks from beer experts. While the taste was bold, it had enough fruity flavors at work that it was a pleasure to drink, especially when winding down after a long day at the office.

While Hop Lift IPA was discontinued at Aldi, the good news is that Aldi still has a lot of really good wines available at their stores. And while not all their wine is cheap, you can find some affordable wines at Aldi that will provide you quite a bit of bang for your buck.

To Aldi's credit, they sell a lot of vegetarian- and vegan-friendly options. However, their best vegan burger was discontinued. It was called Earth Grown Organic Plant-Based Meatless Burger and it was so good that even a carnivore would scarf it down without hesitation. The decision by Aldi was surprising, especially because of the recent explosion in popularity of meatless burgers.

At Aldi, you can still find their Earth Grown Veggie Burger, Earth Grown Black Bean Chipotle Burger, and Earth Grown Classic Meatless Meatballs, which makes the disappearance of their meatless burger all the more confounding. None of these alternatives can compare. Their veggie burger, for example, is priced competitively but it has an odd smell and an unpleasant texture.

The Earth Grown Organic Plant-Based Meatless Burger was also organic, which is an important attribute for many people who are trying to improve their diet. Let's hope Aldi eventually reverses their decision to discontinue this item because they had a great thing going.

Another healthy food that Aldi has discontinued is their Simply Nature Original Shredded Wheat Cereal. This was literally one of the healthiest cereals you could find anywhere. It was free of added sugars, cholesterol-free and had only a minimal amount of fat and sodium. Moreover, the cereal was a good source for both fiber and protein.

If you are someone who likes to add fresh berries, chopped bananas, or other fruit to your morning cereal, Simply Nature Original Shredded Wheat Cereal was perfect. It had a satisfying texture and it didn't have the overpowering flavor that some shredded wheat cereals are cursed with.

You can still find name brand cereals made with shredded wheat at Aldi but none of those cereals are nearly as nutritious. If you want a healthy cereal from Aldi, look for Fit & Active Vitality Cereal With Red Berries. It's inexpensive, tasty, and somewhat healthy — although not as healthy as Simply Nature Original Shredded Wheat Cereal was.

Aldi has a line of scrumptious gluten-free food options under their liveGfree brand. Unfortunately, its best gluten free offering is no longer available after they made the decision to discontinue liveGfree Gluten Free Brown Rice Spaghetti. This spaghetti could go toe-to-toe with regular spaghetti. Additionally, it was inexpensive and could be prepared in a matter of minutes.

Most gluten-free spaghetti loses its texture quickly and turns into a mushy mess by the time pasta sauce and cheese is added on top. That wasn't the case with liveGfree Gluten Free Brown Rice Spaghetti, as it successfully remained firm until the last bite.

The good news is Aldi still has some really good gluten-free pasta options available for purchase. While their liveGfree Organic Gluten Free Brown Rice & Quinoa Penne isn't as good, it's worth buying. That said, Aldi's gluten-free mac and cheese should be avoided. The macaroni is too crunchy and the cheese is too watery.

One of the most unique flavors of chips you could locate on a grocer's shelves was Clancy's Sea Salt and Cracked Pepper Kettle Chips. This Aldi exclusive had a strong flavor that you would learn to love more and more with each chip that passed your lips. By the end of the bag, you'd be counting down the hours until you could try these salt and pepper kettle chips once again.

But instead of standing with their unique flavor, Aldi has discontinued these chips and they decided to replace it with Clancy's Sea Salt And Vinegar Kettle Chips. While not terrible tasting, these salt and vinegar kettle chips are a disappointment. They have a mild flavor and you have to be concentrating to even taste the vinegar. The saltiness has also been diminished if you compare it to the departed Clancy's Sea Salt and Cracked Pepper Kettle Chips.

If you have cowardly taste buds, you might approve of this switcheroo. The rest of us are deeply disappointed.

If you live in the South, you probably grew up eating butter beans. They are a tasty way to add protein to your diet and they can be added to a variety of dishes. Aldi used to sell some of the best butter beans — and do so at an extremely low price per can. Unfortunately, Aldi's Dakota's Pride Butter Beans were discontinued in recent years.

Aldi still sells black beans, cannellini beans, pinto beans, kidney beans, northern beans, garbanzo beans, and other types of beans. You can also find refried beans and chili beans on their shelves. But if you're looking for butter beans, you won't find them at Aldi.

If you've never heard of butter beans before, you probably know them by their other name: lima beans. Lima beans and butter beans are the exact same bean. You can sometimes find frozen lima beans at Aldi but you won't find them in a can.

If you go to Aldi, you can find a wide range of yummy Asian-inspired products under the Fusia name brand. From Fusia Fresh California Rolls to Fusia Mandarin Orange Chicken, almost every single thing is delicious. That was also true for Fusia Sriracha Sauce before it was unceremoniously discontinued.

All sriracha sauce is compared to the ubiquitous Sriracha sauce produced by Huy Fong Foods since 1980. By comparison, Fusia Sriracha Sauce wasn't nearly as hot and it had a sweetness about it that made it addicting. While it wasn't better for all occasions, Aldi's Sriracha sauce definitely was worth keeping around in your cupboard. Sadly, that's no longer an option.

If you're looking to feed your Fusia Sriracha Sauce addiction, Trader Joe's has a sauce that is similar — although it has a stronger garlic taste. If you want to stick with products available at Aldi, Fusia Sweet and Sour Sauce is definitely worth your hard-earned money. It's not spicy, mind you, but it's outstanding in its own right.

Imported straight from Germany, Deutsche Kuche Pretzel Crackers were a type of snack that you previously needed to go to Europe to find. Only available at Aldi, it was a circular wafer that was a mix between a soft cracker and a pretzel. While it's thin and not chewy at all, it was easy to taste the pretzel bloodlines. Whether dipped in hummus or devoured plain, these things were fun to eat.

The fun times ended, though, when Aldi announced on Twitter that Deutsche Kuche Pretzel Crackers were being discontinued. You'd think that the fact that Aldi has German roots would cause the store to let these pretzel crackers stick around — but that didn't happen. They apparently didn't sell enough so they got the axe just like any other underperforming product.

If you want a taste of Germany from Aldi, you can't go wrong with either the Deutsche Kuche German Style Sauerkraut or the Deutsche Kuche Smoked Bratwurst.

If you love Thin Mints Girl Scout Cookies, you would have automatically loved Benton's Fudge Mint Cookies. Everything that makes Thin Mints great made these Aldi knockoffs great. If anything, the Aldi version might have been slightly better due to a stronger mint flavor. That said, the Girl Scouts can breathe a sigh of relief because Aldi has discontinued these cookies.

While you probably don't mind supporting the local troop, it was handy to be able to buy Benton's Fudge Mint Cookies any time of year. Plus, they were much cheaper than the version sold by Girl Scouts.

If you're still in the market for counterfeit Thin Mints, Walmart sells Great Value Fudge Mint Cookies that are really inexpensive. One problem, though: they aren't nearly as tasty as Thin Mints or Benton's Fudge Mint Cookies. They are okay in a pinch but it will only tide you over until you can get your hands on authentic Thin Mints.

When buying snacks for a get-together, nothing is as universally loved as Chex Mix. No matter who you are, there has to be something in the mix that you enjoy, whether it's the pretzels, cereals, breadsticks, or even the rye chips. The only issue with Chex Mix is that it can sometimes be cost prohibitive. Aldi had solved that issue by introducing Clancy's Traditional Party Mix — but then they discontinued it.

Aldi's version was much cheaper but it retained all the flavor. The rye chips, particularly, were extra tasty and had a more pleasing texture. In addition to Clancy's Traditional Party Mix, Aldi sold a variety of flavors including bold (saltier and spicier) and cheddar.

Today, if you want a party mix at Aldi, your only option is to buy Chex Mix. While not as affordable as Clancy's Traditional Party Mix, the consolation is that it's cheaper at Aldi than it is at other grocery stores.

Saving you a trip to Thailand, Aldi used to sell Journey To... Thai Peanut Sauce. It was the perfect sauce to use in a stir fry. It was definitely spicy but it was a gentle enough kick that your taste buds thoroughly enjoyed it. After the spiciness subsided, the peanut flavor was fantastically authentic. Mix it with pork and veggies in a stir fry, close your eyes, put your fork to your mouth, and you'd think you were in a restaurant in Bangkok eating among the locals.

With this peanut sauce now discontinued, the best Thai food at Aldi is undoubtedly the Park Street Deli Thai Coconut Chicken. This meal has grilled chicken, thai coconut sauce, pineapple juice, jalapeno, garlic, and lime juice. It's really, really good and worth hunting down at your local Aldi. Sadly, they no longer sell peanut sauce of any kind, so don't even waste your time looking for a replacement.

Like the aforementioned Fit & Active Whole Grain Waffles and Simply Nature Original Shredded Wheat Cereal, Millville Crispy Oats Multigrain Cereal is another healthy breakfast food that Aldi has discontinued. It's a shame because this stuff was like the healthiest version of Cheerios. It was made with 100 percent whole grain and contained more than ten percent of the daily recommended serving of fiber, iron, calcium, vitamin A, and vitamin C.

The best part about Millville Crispy Oats Multigrain Cereal was alluded to in its name: the crispiness of this breakfast cereal. Even if it had been soaking in milk for a few minutes, each bite was pleasantly crunchy. Factor in the low price of this cereal and this was a no-brainer to buy on a weekly basis. Like can be said about many of the items on this list, let's hope that one day Aldi will see the light and bring back this overlooked gem of a cereal.