We Tried 10 Different Cranberry Sauces and the Winner Wasn't the One We Were Expecting

Thanksgiving is getting closer and it's time to finalize the menu. When making that final grocery list, many people forget to grab cranberries, both fresh and in sauce, according to several consumer reports. This can lead to a last-minute scramble to find a store that's open on the holiday, so when you write your shopping list, make sure cranberry sauce is at the top!

When it comes to cranberry sauce, opinions run strong. Some people love the tangy, sweet sauce and others can do without it. Among cranberry sauce fans, there are debates around homemade vs. canned, smooth vs. whole berry, so firm you can slice it vs. so loose only a spoon will do, and more.

If you're in the canned cranberry sauce camp, it's likely that you have your go-to brand, but we were curious to see how all of the store-bought cranberry sauce options stacked up to one another.

To sort that out, we did a blind taste test of all of the store-bought cranberry sauces we could find near us to see which one is worthy of your Thanksgiving feast. When the dust settled and the plates were cleared we had a clear winner. Read on for all the details on 10 store-bought cranberry sauces, ranked from worst to best.

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How We Tested These Cranberry Sauces

I chose ten cranberry sauces from various grocery stores near me, and Amazon, including both jellied and whole berry varieties. So I wasn't sure which was which, I wrote numbers on the cans and jars, taped a piece of scrap paper to the bottom of my plate and wrote numbers on those. I plated the cranberry on the plate with its corresponding number and then mixed the plates up.

Most of the cranberries looked and smelled the same, but the two jarred varieties had a very different texture, smell and color, so they did stand out. I thought I knew which one would be the favorite based on appearance alone—but I was wrong!

Usually, I am not a fan of whole cranberry sauce, but I found a few that were actually quite good. For me, a good cranberry sauce has the perfect blend of sweet and tangy flavors, with a hint of spice and a texture that melts in your mouth but doesn't turn to liquid too fast. Those were the characteristics I was looking for as I made my way through this taste test.

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10 Popular Cranberry Sauces, Ranked Worst to Best

10. Amazon Fresh Jellied Cranberry Sauce

I had high hopes for this one, but it was too sweet, there wasn't enough of the tangy flavor and it tasted metallic. I thought I was tasting something that wasn't there, so I asked my mother-in-law to try it and she said, "It tastes like a can."

If you like a sweeter cranberry to help balance out the saltiness of your turkey, this would be a good choice—if you can get past the canned flavor.

9. Giant Brand Jellied Cranberry Sauce

The Giant store brand jellied cranberry sauce was dense and had a texture that you could bite into. It wasn't too much like Jell-O, and it wasn't liquidy. The flavor was mild—not tangy or too sweet. It gives you just a hint of cranberry. I prefer a cranberry sauce with a little more punch, but if you like a very mild cranberry sauce, this might be a good choice for you.

8. Sweet Harvest Jellied Berry Cranberry Sauce

The Sweet Harvest Jellied Cranberry Sauce from Aldi was so similar to the Giant brand cranberry sauce I almost couldn't tell them apart! Looking at my receipt, this can of cranberry was $1.75 and the Giant brand cranberry was $2.19, so the Aldi version won based on price alone.

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7. Sweet Harvest Whole Berry Cranberry Sauce

I was surprised to see that this was the whole berry version of the Aldi cranberry. The Sweet Harvest Whole Berry Sauce was a little sweeter than the jellied version and it had a more liquidy texture. It melted in my mouth and I can see this one going very well with dressing (aka stuffing), but if you want something with more flavor or tanginess, skip this cranberry sauce.

6. Taste of Inspirations Cape Cod Cranberry Sauce

Taste of Inspirations Cape Cod Cranberry Sauce is an odd mix of whole and jellied sauces. It has a thicker texture, more like a preserve, in some areas, but then you get a bite of the whole berry and it changes the texture. I didn't care for that.

As for flavor, it's mildly sweet, mildly tangy and has some spice to it. It's not overwhelming in any one flavor, so it blends well. Still, I felt like it was missing something and it didn't impress me overall. This one came in a jar and I was fully expecting it to be at the top, but it fell flat.

My husband doesn't like cranberry sauce, but he tried this one for me because it didn't have the Jell-O look and feel that he's not a fan of. He said the Taste of Inspirations Cape Cod sauce had a "weird" texture and it was bland.

Related: This Fresh Cranberry Cocktail is Perfect for Thanksgiving

5. Whole Foods 365 Organic Cranberry Sauce, Whole Berry

The Whole Foods 365 Organic Cranberry Whole Berry sauce had a wonderful flavor. It was lightly tangy, a little sweet and it had some depth thanks to light spices. The big issue for me? The texture. After just five minutes, it began to turn to liquid. I can't imagine what it would look like after an hour on a Thanksgiving table!

4. Whole Foods 365 Organic Cranberry Sauce, Jellied

The jellied version of Whole Foods 36 Organic cranberry held up much better than the whole berry sauce. It was a bit milder than the whole berry version, but still had a good flavor. The texture was perfect, though! It's not runny, not too dense and it held up great after a few bites.

3. Stonewall Kitchen New England Cranberry Relish

The Stonewall Kitchen New England Cranberry Relish was never going to be a blind taste test for me because it was so obviously different from all the other sauces. It comes in a jar and has a very strong smell of fall spices, including cloves and nutmeg. I was fully expecting this to be the winner, but it landed at number 3.

The texture is absolutely incredible! It's like you're eating homemade cranberry sauce. The flavor is also very good—sweet, tangy and spicy—but after about three or four bites, you only taste the spice. It gets very overwhelming and you almost forget it's supposed to be cranberry sauce. My husband also tried this one with me and enjoyed the texture, but he said that the taste of cloves was too much for him.

I recently cooked a turkey using cranberry to help flavor it, and I think the Stonewall Kitchen New England Cranberry Relish is the perfect cranberry for that type of recipe. It's also good for adding more depth to savory dishes, like stuffing, but as a stand-alone or with a milder food (like turkey), you may want to choose something with less spice.

2. Ocean Spray Whole Berry Cranberry Sauce

There's a reason Ocean Spray is one of the most recognized names in the cranberry game, and it's because they know what they're doing! I wasn't expecting to like the Ocean Spray Whole Berry Cranberry Sauce as much as I did, especially compared to some of the other sauces in the lineup, but this one had a great texture, it was very tangy with a sweet aftertaste and there were just enough bits of berry to remind you that it's whole berry without changing the texture too much.

1. Ocean Spray Jellied Cranberry Sauce

My love for jellied cranberry is intact, and Ocean Spray Jellied Cranberry came out as the winner for me. It has the perfect taste and texture and it didn't turn into a runny mess even after sitting out for 30 minutes. I grew up eating the store-brand cranberry sauces, and that's what I always bought as an adult, but that will change this year! We are now officially an Ocean Spray household.

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