9 Store-Bought Cream Cheese Brands, Ranked Worst To Best

I was a horrendously picky eater as a child. My safe foods included peanut butter sandwiches, plain buttered pasta noodles, chicken nuggets, and similarly simple fare. My mother catered to my underdeveloped palate by testing, altering, and re-testing recipes to see what I would actually eat when it was placed in front of me. One day, she discovered what would soon become a favorite: Ritz crackers loaded with a generous helping of cream cheese.

I no longer need to call zucchini bread apple bread to eat it (something my mother had to), but some tastes bring up instant nostalgia. Philadelphia cream cheese is one of them. I could easily identify the brand in a blind taste test — one lick transports me back to after-school Ritz land, when my biggest responsibility was filling out a homework worksheet before I could play outside. Cream cheese holds a special place in my heart, and I rarely branch out of Philly territory. So, for this taste test, I decided to broaden my horizons by trying other cream cheeses to see how they held up to my favorite in terms of taste and texture. I can say without a doubt that this is one of the most difficult taste tests I've ever done. Each cream cheese tasted very similar to the next, and because the differences were minimal, ranking them was a mammoth task — yet rank them I did. Here's my definitive worst-to-best list of nine different cream cheeses. 

Some recommendations are based on firsthand impressions of promotional materials and products provided by the manufacturer.

As I'm a huge fan of the brand, it pains my heart to give Tillamook's cream cheese the bottom spot on this list. I've ranked various Tillamook ice creams and Tillamook cheeses, and as an Oregon native, I've been to the factory more than my fair share of times (side note: Should you ever get to go, do yourself a favor and get some fried cheese curds from the cafe). So, this feels like a good time to reiterate that all the cream cheeses on this list only showed slight variations from one another. Still, Tillamook had to take the bottom spot.

The biggest problem I had with Tillamook's cream cheese was that it had a somewhat chalky mouthfeel. I experienced this with other cream cheeses as well, but none so much as Tillamook's. It also (and this is a recurring theme you'll see with cream cheeses toward the bottom of my list) leaned somewhat sweet. It was still tangy, as you'd expect a cream cheese, but its very slight sweetness caught me off guard. Though these are small complaints, in the grand scheme of things, they were enough to land Tillamook's cream cheese at the bottom of my list. 

I can't say I'm particularly knowledgeable about the Essential Everyday brand, but I know its products end up in my house now and again when I'm shopping for generic goods. I've never gone out of my way to try any of its products before, including its cream cheese. Will the average consumer taste this cream cheese and think it's gross? As with my previous pick, absolutely not. But in a ranking as neck-and-neck as this one, Essential Everyday showed just enough flaws to give it the second-to-last spot.

My main issue with this brand was that, again, its cream cheese leaned sweet. For some consumers, that won't be a bad thing, but I didn't particularly love it. Otherwise, the flavor was pretty neutral with a slight tang that came through at the end. On the plus side, this might be my first choice buy if I needed cream cheese for a cheesecake or frosting. But for bagel-topping purposes, I'd go with one of my following picks. 

Walmart's store brand doesn't tend to impress me. I've previously found Walmart's pastries to be underwhelming, and I don't think a Great Value product has ever topped a ranking I've done. So, though I'm very surprised to be ranking its cream cheese higher than a beloved brand like Tillamook, I'm not shocked to see it still end up in the bottom half of my ranking. 

Overall, Great Value's cream cheese was pretty balanced in its sweet and tangy notes. It leans slightly sweet but is one of the more neutral entries on this list. I appreciated that it was nondescript, which gave it a slight edge over my previous choices that leaned sweet. This cream cheese won't necessarily stand out whatever you pair it with, but it won't detract from it, either, which I consider a strength. That said, it failed to impress. 

Another surprise came with Trader Joe's cream cheese. As a huge fan of the brand — it's the store I shop at the most — and as such, I occasionally get TJ's branded products that I'd otherwise buy the name brand of. So, I've had Trader Joe's cream cheese before and been woefully unimpressed. I thought this would be my least favorite cream cheese on this list (I'm so sorry, Trader Joe's), and I didn't expect to rank three other brands below it. 

The biggest thing working in its favor is that this cream cheese is texturally flawless. Smooth, creamy, and with no chalkiness whatsoever, it was a textural feat. However, it once again leaned sweet in a way I didn't favor; moreover, the sweetness builds the longer the bite goes on. It's flavorful, but it didn't have as much tang as I'd like. So, at the end of the day, I couldn't give it higher than the sixth spot here. 

I could have Nancy's probiotic cream cheese again, but I expect it to be a somewhat divisive product, which is why it only got the fifth spot in this lineup. You may notice this is the only cream cheese in a tub on this list. Nancy's cream cheese isn't available in a block (at least, it wasn't at my store), but because it's not a whipped cream cheese, it was still a viable contender in this ranking. I intentionally left out whipped cream cheeses in general. 

You know how you can sometimes tell when things are probiotic? They have that certain fermented tangy quality that's indicative of a ton of gut-healthy bacteria getting ready to soothe your system. That tang was definitely present here in an almost Greek-yogurt-like way. Fortunately, since one expects to get ample tang in cream cheese, it worked well. The consistency was also great — it was thick and spreadable without being whipped. I liked this cream cheese, but it had a flavor that verged into Greek yogurt territory, and for that reason I couldn't justify ranking it higher. 

If there's one store brand I'll nearly always trust, it's Kroger. I was a skeptic at first, as I usually go for name-brand products over their store-brand counterparts, but Kroger has surprised me enough times that I have to give it credit. Ever since its bagged Caesar salad kit came fourth out of 18 different products, I've sworn never to underestimate the brand again, so it wasn't shocking to find its cream cheese moving squarely into the top half of this ranking. 

While Kroger's cream cheese has a slight sweetness to it (which, yes, is why I couldn't rank it higher), its almost acidic tang acted as a good equalizer that kept the sweetness from bothering me too much. Moreover, that acidity gave it a lot of flavor. At the end of the day, it wasn't my favorite due to the subtly sweet characteristic, but I did find it to be quite flavorful. 

My top three cream cheeses had very little (if any) sweet appeal, which is why I favored them. If you don't mind cream cheese with a slightly sweet character, you may prefer one of my previous choices. But in such a tight ranking, personal opinion had to play a driving role in the order of these products, and I just prefer a cream cheese that's purely tangy. 

Simple Truth Organic's offering certainly fits the bill. It tastes light, neutral, and pretty nondescript as a whole, but definitely leans tangy. Of the top three, this has the subtlest flavor, which is why I couldn't rank it higher. I think that this neutrality could be an advantage in certain situations — if you need a cream cheese that won't overpower other flavor profiles and will act more as a common condiment, you might want to reach for this one. 

Well, I bet you can guess my number one choice by now (if it's not obvious, keep reading). But if I had to pick the closest dupe for my favorite cream cheese, I'd pick Organic Valley's without a question. The flavor of this cream cheese was the most similar to that of my top choice, with ample complexity, plenty of tang, and a nice, spreadable texture.

This cream cheese almost instantly gave me that same Ritz nostalgia I got from my top choice. There's a lot of depth to it, and ample warm and creamy notes come just after the tang, making it a really comforting choice. Texturally, it's impeccably smooth, with a thick, full mouthfeel almost akin to spreadable butter. I really liked this cream cheese, and if somehow I couldn't get my hands on my top choice, this would be a great runner-up. 

Surprise, surprise — Philadelphia cream cheese took the top spot in my ranking. Can you blame me? It's the be-all and end-all of cream cheeses, and the brand name is practically synonymous with the spread. The Philadelphia brand has a wealth of cream cheese spreads on store shelves, but I'll always favor the tried-and-true block that I've been consuming on crackers and bagels since the late '90s. 

Philadelphia sets the gold standard for cream cheese (for me, at least), and I highly doubt it will ever be usurped. It's amply tangy, a bit buttery, and almost weightless in its appeal, with a complexity that every other cream cheese on this list (aside from Organic Valley) failed to mimic. It takes me right back to eating cream cheese on Ritz crackers. It's not too punchy to overwhelm whatever you may spread it on, but it will still be a standout ingredient on pretty much anything. And, obviously, it's also texturally flawless. Philadelphia, you will forever be my favorite cream cheese, and I'm willing to bet many other consumers share the same opinion. 

To test these cream cheeses, I tried each on its own and then on a piece of everything bagel. To rank them fairly, I took into account flavor and texture as deciding factors. On the whole, I don't think the average consumer would throw a hissy fit if they got Tillamook's cream cheese rather than Philadelphia's — this ranking showed very marginal differences between even my top and bottom choices, let alone the ones that came in between. Are all cream cheeses created equal? No, but most are close enough to be a safe spread when you need to dress up a bagel. To top my Ritz crackers, though, I'll always choose Philly.