7 Store-Bought Cherry Pies, Ranked Worst To Best

A taste test as sweet as pie. One thing I love about classic fruit pies is that you can find them at the grocery store all year round. You can always count on trusty store-bought flavors like apple pie or cherry to be stocked in the bakery section — or perhaps in the freezer section if all else fails.

Case in point, I rounded up a collection of seven store-bought cherry pies with no problem whatsoever. They were all easy to find, but the real question is, are they worth finding? And subsequently, which cherry-studded creation proved to be the sweetest slice of the bunch?

When it comes to cherry pie, they're definitely not all cut from the same crust. They may look awfully similar from the outside, but it's what's on the inside that counts. Cherry pies need that perfect ratio of real, juicy cherries to glossy gel that also exhibits a wonderful balance between sweet and tart. Both the flavor and texture of the crust are also deal breakers. These are exactly the qualities I looked for as I dug into each store-bought pastry, and the benchmarks that ultimately determined their spot in the cherry pie ranking.

For a store-brand pie, this one comes at a doozy of a price. The 9-inch cherry-packed delight from the Giant Eagle bakery ended up being the most expensive pie I tried, and unfortunately, it was also the most disappointing. I will admit, the pastry really dazzled me at first. It has an alluring look with its thick lattice-like crust that oozes cherry juice. To top it off, it's crowned with a generous dusting of thick sugar granules. But all that glitters is not gold. 

The crust proved to be overwhelming, and what's worse is that it had a chewiness as though it had grown stale — even though I purchased it and immediately came home to give it a try. The only good part of this outer casing was the crimped edges, which offered some degree of crunch and browning. Furthermore, the filling inside was far from an improvement. The cherries themselves were just a touch sour. The larger problem, though, is that there wasn't enough gelatinous goop surrounding them, so the entire pie felt dry. It's the kind of dessert that begs to be served à la mode – and perhaps with a glass of milk on the side to wash it down.

I presumed that the two leading ladies of frozen desserts (aka Sara Lee and Marie Callender's) would have a serious competitive edge in this taste test. Not just because they've both spent decades fine-tuning their recipes, but also because, being frozen, their pies can be enjoyed hot and fresh from the oven. I thought this would be the ultimate game-changer. But it appears that Sara Lee didn't fully capitalize on this advantage.

I could tell from the get-go that this pie was rather deflated, and the flavor fell flat as well. The top crust turned to a darker graham cracker color in the oven and immediately crumbled on contact. If I could do it over, I would bake it for less time than the box instructs, so it doesn't wind up quite so parched. At the core, you'll find plenty of real plump cherries, as well as no artificial flavors or high fructose corn syrup. Some people may gravitate to this more natural, fruit-forward approach — it often correlates to pies that have a farmer's market-like authenticity. However, here the cherries are nearly lip-puckering sour, and like Giant Eagle's pie, it once again suffers from an all-around lack of juiciness. Straight from the oven, there's obviously no staleness to speak of, so Sara Lee's dessert beats out Giant Eagle's version in that regard (it also comes at just about half the price). Yet it still didn't wow me.

If you want a no-frills cherry pie at a good price, go with this Freshness Guaranteed box from Walmart. It's not the kind of dessert that will have you banging on the supermarket's bakery doors, begging for the recipe. But it's sufficient to satisfy those cherry-studded cravings.

The pie offers a classic look with dual pie crusts, one at the bottom and one draped over the top, with diamond-shaped cuts in a circle at the center. Even though it's not the most buttery or flakiest of crusts, it makes for a solid foundation, and it leans less dry than the two that came before it. I ignored the fact that the cherry filling had a pinkish tint, which makes it look artificial (even though real cherries are at the heart of the recipe), and instead focused on its taste. 

Whole cherries burst with each bite, releasing a gush of syrupy juices. They have a tart bite, but it was neutralized by the light sweetness of the surrounding crust. Ultimately, it's a standard cherry pie, nothing more and nothing less. It's just about what you would expect from a lower-cost Walmart pie, which had been sitting on the bakery shelf for an undisclosed amount of time. Warming it never hurts to resurrect some of those just-out-of-the-oven flavors. And the good news is that it also comes in a mini 4-ounce size if you want to keep it all for yourself.

Table Talk specializes in teeny tiny pies. Yes, the brand offers larger 8- and 9-inch pies as well. But its petite pastries, what it calls "snack pies," are what truly made it famous (like, sell 240 million in one year, famous). Measuring in at four inches in diameter, they're absolutely adorable; I was able to snag one of its old-fashioned cherry miniatures at a nearby grocery store for under $2.

After trying it, I understand the hype around these pies, at least to a certain degree. It's the perfect little size to have your own personal pie — Table Talk made it cool long before Pizza Hut even opened its doors. Understandably, at this scale, the proportions lean far more crust than filling. I'd venture to guess that the pie is made up of about 70% crust and 30% filling. I didn't mind as much as I thought I would, though. 

The crust is soft with a nice bite, and there's something about it that reminds me of a sugar cookie, just with less sugar and a lack of vanilla flavoring. I'm also a sucker for a good crust, so that boded well for the brand. The filling isn't half bad either. It's mostly goop with a few crushed cherries, but it has a sweet and bright fruity flavor. Overall, it's a decent pie. There are a few others that come to the table with more balance, indulgence, and more true-to-form cherries.

Meijer, a Midwest grocery chain, offers an entire bushel of fruity pies under its Fresh from Meijer store brand. You'll find flavors like Dutch apple, strawberry rhubarb, blueberry, and even a caramel drizzle apple pie (one that I am definitely going back for sometime in the near future). Then, of course, you have the obligatory cherry. It comes in either an 8-inch or 10-inch size, and I went with the smaller of the two.

The first thing I thought was that I've never seen a crust quite like this on a cherry pie. It's not your standard flaky pastry crust. Instead, it's closer to a golden croissant crust that's smoother with less crumb. I was doughy and thick, and even the edges, which were more firm than crisp, carried a subtly rich and sweet flavor. If I were ranking based on crust alone, this pie easily would have been a top contender. But when you take into account the mediocre cherry core, there are a couple of other pies that pass it up. Even though it's well-balanced between sweet and tart, the filling tastes as though it could have come straight out of a can. It's gel-heavy and left me pining for more real, full cherries to make it pop and give it some more body. It's a flaw that holds back an otherwise approachable and satisfying pie.

Always the overachiever, Marie Callender's dishes out two kinds of cherry pie. The brand offers a Cherry Crunch Pie and a Lattice Cherry Pie. After much internal debate, I opted to go with the latter because the former is topped with a brown sugar cinnamon streusel, and anything with streusel automatically gets a leg up in my book. So, to keep things even Stevens, I stuck with the more classic option.

Just like the Sara Lee pie, this one comes frozen. So you're tasked with baking it for an hour and then subsequently letting it cool for up to two hours afterwards — that is, if you can wait that long. It's a bit of a chore, but in the end, you're rewarded with a truly tasty cherry treat. The cherries are tangy in the best way (just like tart red cherries straight from Michigan), and there's plenty of them hiding under the lattice so that succulence can be found in every bite. I also like the choice of a lattice crust. It offers a great happy medium, so crust lovers still get their fix, but the pie doesn't feel completely bogged down by dough — as it sometimes does when there's an entire layer of crust on top.

The only thing that kept this pie from my first-place spot is the fact that the thickness of the lattice strips left some areas in the middle a bit gummy and undercooked. The entire pie may have benefited from a few extra minutes in the oven to solve this issue.

Hi ho cherry-o, we have a winner. The Triple Cherry Pie from Kroger's premium Private Selection brand is about as good as store-bought pie gets. As soon as I popped open the plastic container, I knew it was going to be scrumptious. The sweet, fruity smell of not one, not two, but three different kinds of cherries wafted into the air, and the golden, glistening crust was as promising as the aroma.

The extra cherries simply add another element that makes it hard for other pies to compete with. Instead of one stagnant cherry flavor — either sweet or tart — this pie incorporates both, and you even get a richer, more complex flavor from the darker cherries (what I presume to be black cherries, though I couldn't confirm that on the packaging). The result is a taste that's almost strawberry-like, and which leans into candy cherry territory in a way that's delicious rather than cloying. As for the crust, it has an almost undercooked element to it, so it's buttery and soft with a light crisp at the ends. The taste is fairly neutral with a light saltiness, but it works perfectly with all the diverse flavors that are happening on the inside. This was my favorite cherry pie that I tried, even over the fresh-from-the-oven Marie Callender's creation. I also love that it comes in a convenient half-pie, in addition to a full 9-inch, so you can cherry-pick your perfect size.

For this ranking, I traveled to four different grocery stores to collect a range of store-bought cherry pies. This included national chains like Walmart and Kroger, as well as more regional grocers such as Giant Eagle and Meijer. Depending on the brand, the pies were found in either the bakery section or the freezer aisle. Once home, I tasted the fresh pies immediately. For frozen options — specifically Marie Callender's and Sara Lee — I baked them according to the instructions on the box, which meant about an hour in the oven, followed by a short spell of time for cooling.

I then tried each pie and judged it based on its two essential components: the crust and the filling. For any fruit pie, a buttery, flaky crust is a necessity. I preferred those that still had a bit of firmness or crispiness at the edges, but didn't mind a touch of tender doughiness closer to the center. Meijer's croissant-like crust also surprised me with its tastiness.

As for the filling, the more cherries, the merrier. I wanted true-to-form plump cherries included in the recipe and ones that weren't overly tart — or at least tart but balanced out by other surrounding ingredients. A little gel or goop surrounding the cherries was welcome in order to fill out the pie and to prevent it from tasting too dry, but I didn't want it to overtake the entire pastry. The best pies weren't cloying or artificial, but touted a great balance between crust and filling and offered plenty of bright, fresh flavors.