9 Store-Bought Feta Cheeses, Ranked Worst To Best

Feta is one of those magical ingredients that can serve several different purposes. The cheese is great as a source of acidity and tang in some recipes, while it offers a salty brininess in other dishes. It can also function as a creamy addition to dishes like baked feta pasta, especially when it melts a little bit. Plus, it's a relatively low-fat option and can fit into many diets. It's an all-around powerhouse ingredient and it's one that you should have in your fridge for salads (like our kale and roasted beet salad recipe), sandwiches, toast, and more.

But which brand of feta should you buy if you're shopping at a grocery store? I went to my local grocery stores to snag several different types of feta, then ranked them from worst to best to give you a better idea of which you should try for yourself. I personally prefer saltier, more complex flavor profiles, so that's what I ranked these fetas on. Whether you look for the same qualities as I do in a good block of feta or not, hopefully this ranking can give you a better idea of the brands you'll want to try.

If you like buying your cheese in bulk, perhaps if you use it a lot for a go-to recipe or you simply have a lot of cheese lovers in your home, then Costco might seem like the best place to buy it. The wholesaler sells a variety of different cheeses, including its Kirkland Signature Organic Feta. I love the size of the container because it means you don't have to go out to the grocery store to buy new cheese for weeks.

However, if you're looking for excellent flavor, Kirkland Signature's Organic Feta may not be the best option. It's salty, sure, partially because it swims in a flavorful brine. But the cheese itself is quite mild — too mild, in fact, for my taste. It doesn't really have any strong, discernible flavor, which defeats the purpose of using it in recipes altogether. If you're looking for a milder flavor profile, it might be a good option, but if you actually want to taste your cheese, there are definitely better fetas out there.

When I tested a bunch of Trader Joe's dairy products to see which were worth buying and which were worth skipping, I said its feta was some of the best I'd ever had. This assessment was largely thanks to the feta's intense saltiness, and I stand by that. The flavor makes this cheese a delicious addition to many dishes, so I'm not suggesting skipping this product. That being said, now that I've tried so many other fetas side by side with this one, I can now see that it's not the absolute best out there. Compared to some of the other feta cheeses on this list, Trader Joe's plain version falls a little short. This is because it lacks the complexity that other fetas boast. This cheese isn't bad — it's just not very interesting — which is why it lands near the bottom of this ranking.

If all you're looking for in feta is saltiness (which is a valid point), then Trader Joe's has you covered. However, if you do want some more complexity in your cheese, you can find better offerings. 

If you're looking for a solid, relatively affordable, and accessible feta cheese to crumble over your salads and other dishes, then the President Feta Chunk has you covered. This option is available at most chain grocery stores, and it has a pleasant, unoffensive flavor. This isn't a particularly interesting cheese, but it has that clean, fresh dairy flavor that people who like young cheeses are sure to enjoy.

I definitely don't think that this cheese is the best of the bunch, but it's a great option if you prefer a chunk of feta over the pre-crumbled type that's also easy to find in grocery stores. It offers a decent saltiness and distinct tang but is missing the more complex notes I picked up on in other brands' offerings. Still, though, it's a solid option as long as you're not too finicky about your feta.

Now, we're getting to some of the most interesting feta cheeses on this list. Mt Vikos' Barrel-Aged Feta is a great grocery store option to check out if you're interested in a more complex flavor. Overall, this cheese has a nice, clean flavor, with an intense saltiness and mild acidity that make it quite versatile. That being said, I'd definitely use it more for dishes that are in need of salt than those that need brightness from some sort of tangy ingredient. This feta was also slightly spicy, which added an interesting flavor.

Something else I love about this feta is the fact that it's much creamier than other varieties I tried. It doesn't have the really bold, unexpected complexity that some of the others on this list boast, but it still has a dynamic enough flavor profile to convince me to buy it again if my favorites aren't available.

Out of all of the feta cheeses I tried on this list, only two were stored in brine. I think this is an important point because brine seems to make the cheese taste saltier and also helps it retain more moisture. You may want to use a brined feta if you're trying to add creaminess to a dish, since it'll have more moisture than a pre-crumbled feta, which is usually dry. 

Therefore, Trader Joe's Authentic Greek Feta already wins bonus points for its delicious brine. Not only does it help keep the cheese moist, but it can also be used for many other purposes, which is why you definitely shouldn't throw it out. This is a cheese that tastes younger and fresher than some of the competition, though, which is why it doesn't rank higher on the list for me.

I'll admit that I wasn't too excited about trying Boar's Head Creamy Feta. Don't get me wrong — I love a lot of Boar's Head products (including the brand's cheese) — but when I think of feta, I'm not necessarily dreaming of the creamiest possible cheese. Instead, I'm thinking of a cheese that's slightly drier and a little more crumbly. However, I was surprised to find that I actually really enjoyed this cheese. That creaminess adds a really nice texture, making it an excellent choice for dishes like pasta, where you want that mouthfeel to take center stage. There's also plenty of saltiness and acidity, though the tang could definitely be more pronounced.

However, this cheese doesn't rank higher on this list mostly because I don't think it would work well in many applications. Since it really leans into the creaminess, it wouldn't work as well in recipes where you want the crumbliness that feta is known for. 

I've always been under the impression that buying pre-crumbled feta cheese generally isn't a good idea. I imagined that these varieties wouldn't taste as fresh and would lack the flavor concentration of feta blocks. But what I discovered over the course of this tasting is that crumbled feta isn't so bad, at least based on my desired flavor profile preferences. That's a big reason why Athenos Crumbled Feta Cheese came in the third spot in this ranking.

This stuff isn't as moist as a lot of the other fetas on this list, but it offers a really lovely complexity that makes every bite more interesting. It tastes more aged than a lot of the other brands on this list and has that slight funkiness that so many people love from this cheese. Of course, it delivers saltiness and tang as well, making it ideal for sprinkling on top of salads. Since it is so dry, though, it may not be the best choice if you're trying to melt the cheese into a specific dish.

Roussas Barrel-Aged Feta was one of the pricier selections on this list, but it is one of the most flavorful. As opposed to the other feta chunks, it packs an incredible amount of complexity. Not only did I taste that fresh, dairy-forward flavor that is so common in feta, along with the tangy acidity that makes this cheese so refreshing, but I also tasted a slight nuttiness that I would expect more from other types of cheese, like aged Parmesan. At the same time, I would say that this cheese still tastes light and clean overall.

It has a creamy texture that still crumbles a bit, but the moisture content seems relatively high. If you're seriously looking for a high-quality, grocery store feta and don't want a pre-crumbled option, this might be a brand worth choosing.

Out of all of the feta cheeses I tried for this ranking, I found that Primo Taglio's Feta Cheese Crumbles were the most delicious. This mostly came down to flavor complexity. Honestly, I didn't even think that feta could taste this complex. There's a yeastiness and nuttiness to this cheese that I haven't tasted in most grocery store fetas, and as someone who prefers aged cheese, this was a real selling point for me. This was also one of the saltier fetas I tried, and it has a well-balanced acidity that really made all of those other flavors pop.

This cheese also gets bonus points for how easy it is to use. You don't need to crumble the cheese yourself — just shake the container over your salad, and you've instantly added the salty, tangy touch it needs to really shine. Who knew that store-bought feta cheese crumbles could taste this good?

I selected these feta cheeses based on availability at multiple local grocery stores in my area. I ranked them mostly according to flavor, although I took texture into consideration when relevant.

The highest-ranked cheeses on this list offer saltiness and tang, along with an interesting complexity that takes them to a new level. The lowest-ranked cheeses were simpler or didn't pack as big of a punch on the flavor front. I tasted all of these cheeses on their own, without any additional ingredients, so I could really focus on the flavor of the feta itself.