7 Shredded Cheese Brands, Ranked Worst To Best

Shredded cheese isn't always my go-to option when I'm in the dairy section of my local grocery store. I tend to like blocks of cheese better — I think they often have a better flavor, and it's not too much work to grate the cheese myself. But I can admit that there's a time and a place for shredded cheese. When you're looking for convenience or are more concerned with the gooey, melted texture than with harnessing the boldest, cheesiest flavor possible, shredded cheese is an excellent option.

But I wanted to know: Which shredded cheese brand is the best? The answer is subjective, of course, but I did some tasting around to determine which brands I personally find the tastiest. I assessed each of these brands for flavor intensity and texture, with the boldest ranking near the higher end of the list. You and I may not agree on every cheese brand on this list, but hopefully, by learning about my favorites, you can get a better sense of which brands to try the next time you're in the market for shredded cheese.

When I purchased the cheeses for this ranking, I truly thought that Whole Foods' 365 brand would be my favorite. This brand offers a lot of cheeses you generally don't find in a shredded form from other brands, so I was excited to try out two of its offerings in particular: the Gouda and Gruyere. They're two of my favorite cheeses, so I figured that I was in for a treat, but I couldn't have been more wrong.

These were the two least flavorful cheeses I tried in the entire bunch. It's not that they tasted bad — it's the fact that they tasted like very little. Yes, there was a hint of creaminess in both cheese varieties, but the Gouda didn't have any of the sharp bite you'd normally expect. The Gruyere was slightly more flavorful, but it also had a strange bitterness that turned me off. Ultimately, I probably won't be buying much shredded cheese from Whole Foods in the future.

Sargento is a cheese brand I grew up with. I remember my parents buying various Sargento shredded cheeses when I was a kid, which they would use for a variety of cheesy, creamy dishes. Therefore, I thought I might be a bit biased in favor of the brand. Unfortunately, though, I realized that Sargento isn't quite as good as I remember. I tried the brand's 4 Cheese Mexican (which contains cheddar, Monterey jack, queso quesadilla, and asadero cheeses) and 4 State Cheddar cheeses (Wisconsin sharp, New York sharp, California mild, and Vermont sharp) for this ranking, and they tasted almost identical. Sure, the cheddar variety has a slightly sharper flavor than the Mexican cheese, but I probably wouldn't be able to tell much of a difference if I hadn't dispensed each type from different bags.

This is another instance where the cheese doesn't taste bad, but the brand still deserves to be in the bottom half of this list because these cheeses don't pack much flavor punch. The texture isn't ideal, either — like many shredded cheeses, I noticed a powdery substance, but there was a lot more here than in the other varieties I tried.

I'll admit that I buy my fair share of Lucerne products from the grocery store, mostly because they're available at a lower price point than many other dairy brands. And when it comes to a product like shredded cheese, I don't think springing for the more expensive brands is always worth it. Therefore, Lucerne earns bonus points for being an inexpensive, solid brand.

However, when I compared these cheeses to others on this list, I could tell that the quality level isn't quite as high. The Lucerne pepper jack, which boasts both jalapeño and habanero peppers, was excellent, with a bold, spicy flavor that made me want to take another bite immediately. However, I think the delicious flavor is mostly thanks to the peppers instead of the cheese itself — the dairy flavor isn't very strong. And unfortunately, the Monterey jack wasn't too flavorful, offering little more than a super subtle, nondescript dairy flavor. Therefore, if you're going to pick up Lucerne shredded cheese at the grocery store, do it for the low price point, not because you think you'll get the tastiest cheese you've ever tried.

Tillamook is a popular brand of cheese, partially thanks to its aesthetically pleasing packaging, but also because its cheese seems to be higher-quality than many other shredded cheese brands out there. And while I thought this cheese was pretty good, it falls in the middle of this ranking. I tried the Mexican 4 Cheese, which contains cheddar, Monterey jack, queso quesadilla, and asadero cheeses and Triple Cheddar Blend, comprised of sharp, medium, and medium white cheeses. The latter was excellent, with its bold sharpness and distinct cheddar flavor. However, the Mexican 4 Cheese was bland and boring, although it has a lovely, subtle creaminess that could work well in some applications.

I love that the Tillamook shredded cheese is shredded into pretty large pieces. This makes it excellent for random midnight snacking straight out of the fridge, of course, but more importantly, it's also great when you're planning on melting cheese. (Although I didn't melt cheese specifically for this ranking, I have melted Tillamook cheese before, with positive results.) Therefore, Tillamook might just be a solid option when you're making pizza, casseroles, or anything else that calls for cheesy layers.

Trader Joe's is a great store for a wide variety of simple, everyday products, and cheese is no exception. The store has a good cheese section overall, but don't get distracted by all the fancy blocks of cheese — the shredded stuff is pretty solid too. I selected the Pepper Jack Cheese Blend with jalapeño and habanero peppers, and the Shredded 3 Cheese Blend made with mozzarella, Monterey jack, and cheddar cheese. The pepper jack variety was especially tasty thanks to a surprisingly intense pepper flavor, but unlike the Lucerne version, the flavor of the cheese itself also shone through.

Shredded cheese blends are sometimes mild-tasting. That was the case with the three-cheese blend I tried from TJ's, but it still has a bolder, more pronounced, and arguably cleaner flavor than several of the other cheese blends I tried. TJ's definitely deserves its spot in the top three.

Compared to other shredded cheese brands at the grocery store, Organic Valley's offerings are on the pricey side. I guess that shouldn't come as a surprise since it's an organic brand, but I probably wouldn't buy this stuff regularly over other brands (even though it tastes better than most of the others on this list). The 3 Cheese Mexican blend, which features cheddar, colby jack, and Monterey jack cheese, is a solid choice, offering a surprisingly intense flavor even though it's still a mild cheese blend. However, I was more impressed with the brand's mozzarella. It tasted nearly as good as fresh mozzarella and certainly better than any other shredded mozzarella I've had in the past. If I were going to make a pizza from scratch, I might justify the higher price tag.

This cheese is also the most finely shredded I tried for this ranking. While that may not be a positive for every use of shredded cheese, I found the texture quite pleasant for snacking. If you're truly looking for a high-quality cheese brand and you don't mind paying a bit more, Organic Valley should be one of your top options. (It also has some solid creamer options as well.)

Now, we've reached the best of the best. I know about Cabot primarily through their blocks of cheese, but until writing this ranking, I'd never tried the brand's shredded cheeses. Now I know that I was missing out. Both the Seriously Sharp Cheddar and the 4 Cheese Mexican cheeses — the latter of which contains Monterey jack, cheddar, asadero, and queso quesadilla cheese — I tried were excellent. The cheddar cheese was especially impressive — it has a bold sharpness you'd expect from this type of cheese, and it doesn't even taste like it came pre-shredded. Other cheese blends I tried weren't super flavorful, but that wasn't the case here. This still had a pronounced, fresh dairy flavor profile that would be delicious in different contexts.

Like Tillamook, Cabot shreds its cheese quite thick, which I think produces a nice texture when it melts. Whether you've tried other Cabot products in the past or you're entirely new to the brand, it's one you should seek out in the dairy section when you're truly on the hunt for high-quality shredded cheese.

I chose two cheese varieties from each brand to better compare one brand's offerings to the others. The criteria I used for this ranking include both flavor intensity and texture. I've found that a lot of shredded cheese isn't very flavorful, so I ranked the varieties with the boldest, most notable flavors near the top of the list, while milder and less pronounced cheese flavors fell near the bottom. I also took texture into account — both thick-cut and thinly shredded varieties ranked near the top of the list, but I tended to prioritize those with less powderiness.