The Worst Grocery Store Bakery Cinnamon Roll Comes From A Popular Budget-Friendly Chain

There aren't many foods lauded for being doughy, gooey, and sickeningly sweet, but cinnamon rolls manage the description in the most decadent fashion. When shopping for this sticky treat, most find that grocery store bakery cinnamon rolls offer a solid middle ground between canned cinnamon roll brands and those from a fancy artisanal bakery. We tasted 8 grocery store bakery cinnamon rolls, ranking them according to flavor, pastry texture, cinnamon, filling, and the gooey glazy topping. Unfortunately, not all of them passed the taste test with flying colors. And the worst grocery store bakery cinnamon roll comes from Aldi.

Aldi holds up their budget-friendly reputation by pricing the Aldi Bake Shop cinnamon rolls at $3.69 for a package of 8. But a low price couldn't save these artificial-tasting, ultra-manufactured rolls from last place. Upon first glance, these cinnamon rolls look like they were stamped out of an industrial cookie cutter, then painted with a perfectly measured layer of white glaze. They could have been sold in individual two-packs like the Hostess or Little Debbie cakes you'd pick up at a convenience store. Indeed these cinnamon rolls are made off-site and delivered to Aldi bakeries; the Bake Shop label seems a little misleading, as these are not freshly made by Aldi. And the taste and texture were as underwhelming as you'd expect from a mass manufactured product. The dough was unpleasantly chewy, the cinnamon filling nondescript, and the glaze just tasted like liquified powdered sugar. Even when we warmed them up in the microwave or toaster oven, the taste and texture remained irredeemable.

While many customers who took to Reddit enjoyed Aldi Bake Shop cinnamon rolls after microwaving them for 10 seconds (someone even recommended adding a bit of butter), others weren't impressed. One Redditor complained that the "icing is terrible and the rolls aren't much better, sadly. It all tastes sooo artificial." While another Redditor didn't find them too offensive, writing, "Just your average grocery store cinnamon rolls. Nothing special besides a good price." However, we found many grocery store bakery cinnamon rolls that exceeded mediocre expectations by a long shot. Our top contenders were from Walmart and Whole Foods, both of which are bursting with cinnamon flavor, balanced sweetness, and most importantly, they're smothered with cream cheese icing.

Aldi's bakery items aren't all bad. The chain happens to crank out some pretty delicious baked goods. So if you're looking for a better option, the blueberry muffins were some of the best grocery store blueberry muffins customers rave about on social media. However, don't confuse the blueberry muffins with Aldi Bake Shop mini muffins as customers thought the mini versions tasted like chemicals. But before you dismiss all Bake Shop labeled goods from Aldi, in a taste test of Aldi Bake Shop items, we did enjoy the powdered donuts and the oatmeal cranberry cookies.