I Tried And Ranked 13 Popular Cottage Cheese Brands

My first memory of loving cottage cheese is when I tried it at my aunt's house at around 5 years old. But not everyone is a fan, and it gets a bad rap. The high-protein soft cheese was promoted as a meat substitute by the U.S. government during World War I, which kicked off decades of it being relegated to a diet food. Thankfully, plenty of people have since come to their senses. Not only is it high in protein, but there are a lot of unexpected ways to use cottage cheese – such as blending it into your smoothies or mixing it into your oatmeal — and it's also delicious.

Whether you're a longtime lover or you've only just started eating it thanks to all the social media buzz around the protein powerhouse, there are a lot of options to choose from. But not all products are built equal. There are several differences to consider across the various brands, such as the size of the curds (which give cottage cheese its chunky texture) and the milkfat percentage. 

To help narrow down the options, I tasted and ranked 13 different brands. While it was relatively easy to select my top choices, I want to note in advance that there isn't a single brand that I would actively avoid in the future. When it comes to the top five, in particular, you really can't go wrong.

Nancy's cottage cheese looks a bit strange when you first open it. Unlike most brands with defined curds, Nancy's curds stick together. It's hard to capture in a photo, but it almost looks partially blended because the curds are so small and integrated with the liquid. Admittedly, this might be a win for the folks who whip cottage cheese to minimize the chunky texture. Personally, curds are a big part of what I like, so the texture was a miss.

I was curious whether Nancy's would have a different flavor from other brands thanks to the probiotics touted on the label, and the answer is yes. This flavor profile goes above and beyond having an acidic tartness and instead jumps straight into the realm of sour. My mouth puckered and watered when I tried it without knowing what to expect. I could get behind this level of sour with a little preparation, but it's not what I would reach for if I were just craving cottage cheese, which means it lands at the bottom of my ranking.

I wanted to love MULU high-protein cottage cheese. After all, who isn't looking for more protein in their diet these days? Unfortunately, the way MULU achieves more protein per serving than other brands is by making it mostly curds, with almost no dressing to add creaminess. 

Typically, cottage cheese is about 80% water, thanks to the water content in the creamy liquid added to the curds and in the curds themselves. That's part of why cottage cheese is such a great hydration booster (along with its electrolyte content).

MULU has a good flavor overall, which keeps it out of the bottom spot, but the lack of moisture results in very firm curds, which is a strange texture when you're expecting something creamy. Maybe you're into that sort of thing, but it's not what I want from my cottage cheese. There is also a hint of a bitter aftertaste that might be otherwise masked by the sorely missing moisture. 

Aldi's Friendly Farms brand typically does a pretty good job with dairy products, but its cottage cheese just doesn't deliver. While I noticed right away that it is very thick, it isn't a creamy kind of thickness. Instead, it is missing some moisture content (though not quite as much as MULU) and comes off as slightly sticky. The curds themselves are also too firm for my liking.

On top of the texture issues, Friendly Farms doesn't taste characteristic of cottage cheese. It was missing the slight tang of the fermented milk that I expected. If you're someone who wishes cottage cheese had less of that sour note, it's worth giving Friendly Farms a try. For me, the only thing keeping Friendly Farms out of the very bottom is that nothing about it is actually offensive. It's just 'meh.'

Cottage cheese curds are made when you acidify skim or low-fat milk, causing it to curdle, but if you've ever drunk skim milk, you may be familiar with the slightly sweet and watered-down flavor it can have because there's no fat to balance the lactose. Thankfully, the added cream and salt in the cottage cheese dressing give it the moisture and flavor that keep it from tasting like skim milk — except for Good & Gather. 

Target's store brand tastes like, and has the mouthfeel of, chunky skim milk. The liquid is watery, and the curds are particularly small. It does have the fermented tang I want from cottage cheese, so it ranks higher than Friendly Farms, but the watered-down flavor keeps it from ranking any higher.

I was a little surprised that Breakstone's cottage cheese didn't rank higher for me, because it's the brand I grew up eating. This one needs a bit more stirring at first to integrate all the liquid, but once that is done, I love that it is creamy and has a great tangy flavor. Unfortunately, the flavor fades pretty quickly, leaving the overall experience a little bland. There isn't much salt, but there is a hint of sweetness, likely owing to the cream used in this brand.

It makes sense in hindsight that a somewhat bland, somewhat sweet cottage cheese would be a hit with a kid, so this might be a good one if you're introducing your children to cottage cheese for the first time. If you're looking for something with a bit more oomph, you'll need to look elsewhere.

Unlike many other grocery store chains that source their private-label cottage cheese from regional dairy cooperatives, Publix has its own dairy plants where the brand processes milk and produces its cottage cheese. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to do it any favors. 

This is another brand with larger curds that has a great tangy flavor upfront, so it starts off as a strong contender. Then an unappealing aftertaste creeps in, dashing all your hopes and protein goals. Even though all of the Publix cottage cheese is produced directly by Publix dairy plants, it relies on suppliers for its fresh milk. Maybe the cows for this batch were having an off day, or maybe Publix just isn't the place to look for great cottage cheese. 

Harris Teeter lands exactly in the middle of our cottage cheese ranking because it's equal parts great and equal parts not-so-great when it comes to texture and flavor, respectively. We'll start with the positives. After it is stirred, Harris Teeter has one of the best textures of all the brands I tested, which is somewhat surprising given that it's on the lower end of milkfat percentages for low-fat cottage cheese. It is creamy, and the curds are soft without being mushy. Texturally, it really couldn't be better. 

The bad news is that it just isn't flavorful. There's no bad aftertaste or salt imbalance, and it isn't exactly bland. However, nothing about the small curd cottage cheese from Harris Teeter stands out above and beyond any of the brands that rank higher on this list.

The cottage cheese from Whole Foods' 365 Organic brand has one of the most unique textures among all of the brands I tried. The curds are very firm in texture, but the cheese somehow boasts a silkiness not found in any other brand. The texture was such a pleasant surprise that I was shocked at how boring the flavor is. Even upon eating more, the most prominent characteristic is the texture rather than the flavor.

I would love to know the exact proportion and type of cream and salt used to make the dressing for this cottage cheese. Maybe I could see if something can be done to boost the flavor while maintaining the texture, but I'll leave that up to the food scientists.

If there is a brand that is nearly synonymous with cottage cheese, it's Daisy. After all, "Only Daisy cottage cheese will do." (You have the song stuck in your head now. Sorry.) So it's a little surprising that Daisy only comes in at number five.

Despite boasting its creaminess right there in the song, Daisy has less moisture than the other brands on this list, and the curds are a bit large for a product that's classified as small curd cottage cheese. It has a good flavor with a little bit of that fermented note, but not a lot. In fact, it tastes more salty than tangy, and the liquid itself is very bland. The thought I kept coming back to is that Daisy's product is very one-note for a brand that built so much of its image around cottage cheese. Thankfully, we still have Daisy sour cream.

Trader Joe's is one of the stores that don't source their private label cottage cheese from a single dairy farm. So it's very possible that your own local Trader Joe's cottage cheese is the bee's knees and would rank higher than number four. Or it might be pretty terrible, as some folks on Reddit have found. What I can tell you for sure is that the Trader Joe's product I tried had a very nostalgic texture and flavor that transported me back to childhood and my early days of trying and loving cottage cheese.

This product has more moisture than some of the other brands, but it isn't watery. In fact, it's very creamy with the right amount of fermented sharpness. The reason it doesn't quite crack the top three is that there isn't much flavor beyond tanginess, making it a little bland alongside the brands that make up the top three. Compared to those, it also felt a bit sticky between my teeth, but only just slightly.

To hear social media tell it, there's no cottage cheese better than Good Culture. Those people may be right, but I think they're looking for something different in cottage cheese than I am. 

Good Culture has tiny curds and only a little moisture, but it doesn't look pre-blended the way Nancy's does. It's really salty and delicious, with a little bit of the tang I expect. I would go so far as to say that Good Culture is the best choice if you don't want large curds or a lot of moisture. 

Texture is one of the biggest differences between cottage cheese and ricotta, but Good Culture reminds me more of the latter. For me, its texture isn't quite right. But if you're going to use cottage cheese rather than ricotta in your lasagna recipe, Good Culture is the one to use.

Number two, in many rankings, is just a hair away from number one. The smallest difference can be the deciding factor that lands a brand of cottage cheese in the runner-up spot. Salt is the reason Mayfield didn't land at the top of this ranking. 

Don't get me wrong, the salty flavor is absolutely delicious if you're going into your snack craving something salty, but it also limits the versatility of the cottage cheese. It's probably not the brand to use if you want to stir cottage cheese into your sweet morning oatmeal, for instance. The only other brand with the same level of sodium as Mayfield (470 milligrams) was Target's Good & Gather. Luckily, Mayfield has such a great tart flavor and creamy texture that the high sodium levels only knocked the brand down one spot.

That brings us to the big upset. The number one cottage cheese brand in my taste test is the Walmart store brand, Great Value. It has somewhat larger curds, but it's very creamy when it's mixed. It's not too salty and has a little bit of a tang, achieving a really balanced flavor that I could immediately tell would be just right for having alongside some fruit. The curds break apart rather than just smooshing between your teeth, making the texture top-notch. I genuinely didn't want to stop eating it.

This is one store brand where you don't have to worry quite as much about regional differences making your cottage cheese taste different from the one I tasted. At least some tubs sold across multiple regions come from the same producer: Saputo Cheese, one of the largest producers of cultured dairy products in the United States.

Choosing between Great Value, Mayfield, and Good Culture all comes down to how you want to eat it. Great Value scores the number one spot because it's not only delicious but also the most versatile of the top three choices. Try it for yourself and see if you agree!

To rank these brands, I personally tasted each small curd, low-fat cottage cheese product. I personally prefer the texture and flavor of small curd; large curd generally has more moisture and less tangy flavor. The amount of fat in the cream and salt mixture that is added to the curds after they've been cooked and pressed is what determines whether a cottage cheese is full-fat (4% milkfat), low-fat (1-2% milkfat), or nonfat (less than 0.5% milkfat). This mixture is referred to as the dressing – not to be confused with trendy cottage cheese salad dressing. I decided to stick with the middle of the road and chose low-fat.

With my 13 brands in hand, I sampled and ranked each option based on the tangy flavor I expect from cottage cheese, the texture of the curds, and the creaminess of the whole bite, including the curds and the dressing. Each offering was tasted immediately after being opened and stirred, then a second taste test was completed a day later, in a different order from the first day. Each was eaten plain, without any toppings or additions. The top three were then tasted a third time to complete the ranking.