Our Test Kitchen Found the Best Mozzarella Cheese

Whether it’s a gooey lasagna, creamy casserole or homemade pizza, mozzarella cheese is what makes so many of our favorite comfort foods so darn comforting. And to make those mozzarella recipes downright irresistible, you need the best mozzarella cheese.

But with a slew of different cheese brands on the market, it can be hard to know which is going to deliver the best results. So our Test Kitchen conducted a blind taste test of mozzarella cheese from some of the most popular brands.

What Makes the Best Mozzarella Cheese

Our Test Kitchen tried eight different brands of block mozzarella cheese (here’s why you should grate your own cheese from a block instead of buying pre-grated cheese) and judged them according to these standards:

• Flavor: Mozzarella is a mild cheese, but that doesn’t mean it should be tasteless; it should have some saltiness. Bonus points for a little hint of something extra.
  
• Appearance: A good mozzarella cheese should look appetizing whether you grate it, slice it or melt it.
  
• Texture: The best mozzarella cheeses are smooth, and the block versions should be somewhat firm.
  

In order to compare all of the brands fairly, our Test Kitchen followed their rigorous product-testing process and tasted each cheese blindly, side by side.

Our Test Kitchen’s Preferred Mozzarella Cheese

Here are the best mozzarella cheese brands that you should reach for on your next grocery run.

The Most Flavorful Mozzarella: Good & Gather

Taking our top spot is Good & Gather, a Target-exclusive brand. This mozzarella offered our Test Kitchen exactly what they wanted from a brick of this cheese. The texture was fairly firm but still had a bit of springiness to it, making it good for grating, slicing or eating by the chunk. The cheese itself offered us more than just your normal mellow mozzarella flavor; this one had a bit of tang to it (think the mildest of cheddars). This extra kick is what set Target’s cheese apart from the others. That little bit of extra flavor is what’s really going to make your recipes their best yet.

The Creamiest Mozzarella: Trader Joe’s

Up next was Trader Joe’s block mozzarella. This cheese has a great creamy texture and flavor accented with a bit of salt. It’s precisely what many of our Test Kitchen experts expected from a nice, firm mozzarella. We recommend grabbing this the next time you’re at TJ’s, along with these other inexpensive Trade Joe’s must-haves.

The Best Mozzarella for Grating: Kraft

Cheese giant Kraft also gained one of our top spots in this test. Kraft’s mozzarella was a bit firmer than others in our test, which makes it great for grating. This cheese also had a nice level of salt, and it reminded a few members of our Test Kitchen of a nice string cheese. Who doesn’t love that?

What to Make with Mozzarella Cheese

The best mozzarella cheese deserves a place in your refrigerator for a tasty Italian dinner or your next at-home pizza party.

One of our favorite mozzarella recipes is this Slow-Cooker Cheesy White Lasagna—it’s simple to make and deliciously creamy! We also love this Green Chile Grilled Cheese Melt, Italian Sausage-Stuffed Zucchini and Five-Cheese Spinach & Artichoke Dip. When there’s cheese involved, you really can’t go wrong.

Check Out More Test Kitchen-Preferred Products

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Teddy Nykiel, Taste of Home Associate Digital Editor, contributed to this article.

Note: This blind taste test was performed by our staffers and was not part of a sponsorship. All opinions shared are our own, and have not been influenced by advertisers.