Aldi carries many bread options, with Specially Selected being the most commonly found brand. The range includes classic loaves, bagels, baguettes, and multiple sourdough and brioche varieties. Eleven Specially Selected breads were purchased and sampled, then evaluated for flavor, freshness, texture, and whether each loaf offered something unique. Sourdough is best when freshly baked, but store-bought versions can still work if they taste fresh. The Small Batch Sourdough Round was not considered a good choice because it tasted stale despite not being past its expiration date. The evaluation focused on avoiding gummy or unremarkable bread and buying loaves that stand out.
"No grocery trip is complete without good bread, regardless of whether you prefer classic loaves, bagels, or baguettes. You'll find many bread options at just about any grocery store you go to, and budget-friendly favorite Aldi is no exception. Aldi's bread section is pretty impressive, and you'll find various Aldi brands to choose from - but the brand you'll stumble upon the most is Specially Selected."
"Aldi offers many bread types under its Specially Selected brand, and there's also lots of variety in those offerings. Looking for sourdough (or about five different flavor variations of sourdough)? You got it. Is brioche more up your alley? Specially Selected has got that covered too. To help narrow down which Specially Selected loaf you should reach for on your next Aldi run, I've purchased and sampled 11 bread options that were available, ranging from classic loaves to baguettes and bagels."
"After carefully taste testing each bread, I determined which ones are worth buying, and which ones you can leave on the shelf. My buy or avoid criteria came down to the bread's flavor and freshness, texture (because no one likes gummy bread), and whether a given bread had something special or unique that made it stand out among the rest."
"Sourdough is one of the bread varieties that needs to be freshly baked - either at home or at a bakery - to really be worth it. Obviously, though, not everyone has the time or energy to whip up a freshly baked sourdough loaf on a whim (and let's not even delve into having the sourdough starter ready to go). So, in a pinch, store-bought can fill that bread void. All that said, I'm not sure that Aldi's Specially Selected Small Batch Sourdough Round is the store-bought sourdough that should fill that void. I understand that store-bought bread can realistically only taste so fresh, but this bread struck me as stale more than anything else (and, no, it wasn't past its expiration date)."
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