Best Things We Ate This Week (Nov. 28 – Dec. 2)

Each week, the Sporked team sidles up to the tasting table and sets out to find the absolute best of the best packaged foods, the gold hidden in the grocery aisles. Each week we’ll bring you five standouts that truly rocked our taste buds and changed our lives—or at least our buying habits. Here are the best things we ate this week.

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Kite Hill European Style Plant-Based Butter Alternative

Kite Hill’s European Style Plant-Based spread is a buttery delight. It is made from cultured almond milk, which adds a pleasant nuttiness that works so well. This has virtually none of the funky aftertaste that you’ll often detect in dairy substitutes—Kite Hill deserves major props for creating funk-less vegan butter with a pleasantly clean taste. The tub it comes in says it’s great for both cooking and baking, and we love a versatile product.

Williams-Sonoma Peppermint Bark

There’s regular, plain ol’ peppermint bark and then there’s Williams-Sonoma Peppermint Bark (cue applause). This is a holiday treat for anyone who enjoys the finer things in life and is looking to treat themselves to something luxurious tasting. The bark is scattered with big chunks of peppermint candy and has the perfect ratio of white to dark chocolate. To top it all off, the tin it comes in is extremely cute, too. How’s that for fancy?

Trader Joe’s Everything but the Bagel Seasoned Smoked Salmon

Trader Joe’s Everything but the Bagel Seasoned Smoked Salmon was perfect as far as smoked salmon goes. This would be excellent on a bagel with cream cheese, but after giving this a try, you’re sure to sneak a few extra bites on the side. The texture of the salmon is truly wonderful—delightfully smooth in a way that just glides down your throat. Trader Joe’s really nailed the smoke flavor, which pairs extremely well with their Everything but the Bagel seasoning.

Banza Four Cheese Chickpea Crust Cheese Pizza

Banza knows chickpeas, and that includes gluten-free chickpea pizza crust. Their gluten-free cheese pizza blew its competition out of the water because the neutral flavor of the chickpea crust allows it to pick up lots of seasoning and big flavor. The cheese was excellently stretchy and the crust was unlike any other gluten-free crust that we tried because it was so comforting and savory. As far as gluten free pizzas go, Banza’s iteration was incredibly satisfying.

Trader Joe’s Candy Cane Joe-Joe’s

There are so many things we look forward to around the holidays, but currently, Trader Joe’s Candy Cane Joe-Joe’s are at the top of our list. The peppermint flavoring in them is subtle in comparison to a peppermint Oreo, and these cookies contain little bits of candy cane within them making for a fun textural experience. Because the flavoring of them is so pleasant and subtle, you’ll wind up eating half the box before realizing what happened!