We Tried 21 Aldi Fall Items and Found the 9 Must-Buys

If the arrival of fall has you watching Hocus Pocus on repeat, busting out your coziest flannel shacket even though it makes your armpits sweat, and buying up every pumpkin spice product this side of the Mississip, then you have to get to Aldi asap. The discount grocer’s seasonal aisle is absolutely stacked with Aldi fall items, from pumpkin spice bagels (surprisingly, not bad) to flavored nuts that are cozier than that Lenny Kravitz-style oversized scarf you’ll be wearing for the foreseeable future.

We filled our cart with 21 Aldi fall items and tasted them all. And while they’re all affordable products (we walked out spending less than 100 bucks), there’s no reason to spend your hard-earned fall haul money on Aldi fall foods that are mid or worse. What we have here are the nine best Aldi fall products you’ll find on shelves this year. ‘Tis the (spooky) season, baby.

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aldi apple cinnamon pretzels review

Aldi Fall!

Clancy’s Apple Cinnamon Yogurt Covered Pretzels

I love a coated pretzel. When I worked at Food Lion in high school, my work lunch typically consisted of a bag of White Fudge Flipz and a 20-ounce Coke. These apple cinnamon-coated pretzels from Aldi aren’t as good as Flipz (I mean, what is?), but if you’re in the mood for fall flavors, they’re pretty fun. The apple cinnamon coating is very sweet, so it’s nice that the pretzels contribute some salt for balance—otherwise, I don’t think these would be edible. This isn’t the best of the Aldi fall items on this list, but if you really like apple cinnamon, it’s worth picking up a bag.

Rating:

6/10

Sporks

aldi pumpkin spice instant oatmeal review

Aldi Fall!

Millville Pumpkin Spice Instant Oatmeal

To review some of these Aldi fall items, I had to set aside my ambivalence about the pumpkin spice flavor profile. Would I personally enjoy eating oatmeal with this much nutmeg and ginger in the mix? No, but I think pumpkin spice fans will like it a lot. Like the apple cinnamon pretzels, these oats are rescued by just a touch of salt—in fact, I’d take things a step further and add a pat of salted butter and just a touch of maple syrup to balance out the spice. The best things about this instant oatmeal? It cooks up great in the microwave—the oats are tender but firm. It’s a hearty, satisfying fall breakfast. 

Rating:

6.5/10

Sporks

aldi pumpkin spice bagels review

Aldi Fall!

L’oven Fresh Pumpkin Spice Bagels

I know, I know. Pumpkin spice bagels sound weird, right? Well, they are. But these make the list because the pumpkin spice flavor is decently unobtrusive (if you like a lot of spice, you probably won’t like these), the bagels are nice and chewy out of the toaster, and they taste REALLY GOOD with Benton’s Pumpkin Maple Spread, which is one of the better Aldi fall foods on this list. If you buy these, make sure to buy that and some salted butter, too. Yum.

Rating:

6.5/10

Sporks

aldi apple cider donuts review

Aldi Fall!

Bake Shop Bakery Apple Cider Donuts

If you’ve ever had apple cider donuts fresh from an apple orchard, these Aldi apple cider donuts probably aren’t going to wow you. They’re a little dry, and they don’t have that fresh-from-the-fryer oiliness that makes a drive to the country worthwhile. They are good, though. They’re cakey and coated with cinnamon sugar. I didn’t try heating them, but I suspect a few seconds in the microwave would enhance some of their better qualities and soften them up a bit. They’ll certainly be good dunked in hot apple cider.  

Rating:

7.5/10

Sporks

aldi pumpkin maple spread review

Aldi Fall!

Benton’s Pumpkin Maple Spread

If you like apple butter, then this is one of the Aldi fall items that should find its way into your cart. It’s apple butter-esque, but it actually tastes like squash—pumpkin is the #1 ingredient—and it’s a little more gelatinous. It’s like squash baby food but 1,000 times sweeter. I slathered this on one of the pumpkin spice bagels, and it was great, but I would really freak out for this in some fall-flavored linzer cookies. This jar of pumpkin jelly came home with me.

Rating:

8.5/10

Sporks

aldi maple kettle corn review

Aldi Fall!

Clancy’s Drizzled Maple Kettle Corn

Clancy’s makes seasonal kettle corn in two flavors: maple and pumpkin spice. The pumpkin spice version was a big no for me—I wouldn’t recommend it to even the freakiest pumpkin spice freak. But this maple version is fantastic. As soon as you open the bag, you get slapped in the nostrils with buttery-sweet maple syrup. Despite the strong aroma, the popcorn isn’t nauseatingly sweet. The kettle corn kernels are perfectly salty-sweet, and the maple drizzle is truly a drizzle—the kernels aren’t overloaded with the stuff. (My colleague Jordan Myrick actually wished the drizzle was more robust, but we had to agree to disagree on that.) The flavors are the epitome of autumn, but this is one of the Aldi fall products I wish they sold all year.

Rating:

9/10

Sporks

snickerdoodle almonds aldi review

Aldi Fall!

Southern Grove Snickerdoodle Spice Almonds

I wasn’t expecting for these Snickerdoodle Spice Almonds to be anything more than cinnamon-spiced almonds, which would be pretty dang dull, but they’re so much more delicious than that. To my surprise, they really do taste like snickerdoodle cookies. They have a touch of cream of tartar tang, as well as a touch of salt like all good sugar cookies should. Traditionally, snacks that set out to taste like baked goods are just cloying and strange, but these are a damn delight. We also tried the Southern Grove Pumpkin Spice Almonds, but the flavoring was so overwhelming you couldn’t even taste the nuts. The best Aldi fall items have balance.

Rating:

9/10

Sporks

aldi pumpkin loaf cake review

Aldi Fall!

Bake Shop Bakery Pumpkin Sliced Loaf Cake

Okay, speaking of baked goods, I am pleased to report that you can g’head and unbookmark that recipe for pumpkin cake and just buy Aldi’s version instead. It tastes pumpkin-y (yes, there is actually pumpkin in this), but the pumpkin puree doesn’t weigh it down. These slices of loaf cake are unbelievably moist and fluffy. As my colleague Justine Sterling put it, “It’s so light and not at all claggy” (which means it’s not dense and gummy, just in case you don’t watch The Great British Bake-Off). This is one of the best Aldi fall products to toss in the breakroom at work when morale needs a boost. Everyone will like you a little bit more. 

Rating:

9.5/10

Sporks

aldi pumpkin cake roll review

Aldi Fall!

Bake Shop Bakery Pumpkin Cake Roll

Besides being extremely aesthetically pleasing, this Swiss roll cake from Aldi is a knockout in the flavor department, too. It’s very spiced, much more spiced than the pumpkin loaf cake, but the spice blend is heavy on the ginger, which works nicely. The cake has an almost gingerbread-y flavor as a result. (Worth noting: Unlike the loaf cake, this cake doesn’t actually contain pumpkin, but we won’t hold that against it.) The flavor of the cake is unreal when you get a bite with the slightly salty, cream cheese frosting. Put this in some tin foil and say you made it yourself. No one will question you.

Rating:

10/10

Sporks

Other products we tried: Specially Selected Apple & Cinnamon Brioche Ring, Southern Grove Pumpkin Spice Almonds, Clancy’s Drizzled Pumpkin Spice Kettle Corn, Clancy’s Pumpkin Spice Yogurt Covered Pretzels, Choceur Pumpkin Pie Caramel Clusters, Benton’s Apple Pie Sandwich Cremes, Benton’s Pumpkin Spice Mini Biscotti, Benton’s Salted Caramel Apple Spread, Millville Cocoa Sea Salt Instant Oatmeal, Choceur Assorted Belgian Chocolate Apples, Choceur Assorted Belgian Chocolate Pumpkins,  L’oven Fresh Harvest Bagels


About the Author

Gwynedd Stuart

Gwynedd Stuart, Sporked’s managing editor, is an L.A.-based writer and editor who spends way, way too much time at the grocery store. She’s never met an Old El Paso taco or mozzarella stick she didn’t like.

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  • Where is my squash mac dupe, Aldi? Where???

    Reply