Brand shopping habits and you

Maybe not too surprising, given my current vocation, I'm always looking for the best in food. I try different brands (protip: White Cheddar mac and cheese can't be done out of a box any better than President's Choice. Who knew.) and tend to settle on something once I find something really high end.

I tend to cook from scratch, so I do this more with fresh ingredients, but the point still stands. You experiment until you find something that does what you want it to do.

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Originally Posted by Crash Landon

It really depends upon what I'm buying. If it's something fairly interchangeable, like pretzels, I'll buy the in-store brand without giving it much thought.

But if I'm looking for something of quality, I will buy the name brand product because I can be more certain that as many corners aren't being skipped. For example, tuna fish: I always buy Starkist because I've tasted the other brands and they don't measure up. Too oily, too salty, too gritty - it's always something like that.

It's the same difference with cereals. You'll never convince me that "Marshmallow Treasures" taste the same as Lucky Charms because they just don't. Something is off and it ruins my concept of what the cereal should be. BUT, pretty much anyone can make passable Cheerios, so the cheap brand is just as good.

Generally, the more specialized a food is, the more likely I'll buy name brand. Butter, milk, yogurt, popcorn, yeah, house brands will work. Cream cheese, bagels, fish sticks, no I demand names I trust.

Crash, if you can't tell the difference between milks, I'm envious. After being on the east coast, I almost can't drink the stuff. Hell, after I got back from Japan, I couldn't drink milk in NA for months. Just tasted bloody awful.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Crash Landon

1: I've never been to Japan to have a basis for comparison.

2: I drink Vitamin D milk, which is pretty strong stuff no matter from whom it's purchased. It's the 2% and skim milks that seem to suffer more between brands.

3: In upstate NY, most milk comes from the same dairy farms, so even though the labels are different, most times it's the same thing. It's like in-store tomato paste: it may have a boring label but if you read the fine print, you'll see it was made by Hunt's anyhow, so why pay more?

Well, if the milk is half as good as the stuff you can land in Montreal, you're probably getting fairly high quality anyway. What brand do you drink?

How ya doing, buddy?

Originally Posted by Crash Landon

We have two major brands. One is "Wendt's" and the other is "Upstate."

I prefer Upstate, as their quality is more consistent; their D milk seems smoother. But Wendt's isn't bad either.

I guess Meadowbrook has moved in recently but they're more expensive than milk realistically should be, so I haven't tried them.

On a related note, I always buy Land-O-Lakes butter because the salt level seems just right. The store brands always seems lacking, and Imperial is too salty. I never eat margarine because it's a shitty, bastard son.

EDIT: I usually buy Hellman's mayonnaise but I can handle the Kraft brand. I like their Gour-Mayo line, especially the chipotle mayonnaise. House brand mayonnaise has a weaker consistency, I find.

I'm really picky about my butter choice, too. So many just seem... off. And when I'm on the east coast, I stick to lactantia milk. Fantastic stuff.

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