Tasting test: the mozzarella from the supermarket

2023 Author: Cody Thornton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-11-26 19:13

Due to the latest news, the tenth Tasting Test, a weekly comparison between products in the same category, has something surreal about it. If in 2010 the fashion color was blue, this year goes to gray, and in short, since today I try the Super mozzarella, the fear of some anomaly hovers over the test. “It won't happen to me,” I think reassuringly.

Make no mistake, for someone who lives not far from Bojano, an area with few rivals in the production of fiordilatte and mozzarella, refueling at the Super, and not even at the fresh counter, is definitely unusual. This does not mean, however, that in the supermarkets in the area the sale of mozzarella is lower, and obviously the “made in Germany” one, spotted in a first round of patrol and then no longer found, is also strong.

The aim of the test is to identify, if possible, a dairy product that resembles Bojano's mozzarella.

THE CONTENDENTS

- Bianca Bontà

- Granarolo

- Reginella d'Abruzzo

- Saint Lucia Galbani

- Valley

In all cases, the formats are single portions except Granarolo and Reginella d’Abruzzo (3 mozzarella of 100 g per tray the first, two of 200 g the other).

CRITERIA

- Visual aspect

- Consistency

- Taste

The test was carried out "blindly". I remember that I am not a food technologist, and that the verdict is objective with personal-affective deviations.

THE VERDICT

# 5 Mozzarella Granarolo.

Format: pack of three: 300 g (100 g each)

Ingredients: pasteurized milk, salt, microbial rennet, acidity regulator: citric acid.

Made with high quality pasteurized fresh milk.

Present nutritional values.

Produced and packaged for Granarolo S.p. A. Bologna, in the factory of: Via Cadriano, 27/2 - 40127 Bo

– Judgment: I had serious problems swallowing the quotient needed for the test. Seriously.

– Packaging: plasticized and a little coarse.

– Visual aspect: milky white color and unusually rough surface.

– Consistency: too soft.

– Taste: faint milk flavor marred by a bizarre chemical aftertaste. Very salty.

– Price: € 12, 27 / per kg then € 3, 68

– Price / happiness ratio: the worst of the test.

– In short: better not to express judgments.

Vote N.c.

# 4 White Mozzarella Goodness

Format: 100 g

Ingredients: cow's milk, salt, rennet; acidity regulator: citric acid.

Present nutritional values.

Produced for Bianca Bontà, Piazza Meda 3 Milan, in the factory: Via Brennero 2, 39040 Varna (BZ).

– Judgment: never judge a book by its cover, the outside authorizes expectations that are promptly denied.

– Packaging: classic plasticized bag, the colors are inspired by Pescara Calcio.

– Visual aspect: milky white color, slightly rough surface.

– Consistency: soft, even too much.

– Taste: I wonder where the milk has gone, the taste is plasticky and very salty.

– Price: € 8, 80 / per kg then € 0, 88.

– Price / happiness ratio: consistent with the modest final result.

– In short: mozzarella is another thing.

Vote N.c.

# 3 Mozzarella Santa Lucia Galbani.

Format: 125 g

Ingredients: milk, salt, rennet, acidity regulator: citric acid.

Present nutritional values.

Produced by S.p. A E. Galbani, Via Togliatti 8 - 20066 Melzo (MI), in the Corteolona (PV) - Via dei Caduti 15/17 plant.

– Judgment: misleading, I still don't understand if I tasted a mozzarella.

– Packaging: classic plasticized bag with nostalgic graphics.

– Visual aspect: milky white color, slightly dotted surface.

– Consistency: soggy, uninviting.

– Taste: not cloying or annoying, mostly not received.

– Price: € 11.04 / per kg then € 1.38

– Price / happiness ratio: one of the worst in the test.

– In short: anonymous, almost aseptic.

Vote N.c.

# 2 Mozzarella Vallelata.

Format: 125 g

Ingredients: milk, live lactic ferments, salt, rennet.

Present nutritional values.

Produced by S.p. A E. Galbani, Via Togliatti 8 - 20066 Melzo (MI), in the Corteolona (PV) - Via dei Caduti 15/17 plant.

– Judgment: Galbani's prestige line is saltier than the other.

– Packaging: comfortable and practical tray, pleasantly sober graphics.

– Visual aspect: milky white color, smoother than the subject Santa Lucia.

– Consistency: springs, on the verge of dismemberment.

– Taste: you feel the milk, and I assure you that it is not a little. But the salt is too much, it dries up the palate.

– Price: € 11.84 / per kg then € 1.48

– Price / happiness ratio: more suitable than its competitors, but the modest outcome of the flavor test does not make it favorable.

– In short: strengths and weaknesses are the same, well packaged and scented with milk but salty and too yielding.

Grade 5.

# 1 Mozzarella Reginella d'Abruzzo.

Format: pack of 2: 250 g (125 each)

Ingredients: milk, salt, rennet, live lactic ferments.

Present nutritional values.

Reginella d'Abruzzo Srl - Sulmona (AQ)

– Judgment: after so much plasticity, anonymity and salt, here is a balanced mozzarella in texture and flavor.

– Packaging: practical tray with rustic and not very attractive graphics.

– Visual aspect: milky white color. Smooth and shiny surface.

– Consistency: soda, finally! With a convincing release of milk at the time of cutting.

– Taste: fresh, balanced and pleasant with a slight acidic aftertaste, the milk stands out perfectly, the salt is dosed properly.

– Price: € 11, 00 / per kg then € 2, 75

– Price / happiness ratio: consistent, climbs to the top of the podium.

– In short: remembers, albeit distantly, a fiordilatte from Boiano.

Rating 6

THINGS YOU LEARN FROM THIS TASTE TEST

Demoralizing, from an organoleptic point of view, the worst test after that of frozen pizzas. The contenders do not have the qualities of mozzarella, from the consistency anything but soft to the exceptional creaminess, salt abounds, and all, except the Reginella d'Abruzzo, give ruinously when touched.

I force myself a little before asking, but not wanting to pass for the usual snob, I execute. Do you buy mozzarella at the supermarket? And possibly, which brands?