Let me ask you if you’re like me at the grocery store. Do you stop and take a look at the major brand of an item and wonder if the generic grocery store brand is better? I do it all the time and question whether it’s worth saving the 50 cents or a dollar to buy the generics. This happened recently while I was staring at pizza rolls. I’m that guy…. I keep a bag of Totino’s pizza rolls in my freezer at all time for the times I get home late from work and looking for a quick snack, from the times I’m too lazy to cook and need a quick snack, from the times I have a hangover and need something bad to eat…… so essentially when I just want to eat at home.
A bag of 40 pizza rolls are usually on sale for $1.99 or $2.49 but on my visit to Dillon’s they were a whopping $3.29. I was jokingly offended they were regular price. How dare they not be on the “Buy 5 Save $1” per package sale! So I looked over at the Kroger pizza snack rolls bag of 40 and saw they were $2.79. Do I save myself 50 cents and buy the generic? After some thought, I figured why not just buy both and see which one is better? And that’s exactly what I did.
I chose the combination flavor because Kroger doesn’t offer a supreme and the pepperoni options were different: Kroger had regular pepperoni while Totino’s had triple pepperoni. I needed consistency.
After opening both bags, I snapped a picture (seen below) and posted them on my various social media sites asking which one were Totino’s. After over 150 votes over 85% of people thought the top three rolls were Totino’s. The correct answer is the bottom three. I was surprised how many people guessed wrong. Totino’s were lighter in color and had a softer texture to the rolls before cooking.
After the vote, I moved them over to a BPA safe plate and nuked them at different times of 60 seconds, 65 seconds, 70 seconds and 75 seconds since Totino’s directions say 60-65 seconds while Kroger 70-75 seconds. I chose the microwave option because if I’m looking to wait 10-15 minutes, I might as well cook a dinner and I only do microwave since I’m always in a rush. I also reached out to my family to see 1.) Which one they liked more and 2.) Which one they thought were Totino’s in a blind taste test. I also reversed the situation and had them do a blind taste test for myself.
After the blind test taste everybody in my family correctly guessed the Totino’s pizza rolls. They noted the tomato sauce had a much difference taste. The Kroger rolls tomato sauce had more of an herbal flavor to them. The sauce was also thicker. One brother, who was the only one to vote Kroger his favorite, said he liked that it had an extra kick to it; not a spicy one but just something to add in a better aftertaste. Everybody else preferred the Totino’s pizza rolls which seemed to pack more meat inside the rolls. Upon cutting some of the rolls up, it did appear that way. The majority of the group also preferred the sauce which tasted lighter. The same went for the texture, the Kroger rolls were a little tougher in texture.
So in our unofficial comparison, 80% of people preferred Totino’s to Kroger. It was a fun little taste test to do and something you could try as well with your family at a low cost especially if Dillon’s decides to put them on sale again.
Just beware, many mouths could be burned in this process.
Happy Dining,
Eddy
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