What's the Best Frozen Waffle?
I grew up on toaster waffles. Sometimes, before school, I'd make a sandwich of two waffles filled with sliced strawberries and cinnamon. Other times I’d smear half a waffle with Greek yogurt and the other half with jam—basically my breakfasty version of a black-and-white cookie. I love toaster waffles. My Extra Crispy colleagues do too, so it wasn’t hard to get the gang to do a frozen waffle taste test.
We bought seven varieties. Some waffles crunched, others smushed. None were bad, but some were definitely a cut above the rest. Here they are, ranked from merely good to the best.
7. Van’s 8 Whole Grains Multigrain Waffles
I don’t want to undervalue Van’s waffles. Like all the waffles we tasted, they were very good. But this is a taste test, and someone has to be last. We found that while these waffles smelled cinnamon-y while tasting, their flavor didn’t reflect the spice.
6. Nature’s Path Ancient Grains Waffle
These waffles definitely taste like ancient grains, and we could feel the power of the carbs as we bit into them. Nature’s Path weren’t as sweet as the other brands we tried, and we craved a puddle of maple syrup for dipping.
5. Earth’s Best Organic Mini Waffles
Earth’s Best waffles are geared toward kids, and we felt gleefully nostalgic for our own childhoods as we munched on the mini waffles. We ended up only being able to find blueberry waffles, but we enjoyed the base flavor of the waffle enough to land it in our top five.
4. Fairway Essentials Buttermilk Waffles
These waffles were buttery and tangy, just as a buttermilk waffle should be. We appreciated the subtly saltiness and the waffle’s soft texture. This is definitely a waffle to stash in the freezer for emergency breakfast situations.
3. Eggo Homestyle Waffles
Butter-yellow and not the least bit fussy, Eggo waffles make our top three. They basically tasted like the Bisquick waffles we grew up making. Fun fact: Eggo actually had the least sugar of all the brands we tried.
2. 365 Organic Homestyle Waffles
I’ll admit my bias: These are the toaster waffles I had as a kid. I’ve probably eaten about 500 of them, and they are wonderful. Though my colleagues were more familiar with Eggo, we were all in agreement that these crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside, slightly cinnamon-y waffles were aces.
1. Julian’s Belgian Pastry Waffles
It might be unfair to include a belgian liège waffle in a taste test with standard American toaster waffles. But life is unfair, so we went for it. These waffles were every bit as good as the ones I’ve had at food fairs and restaurants. We all agreed that Julian’s were the best of the bunch, but it was debatable whether the super-sweet waffles were actually breakfast or dessert.
