Chefs David Rose, Jack Logue, and Brittney Williams are used to thinking outside the box when it comes to cooking; however, today on Epicurious we’ve asked them to give us their unfiltered, honest reviews of some prominent boxed mac and cheese brands found on supermarket shelves. Which mac and cheese packs the most bang for your budget, and which should you avoid at all costs?
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00 We've gathered three professional chefs
00:02 to blind taste test every boxed mac and cheese brand
00:05 we could get our hands on
00:06 and see which ones meet their standards.
00:09 Don't worry, we are prepared.
00:11 Craft original macaroni and cheese dinner.
00:16 - Just the visual kind of brings me back
00:18 in a time machine right now.
00:19 - Smells like I'm five years old again.
00:21 - The sauce is kind of thin,
00:22 not as cheesy as I would like my mac and cheese personally.
00:26 So what I look for in mac and cheese is sauce.
00:29 - Is it creamy?
00:30 Is it glossy?
00:31 Does it coat the pasta the way it should?
00:33 - It's gotta have that cheesy, not quite real cheese taste.
00:38 The more cheese, the better.
00:40 - Pasta shape is very important
00:41 'cause that's what's gonna make the sauce adhere
00:43 to the actual pasta.
00:44 And of course the actual mix itself,
00:45 a lot of that has to do with the amount of sodium citrate
00:47 and sodium hexaminophosphate in it,
00:49 which are helping to make the fats not separate
00:52 from the actual pasta and the sauce.
00:54 - When I'm looking at this right here,
00:55 that color, that slight neon, you do it,
00:58 and that lets me know it's money.
01:00 Yep, I know what that is.
01:05 The scent, the smell, the shape of the noodle,
01:08 that's Kraft mac and cheese right there.
01:10 - This is Kraft mac and cheese.
01:12 - I do think this is a blue box Kraft mac and cheese.
01:15 [laughing]
01:17 There it is.
01:18 The box has changed, but the ingredients have not.
01:20 The thing about this particular mac and cheese,
01:22 you always wanted to eat more.
01:23 You needed to eat more,
01:24 you couldn't just have one bite,
01:25 you'd wanna go in for it.
01:26 A lot of that is that acidity,
01:27 which helps open up the mouth.
01:29 The citric acid and the lactic acid.
01:30 I grew up on this, I love it.
01:31 - Annie's white cheddar shells, macaroni, and cheese.
01:36 - A white cheese, maybe a white cheddar.
01:39 - I always think that shell mac and cheese
01:41 is the way to go,
01:41 because you get the little pockets in the shell
01:43 that are the gooey explosion in your mouth.
01:45 - The sauce itself coats the pasta,
01:47 which is a good sign.
01:49 - The texture is definitely a little looser
01:51 with this one right here.
01:52 It's not quite as gelatinous or homogenous.
01:55 - I noticed that the sauce is a little bit less thick
01:57 than the last one, but it is sticking to the shell,
01:59 so the viscosity is nice.
02:00 - Definitely getting notes of a milder kind of cheddar.
02:05 - It looks like it's gonna pack a really nice,
02:07 sharp white cheddar flavor that tastes very nice,
02:09 and it was kind of muted, to be honest with you.
02:11 - I will say that the pasta has a little bit more bite.
02:14 - This particular mac and cheese is lacking.
02:15 Lusciousness on the tongue,
02:16 where you just wanna eat more.
02:17 We're only really tasting pretty bland sauce
02:20 and kind of a bland pasta noodle as well.
02:23 It looks like it possibly could be in Annie's,
02:25 but I think Annie's tastes better than this.
02:27 - Oh!
02:28 - Annie's.
02:28 - All right.
02:29 - It is the Annie's white cheddar.
02:31 - That is hilarious, 'cause in my head,
02:32 I was like, maybe this is Annie's,
02:34 but I wasn't quite sure.
02:36 - I'm not opposed to Annie's.
02:38 Thank you, Annie.
02:38 - Velveeta shells and cheese.
02:42 - That's the color we're looking for,
02:44 kind of that quite not natural yellow hue to it.
02:47 - The sauce is really clinging to the shells.
02:49 These pockets right here are just gooey, deliciousness,
02:52 we hope.
02:53 - In order to get that beautiful lacquered texture
02:55 that you have that coats the outside of the shells,
02:57 you wanna have some type of starch present,
02:59 maybe potato starch, that gives that nice, luxurious,
03:02 glorious lacquered look on the shells right here.
03:05 - Hmm.
03:08 - Hmm.
03:09 - I feel like it's very muted.
03:10 - Flavor profile of actual cheese, but it's really good.
03:13 - And it really doesn't have that cheese factor.
03:15 - There's a nice salinity to this.
03:16 The gooeyness really comes across.
03:18 You can make a little runway in the sauce,
03:20 it's not just pooled down there,
03:21 which is always a good sign of proper emulsion.
03:23 - I think this one is probably a base
03:25 with an actual cheese with the melting salts in it.
03:27 You do that, real cheese ain't doing that.
03:30 It's real homogenous, it's real, you know, kind of stiff.
03:34 Very salty.
03:35 - If I had to guess, I feel like it would be Velveeta.
03:39 - I'm gonna go with Velveeta.
03:40 - Ha ha ha!
03:41 Yes, I was right!
03:43 - Velveeta.
03:44 - Enriched macaroni product, oof.
03:46 - This also has the lactic acid, the citric acid
03:49 that we enjoyed from the Kraft one.
03:51 You want a cheese sauce that actually moves.
03:54 This is as slow as molasses.
03:57 To feed that to my family, it's gonna be a no for me.
04:00 - I think this is by far actually the best tasting one.
04:04 I think the sweetness from the Kraft
04:05 kind of overpowered the saltiness
04:06 that you want from mac and cheese.
04:07 And I think the Annie's just didn't really have
04:09 that much natural flavor, whereas the Goop quote unquote
04:12 carries a lot of flavor and really packs a lot of flavor.
04:14 And it's a high sodium content, which translates
04:16 to gooey, glossy, delicious, tasty mac and cheese.
04:19 And that's it, I really don't know
04:21 any more mac and cheese brands now.
04:23 [crunching]
04:24 - Great Valley Original Macaroni and Cheese.
04:27 - Lovely, beautiful, neon yellow.
04:30 - It looks very similar to the Kraft.
04:32 It's going for that exact same marketability.
04:35 - I don't see much white spacing on the actual pasta.
04:38 It's just cheese sauce through and through.
04:40 Hm.
04:44 - Hm.
04:45 - That is not Kraft.
04:46 - Very sweet, surprisingly.
04:48 - Not a fan of the pasta noodles, a little denser.
04:51 - The sauciness of the Kraft was a little bit
04:53 more consistent, whereas even as you can see now
04:55 as this is starting to cool, we get a little bit more
04:57 of these runny puree marks.
04:59 - I think it's a very good imitation
05:00 from the look standpoint, but from the taste standpoint,
05:03 doesn't quite hit those same notes as the Kraft, honestly.
05:05 - It's not giving a super buttery, rich flavor profile.
05:09 It's just linear.
05:10 - We know most of these products don't have
05:12 the real cheese product in it, but it tastes extra.
05:15 - Chemically, kind of a metal, kind of minerally taste to it.
05:18 - Ooh.
05:20 Great value.
05:21 Okay, this makes sense.
05:23 - Just looks exactly like Kraft Mac and Cheese.
05:25 Are you even allowed to market something like this?
05:27 - I know there's melting salts that we discussed
05:28 in the Kraft Mac and Cheese, and also in the Albedo.
05:30 There's no sodium citrate, there's no sodium hexamethylphosphate
05:33 so the sauce that looked very consistent and very glossy
05:36 right when it came out starts to look like
05:38 it's no longer an emulsion.
05:39 That's because there's nothing helping to bind it.
05:41 This is just gonna kind of die on the plate right away.
05:45 - Cheetos Mac and Cheese.
05:47 - Now y'all know I'm gonna give Yelah a face.
05:49 The Jamaican auntie face.
05:50 A what is?
05:52 I have never seen a cheese this color.
05:54 - The color is a bit much.
05:56 Kind of a Cheetos orange thing going on here.
05:58 It's well coated.
05:59 I do see a lot of the cheese sauce here.
06:01 Just based off looks now, there is fat and starch in there
06:05 that's causing it to coat the noodles.
06:07 - Hmm, I'm smelling spices in here.
06:11 - I'm getting packaged cheese snack vibes.
06:14 [chewing]
06:16 - Yep.
06:17 - Hmm.
06:18 - Hmm, okay.
06:20 It doesn't taste like Mac and Cheese at all to me.
06:22 - Cannot confirm if it's cheese.
06:24 Oh, it kind of does taste like Cheetos actually.
06:25 The only thing missing right now
06:26 is the cheese powder on my fingers.
06:28 It looks like it.
06:30 Yes, it tastes like it.
06:31 Really, really good flavor.
06:32 Hinges on the cusp of too salty.
06:35 - It's just full of seasoning, additives, and flavors
06:40 but not cheese.
06:42 There's a sweetness to it as well
06:43 and there's a salinity.
06:44 That balance that makes you want to go back for more.
06:46 It's kind of scary to look at but it's good.
06:49 That's wrong.
06:50 So wrong but so right in all the good ways.
06:53 [laughing]
06:55 - Ah, all right.
06:56 I guess Cheetos has the market on this color of orange.
06:58 - That flavor, that taste, that smell,
07:01 everything pointed towards this.
07:03 - It has some buttermilk and nutritional yeast
07:05 and it has the melting salt.
07:06 So kind of a combination of a lot of the things
07:08 that we've tried.
07:09 Overall, solid Mac and Cheese.
07:11 - There you go, Cheetos.
07:12 - Trader Joe's organic shells, white cheddar,
07:16 macaroni, and cheese.
07:17 - Shells again.
07:19 Do they not make any other pasta shapes?
07:21 - So we have that viscosity again,
07:23 that sheen and shine compared to the last
07:26 white Mac and Cheese has a more consistent sauce.
07:29 It's slightly starting to split.
07:30 - It's a little lumpy.
07:31 That means the sauce isn't as emulsified as it should be.
07:35 - Not bad.
07:38 - There's not really much cheese taste at all
07:40 but it's tasty.
07:41 - I would definitely add more cheese culture,
07:43 cheese essence, or actually have more cheese in there.
07:47 When comparing this to the Annie's and the Velveeta,
07:49 I like the shells right here, the size.
07:51 It's good, has a nice chew to it.
07:53 Very snackable.
07:54 - Tasting this Mac and Cheese, there is no flavor at all.
07:57 For me, zero out of 10.
07:59 - What do we have here?
08:01 - Trader Joe's.
08:03 - I'm disappointed, Trader Joe's.
08:05 - Definitely Trader Joe's.
08:07 Give me more of that organic white cheddar cheese.
08:09 But overall, I'll eat it.
08:11 - You missed the mark on that one.
08:12 - Banzer Mac and white cheddar made with chickpea pasta.
08:17 - Finally, we got elbow mac and cheese in the house.
08:21 The coating on the sauce still seems a little bit loose.
08:24 - Not really coating the spoon
08:25 and not really sticking that nice kind of homogenous
08:28 kind of, you know, texture.
08:29 - So it does seem like some of the pasta is broken up.
08:31 Either that means the pasta was overcooked
08:33 or it means that maybe this is a gluten substitute,
08:35 which sometimes that can happen too.
08:37 - The smell itself is a lot more earthier.
08:40 - Hmm. - Hmm.
08:41 - Okay.
08:42 - That's interesting.
08:43 - As soon as I bite into it,
08:44 it kind of disintegrates and falls apart.
08:46 - There's a little bit of a chalkiness to the pasta itself
08:48 and it kind of disintegrated in my mouth.
08:50 So I think this is gluten-free pasta.
08:52 You know, you want the cheese to be the flavor
08:54 and the pasta sort of to be the vessel.
08:56 Whereas in this case,
08:57 the pasta is the flavor and the cheese sort of exists.
08:59 - It's lacking that yellow color.
09:01 It's lacking that cheesiness.
09:02 It's gotta have that starch.
09:03 It's gotta have that fat in there to make it stick.
09:05 It's lacking that.
09:06 That's not vibing with me.
09:07 - Of all the mac and cheeses that I've had thus far,
09:10 this one, like a little step above everybody else.
09:14 - This one is probably least favorite so far.
09:17 - I think we're eating gluten-free vegan mac and cheese.
09:20 - Oh no!
09:21 Bonzo!
09:24 Mac and cheese made with chickpeas.
09:25 - It's lacking that starch that wheat has.
09:28 So it's not gonna have that toothy kind of feel
09:30 when you bite into it.
09:31 - Pea starch.
09:32 Okay, that's where that earthiness comes from
09:34 in the cheese sauce itself.
09:36 - I think if you were to add some more cheese to the sauce,
09:38 maybe the pasta wouldn't be as overpowering
09:40 and maybe this would be a really good substitute
09:42 for people who are gluten-free.
09:43 But with the straight out of the box sauce that they have,
09:46 it's just not enough to overpower that flavor.
09:48 - Not a fan of chickpea pasta.
09:50 No.
09:51 - Daiya Deluxe Mac and Cheese, cheddar style.
09:55 - It has that nice yellow hue.
09:56 It's really coating the pasta well.
09:59 I like the ridges that are in the pasta as well
10:02 'cause ridges mean more flavor, more cheese sauce.
10:04 - The cheese sauce looks, for lack of a better term, crazy.
10:08 It's too light for the pasta itself.
10:11 It gets creamy towards the bottom
10:13 as though the sauce itself sinks.
10:15 - Hmm, interesting.
10:20 - Now that is an interesting tasting mac and cheese.
10:26 - My eyes are telling me mac and cheese,
10:29 but my mouth is saying a whole different story.
10:32 - There's definitely nutritional yeast in there.
10:33 - Quite a bit of sodium in there.
10:34 - It has this kind of thick film
10:36 that's coating my tongue as well.
10:39 I don't quite like that.
10:40 I'm gonna look at this sauce is what I'll do.
10:42 - I'm at a ballpark 'cause it looks like nacho cheese sauce.
10:46 - No cheese is this orange.
10:48 - Completely mimics a gorgeous velvety cheese sauce.
10:51 But then from a taste standpoint,
10:52 we really get a lot of nutritional yeast out of there.
10:54 There's some sweetness.
10:55 It's a product that kind of plays with your mind
10:57 a little bit because of all the way
10:59 that it looks exactly like a cheese,
11:00 but then it doesn't really taste much like a cheese.
11:02 - I think we finally got our vegan option here.
11:05 - Mm.
11:07 - Dia.
11:08 - Deliciously dairy-free.
11:11 That makes so much sense.
11:13 Pasta is a brown rice pasta.
11:15 - I'd definitely go the brown rice route over the chickpea
11:19 'cause it kind of holds up with that firmness.
11:22 - If it tasted like cheese,
11:23 I would say it was a really great mac and cheese.
11:24 It just doesn't taste like cheese.
11:26 - Outside of looks and scents, not my bag.
11:31 - 365 by Whole Foods Market, organic macaroni and cheese.
11:35 - Not as sauce-heavy as the others.
11:39 - So you don't really have as much of the gooey,
11:41 drippy, velvety texture that you would kind of want
11:43 from mac and cheese.
11:44 - It looks kind of oily, like it's starting to break apart
11:47 or on the verge of breaking.
11:49 I'm not sure if it's lacking the starch
11:52 or the fat from the cheese or the dairy.
11:55 - Some elements of seasoning there,
11:59 some elements of cheese or cheese substitute in there.
12:02 - It's not overwhelming in sweetness.
12:04 - It's one of the more bland ones we've tried so far.
12:07 - It's a bit more palatable, in my opinion.
12:09 - The sauce itself is staying the same consistency
12:12 as it started, but there just wasn't that much sauce.
12:14 - And the cheese is not here for me at all.
12:18 Just not good mac and cheese.
12:21 - Is it 365?
12:22 [laughing]
12:24 Yes!
12:26 It was giving Whole Foods, guys.
12:28 - Made with real organic cheddar cheese, huh?
12:30 I'm not tasting that, it's completely eluding me.
12:32 - I think that they just don't give you enough
12:34 in their packet to serve with the pasta.
12:36 - I'm not really getting that nice, luscious mouthfeel
12:40 that I'm looking for.
12:41 - A little bit more nuanced than Kraft.
12:42 Has more of an appeal for the adult palate,
12:45 but still good enough for the children.
12:47 You gotta feed the children.
12:49 - Stewfish, macaroni, and cheese.
12:52 - The sauce is a lot thicker than the rest.
12:55 The noodles look well-cooked,
12:58 as if you made this at home.
12:59 - For the look, I expected there to be a lot of flavor.
13:06 It's not as luxurious or velvety on my tongue
13:09 as I would expect.
13:10 You're eating with your eyes, you wanna devour this,
13:12 and then you taste it, and it's just one note and flat,
13:16 and there's nothing going on there.
13:17 As it gets colder, that sauce starts to separate
13:20 more and more, which is not very pleasing,
13:24 but overall, taste-wise, not bad.
13:27 - And you got a little bit of some sharp cheddar flavors
13:30 going on here, I kind of appreciate that.
13:32 Stop it, it's over!
13:34 - Oh, stuff it.
13:35 I knew it was gonna come sooner or later.
13:38 I did not think it would be this one.
13:41 - You gotta give 'em credit for a frozen product
13:42 in the microwave.
13:43 It really comes out with all the texture
13:45 that you would want.
13:45 Quite impressive.
13:46 They just need to work on their flavor.
13:48 - Cooked macaroni, skim milk, water, cheddar cheese.
13:52 The first four ingredients of the mac and cheese
13:56 seems legit enough for me.
13:58 - Muscle Mac, macaroni and cheese.
14:02 - Very reminiscent of a craft, the noodle shape,
14:04 the way it kind of clumps together.
14:06 I hate to use the word weird, but this is weird.
14:09 Flavor, it's a little muted, not as cheesy
14:12 as I thought it might be from scent, but it tastes good.
14:14 Doesn't really seem to have much cheese flavor in it.
14:16 - It's so gritty.
14:18 - What do we have?
14:19 (audience applauding)
14:20 Muscle Mac! - Muscle Mac.
14:22 - High protein mac and cheese.
14:23 - I've never heard of this, never seen this.
14:26 Surprisingly, it has pea protein isolate.
14:29 - The grittiness makes sense because, you know,
14:31 protein shakes.
14:32 - There was really no flavor there.
14:34 And unless you really, really love mac and cheese
14:36 and wanted to get ripped,
14:37 I don't have any reason why you would choose this
14:39 as your option, but I feel my muscles engorging already.
14:43 Not bad, Muscle Mac.
14:46 - Sabatino tartufi truffle macaroni and cheese.
14:51 This looks more like a gourmet kind of take.
14:54 - Get you a Pepe.
14:56 That's what this reminds me of.
14:57 - Pretty impressive as far as presentation.
14:59 I could smell the truffle in there.
15:02 I see some-
15:02 - Becks, which also indicates that we have fresh black pepper
15:06 involved in this.
15:07 I love this shape because it's giving something outside
15:11 of just your normal mac and cheese.
15:13 - This is kind of a smart vessel for a good mac and cheese
15:15 because of the grooves are gonna allow a lot more
15:17 of the cheese sauce to adhere to it.
15:19 The sauce is well coated on the pasta.
15:22 It looks like something you might get
15:23 in an actual restaurant.
15:24 - Definitely a mushroomy.
15:30 - And you sat this bowl right in front of me.
15:31 I would not think this is box mac and cheese.
15:34 - I wouldn't call it a mac and cheese myself,
15:35 but I would definitely eat it.
15:36 There's a lot of cheeses that will add an enhanced flavor,
15:38 but that can also stand up to the truffle,
15:39 whereas I think with a box mac and cheese,
15:41 flavor from the truffle really overpowers.
15:43 - It's not Chef Boyardee.
15:45 I know it is not, but it's good.
15:48 [laughing]
15:50 - Sabatino tartufi.
15:52 - I wish they would talk a little bit more
15:53 about what's in the cheese blend,
15:54 but they just say cheese blend.
15:56 You would need to add some cheese yourself to this
15:58 to make it really a mac and cheese.
15:59 And even if it's just grating Parmesan on top
16:00 or something like that, just to really feel more cheesy.
16:04 - It looks good.
16:05 I'll tell you that much.
16:06 But on the palate, it was missing some notes for sure.
16:11 - This is my first time trying this,
16:12 but I will be buying one today
16:14 if not taking this one home today.
16:17 [slurping]
16:19 - Nature's Promise organic macaroni and cheddar cheese.
16:22 - That beautiful neon yellow cheese-like color.
16:25 - Traditional T-shaped noodle.
16:26 - I'm not taking it to be that creamy
16:28 just by the look of it.
16:30 - The sauce sort of dissipates from the noodle.
16:32 It's not really coating very well.
16:34 - Look at the back of my spoon.
16:35 Nothing.
16:36 Kind of thick.
16:37 - Hmm.
16:40 Cheese, where are you?
16:43 Cheese, dairy, it's not in here.
16:45 That's a little bit too dry.
16:46 - It needs salt.
16:47 - Pasta's cooked very well, but that's all I taste.
16:51 - And, woo!
16:52 - Okay, Nature's Promise.
16:54 See, you know what?
16:55 They sold me a lie.
16:56 In this picture, it's sauce galore.
16:59 In this bowl, it's very dry.
17:01 - I think if they had doubled the amount of sauce
17:03 per pasta ratio, then this would actually be
17:04 a really tasty box of mac and cheese.
17:06 - If you're looking to maybe, you know, be health conscious,
17:08 this might be the one for you.
17:10 But come on, people, you're eating store-bought mac and cheese
17:12 looking for comfort, cheese, and fat.
17:14 I don't feel comforted.
17:16 I don't feel embraced with this one.
17:17 - I want this mac and cheese, okay?
17:20 Not this one.
17:20 I want the one that's on the box.
17:22 Thank you.
17:22 - Cabbage, seriously, sharp shells, and cheese.
17:27 - And back to the shells.
17:29 - Which again, is a great thing
17:30 because it gives you more cheese.
17:31 In every single bite, nice glossy sauce.
17:34 - Very wet, like water-based almost.
17:38 It actually smells creamy.
17:40 Like, there's actual milk in this product.
17:42 - Stick it to the spoon, always a good sign.
17:45 The very first thing you get is cheese.
17:53 It's sweet, which leans more towards a mild cheddar
17:56 or a white cheddar.
17:57 - Shell's really held up.
17:58 It has like a nice bite to it.
18:00 - A lot of great texture there.
18:01 Each one of the shells has a nice amount of sauce in it.
18:03 - No grittiness anywhere.
18:04 It's kind of coating my tongue,
18:06 which lets you know the fat's there, the starch is there,
18:09 and it's comforting.
18:10 - A good sign when I go in for a second bite immediately.
18:14 - So far, I'm actually digging all of the pasta
18:16 with the white sauce because I know for a fact
18:18 that it's not pumped with the additive
18:20 of annatto for coloring.
18:21 This is a more natural sense of the cheese.
18:24 - This is very similar to the Annie's as far as flavor.
18:28 Forgive me, Annie.
18:29 I actually like this one a little bit more.
18:31 - I mean, a little zhezheng with some black pepper
18:34 and some, you know, microplane parm on here
18:36 would go a long way, but what I have in front of me,
18:39 it's not bad.
18:41 - I mean, I wanna say Annie's Mac and Cheese
18:43 is better this time, but.
18:45 - Oh, cabbage, okay. - Oh, cabbage.
18:48 Oh, yes.
18:50 Good Cheese Company.
18:51 It makes a very great commercial cheddar.
18:53 We use it in a lot of the restaurants
18:54 for a lot of our sauces and stuff like that.
18:55 I did not know that this product existed.
18:57 Their cheese product just tastes like cheese.
18:59 You know, this is the one that smelled like cheese
19:00 and tastes like cheese.
19:01 It looks and smells like what it is.
19:03 That's a winner.
19:04 I'd eat that again.
19:07 For a boxed Mac and Cheese, I would,
19:09 I'd go with them.
19:10 - Doodles Cheddy Mac.
19:14 - I'm getting reminiscent vibes
19:16 of the Cheetos Mac and Cheese with this one here.
19:18 - Judging by this color,
19:20 it is definitely filled with the natto.
19:22 It is quite creamy, I'll give you that.
19:24 It coats this pasta very well.
19:27 - The holes are not very big though,
19:28 so we can't really count on much sauce
19:30 getting inside the pasta.
19:31 - On the nose, it's slightly earthy,
19:34 almost like a vegetal aroma.
19:37 - I smell butternut squash or sweet potato
19:38 or something like that,
19:39 but I don't wanna commit to that until I...
19:41 I think it's definitely a butternut squash Mac and Cheese.
19:48 - Flavor is still lingering on the taste buds,
19:51 which I like, which makes me wanna dig back into it.
19:53 - The pasta is very snappy, I'll give it that.
19:55 But immediately at the forefront is sugar.
19:58 I don't get any cheese at all.
19:59 - It's a sweetness, it's a starchiness.
20:01 I mean, it just tastes like butternut squash.
20:03 - I can see the separation.
20:04 I mean, if there's a cheese,
20:05 it's so disguised underneath,
20:06 like a very pronounced flavor
20:07 of what I think is butternut squash, but yeah.
20:09 If there is, it goes away immediately.
20:11 - Gives like this almost burnt flavor profile.
20:14 I'm really curious to know who this is
20:16 'cause I'm writing a letter to corporate
20:19 that this is not okay.
20:20 - Goodles, Cheddy Mac.
20:24 - Okay, there's pumpkin and sweet potato in here.
20:26 So I was right.
20:27 - Sweet potato, pumpkin, kale, sunflower seed,
20:30 broccoli, cranberry, my talking mushroom,
20:33 shiitake mushrooms, and then a cheddar cheese blend.
20:36 - Well, that's where the whole
20:37 vegetal quality was coming from.
20:39 Dried maple syrup.
20:40 That is an interesting sweetener for some mac and cheese,
20:43 I'll tell you that much.
20:44 - Although I think maybe that is the problem.
20:45 It's a little too sweet because the sweet potato,
20:47 the pumpkin and maple syrup, it's just overpowering.
20:49 I kind of wish you tasted all the stuff that's in here.
20:51 - It's not giving mac and cheese.
20:53 We're trying to pump so much health
20:55 into what isn't necessarily healthy.
20:58 Clean, simple ingredients goes a long way.
21:02 - It's a little bit too much for me.
21:03 [crunching]
21:05 - Cracker Barrel Macaroni and Cheese, sharp white cheddar.
21:08 - It's like quite creamy.
21:10 - Shiny, glossy.
21:12 I see those ridges peeking through.
21:13 - I like the noodle shape.
21:15 - We have the sea noodle with the large holes.
21:17 As we break through the sauce, it adheres together.
21:20 - It could be a little cheesier
21:22 'cause it's not clinging as much as I'd like it to.
21:25 - The sauce is really emulsified together nicely.
21:27 It's not breaking, it's not splitting out at all.
21:31 - Mm.
21:32 - Whoa, that's like a solid Mornay sauce.
21:35 This sauce is super velvety, I really respect that.
21:37 However.
21:38 - Not getting much cheese.
21:39 - It's kind of uncommon in some of these,
21:41 so it doesn't really mean anything.
21:43 So it's the first one that's actually,
21:44 I feel like it's a little over salted of the sauce,
21:46 but then the pasta's not so salty,
21:48 so it's like a bland pasta and very seasoned sauce.
21:51 - The saving grace is the creaminess of it
21:53 where even though the cheese is not present,
21:55 the consistency is giving me macaroni and cheese type vibes.
22:00 - Ah, Cracker Barrel!
22:02 - Cracker Barrel, which is super surprising
22:05 'cause Cracker Barrel is known for cheese.
22:07 - I grew up eating Cracker Barrel.
22:09 The cheese itself, I've never had the macaroni and cheese,
22:11 so this makes me a little happy inside,
22:13 but it still seems like there's a lot
22:15 of additives incorporated.
22:18 Feel like it could have been a lot cheesier Cracker Barrel.
22:21 - Craft mac and cheese dinner with unicorn pasta shapes.
22:25 - I was waiting for there to be some fun shapes.
22:27 I see stars, I think I see rainbows.
22:29 - Stars and sailboats, maybe?
22:32 I mean, these fun pasta shapes actually
22:34 are really quite conducive for mac and cheese
22:35 because there's a lot of holes within them,
22:37 so there's nooks and crannies to get all the sauce into.
22:40 - Straight sugar, guys.
22:44 I mean, it only makes sense.
22:45 You want your child addicted to these things.
22:47 - So this tastes like it's in the family
22:48 of the OG craft type of mac and cheeses.
22:51 You immediately get that exact same sweetness
22:53 followed by savoriness.
22:54 - It's got great texture.
22:56 It's velvety, it's smooth.
22:57 I just wish that the sauce was a little thicker.
22:59 It's almost wasted on such a fun pasta shape
23:01 because it is such a thin sauce.
23:03 I'm just gonna say a craft mac and cheese
23:05 with fun shapes, but we'll see.
23:07 - Is it craft again?
23:08 [screams]
23:10 - Oh, oh, you got me.
23:11 - To start and to end on a high note,
23:14 craft mac and cheese, of course.
23:16 - Unicorn shaped craft mac and cheese.
23:18 All right, so those sailboats were unicorns, apparently.
23:20 Honestly, the unicorn shape is better
23:22 than the traditional noodle,
23:23 just because it has more opportunities
23:25 for the sauce to get into the pastas.
23:27 - I would love to taste this type of pasta shape
23:29 with some of the other sauces that we've had
23:30 because I think that would be really fun.
23:33 - For a child, they will love it.
23:35 Let's see which products our chefs like the most
23:38 and the least.
23:39 - After today, you can say I'm macaroni and cheese out.
23:43 - My favorite of them all is Cabot.
23:45 It's just velvety, tastes good, no additives.
23:49 It's like real cheese, real milk,
23:51 all of these things that really make a good mac and cheese.
23:54 - That Cabot cheddar is quite delicious.
23:56 I think that was by far the most true cheesy flavored one.
24:00 - I'm definitely going with that Italian one,
24:01 the truffle mac and cheese, delicious.
24:04 Cheetos, I didn't know you exist.
24:06 Now I do, I'm getting you.
24:08 - For whatever reason, Cheetos, man, I don't know.
24:10 Even though the color was a little scary,
24:11 the flavor was a lot of fun.
24:12 It was very tasty.
24:13 - Let me tell you something about these Cheetos mac
24:15 and cheese because no, okay?
24:18 - I didn't care for the 365, the Trader Joe's, the Daiya.
24:22 You can keep that.
24:23 And the one at the chickpea flour.
24:25 The chickpea pasta was just too overpowering in flavor.
24:28 I think that didn't quite hit for me as well.
24:30 I hate to say this, 'cause I generally do love Annie's,
24:32 but the Annie's one was a little bit disappointing.
24:34 - If you're doing box mac and cheese,
24:36 don't skip cheese, don't skip dairy.
24:39 I'm going all in because I want to be satiated
24:41 and I want to be comforted
24:43 'cause macaroni and cheese is comfort.
24:45 If it isn't, I don't want it.
24:47 (upbeat music)