Ranking 11 Apple Cider Vinegar Brands from Worst to Best

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Because it is such a unique and inimitable product, there aren’t many good substitutes for apple cider vinegar. Sure, you can swap another vinegar into your dish in place of it, or splash a little apple juice into a concoction to give it that applejack kick, but there’s no true replacement for this ancient ingredient. And apple cider vinegar really is ancient – Hippocrates prescribed a combination of it and honey to treat coughs, colds, and other seasonal illnesses. Turns out, people have been letting their apple cider go bad for a long, long time.

The flavor of apple cider vinegar does a lot of heavy lifting in the kitchen. It’s an integral part of many sauces and dressings. It’s the ideal vinegar in homemade ketchup and the perfect fix for too-sweet fruit juice. But that said, any product experiences a lot of variation between brands, so we set out to determine which apple cider vinegar was best. Accordingly, we bought and ranked 11 of them, then explained our thinking here for your enjoyment and culinary benefit.

First up, Kroger. At $1.49 for 16 ounces, we fully expected this so-called apple cider vinegar to taste like cleaning fluid. It did, and ranked lowest accordingly. There are honestly almost too many strikes against this one to list them, but we shall dutifully try.

First, it was one of the only two vinegars that came in plastic. Second, it does not contain the mother. This cloudy, stringy, bacteria-yeast community is where a lot of the probiotic goodness of apple cider vinegar comes from, as well as containing lots of enzymes and nutrients. We want the mother! Third, it tastes like white vinegar that has been flavored, which … why does it taste like that if it’s actually fermented apple cider? Fourth, the bottle is ugly, and I’m sorry, but aesthetics matter. And fifth, you can’t source it that easily.

Okay, fine, so that wasn’t too many to list. Regarding the fifth strike, we could not find this one on Amazon, and they didn’t have it at several of the smaller groceries we went to, which focused on the more upscale apple cider vinegar products. However, you will find it in any decently big conventional grocery store that carries Kroger products, such as Fred Meyer (where we got it). Honestly, though, it hardly matters because you should never, ever look for it.

Wherever possible in our taste tests, we always try to include a Trader Joe’s product. As of 2025, there are more than 600 TJ’s stores in the United States, making it one of the most reliably accessible brands to many American shoppers. Plus, its products are always consistent and affordable. In this case, the latter is certainly true. You can get a 16.9-ounce bottle of apple cider vinegar for $2.49, which is hardly highway robbery … unlike some of our options that ranked more highly.

Regarding the former, the product is most likely consistent as well. Unfortunately, it’s consistently bad. No, it’s downright nasty. So, so nasty. It’s Kroger-level bad, and that’s saying something, because Kroger has an ugly bottle, isn’t organic, doesn’t have the mother, and just generally isn’t pretending to be something it’s not … and if there’s one thing we dislike in food packaging, it’s pretense. It does have the mother, at least, so it might be a little healthier for you.

As far as where to get it, TJ’s products are only available at TJ’s, so you usually can’t buy their goods online unless you hunt hard and pay extravagantly, which … why would you? Trader Joe’s stores are almost as common as Starbucks, and their in-store prices are super reasonable. But, in this case, as with Kroger, you shouldn’t buy it anyway.

With Heinz, we are only barely climbing out of the depths, but the flavor is still somewhat of an improvement over the two brands that ranked at the bottom. The price is about equivalent to Kroger at $3.99 for 32 ounces, and the color is a bit more inviting: a rich, amber hue that looked more believable than Kroger as well.

However, that’s where the benefits ended. While the bottle labels Heinz as the “all-natural choice for food,” the claim is a big lie in the case of this vinegar. As we’ve said before, it tasted like white vinegar that had been dyed, albeit a more convincing cider color this time, but the truth will still come out as soon as you taste it. This is not a place to save money.

Once again, this brand didn’t include the mother, which is why it’s so nice and clear. Honestly, there’s no real telling if this makes a significant health difference, but it does seem to matter to flavor, at least in the sense that the rest of the brands that ranked higher than this one do contain it. Or maybe it just means that cheap brands don’t give you the mother because it can be used to make more vinegar. Whatever the case, you can buy Heinz All Natural Apple Cider Vinegar online, but we don’t recommend it.

We were excited about this one. It has such an adorable bottle, with a very convincing granny type on the cover. Plus, in our family, we know this brand from their reduced balsamic vinegars, which are crazy good. For instance, Nonna Pia’s Balsamic Glaze Variety Pack is absolutely worth buying and pouring straight onto your salad, no vinaigrette required.

Our positive associations aside, this brand had a lot of good things going for it. It’s raw, unpasteurized, and organic, which gives you a better chance of getting the full nutrient potential out of your vinegar consumption, since the pasteurization process often kills microbes. (That is, in fact, the entire point.) It tasted nice enough, but it was a bit boring compared to the complex flavor of winning-er products — more like slightly updated white vinegar than anything else. We really wanted to like it, in other words, but we’ll probably stick with our reduced balsamic products when it comes to this brand, especially considering the $5.99 price tag. This pulled it down overall.

One factor to note, however, is the pour spout. Among the vinegars we tried, this was by far the easiest to measure out without spilling everywhere. If you do want to get it, you’ll find it at most health food stores, or you can buy Nonna Pia’s Apple Cider Vinegar online in a six-pack, but that’s a real commitment.

In a range of different taste tests, we have found 365 by Whole Foods Market to be a reliable brand. It is usually of middle-of-the-road flavor with higher-than-average quality, and that was more or less true here, though ranked a bit lower than the others because of its flavor. The vinegar, which costs $3.19 for a 16-ounce bottle, is raw, unfiltered, unpasteurized, and comes with the mother. It tasted fairly cider-y but not too vinegary for us, so it wouldn’t be nice to drink, though it would be great in a salad dressing.

If you want to buy it online, you’ll find 365 by Whole Foods Market Organic Apple Cider Vinegar easy to get. However, we didn’t see any options to have it shipped straight from Amazon. Rather, you can get it added to your groceries through Amazon Fresh or your local Whole Foods Market.

The simple truth of Simple Truth Organic Apple Cider Vinegar is that … it’s simply not that great. We never expected much, considering it only cost $2.29 for a 16-ounce plastic bottle. In fairness to it, it had a better pour spout than some, which made it less spilly. That’s always appreciated, especially when you’re trying to pour it into a spoon for a taste test.

However, it was definitely an improvement in flavor over some of the others, or at least so we thought. (We tasted it right after we tasted Kroger, so at that point, anything would have tasted decent.) Still, it had more cider flavor than some of the other ones, had a bit of cloudiness that indicated the presence of the mother, and was definitely smoother than Heinz and Kroger, which, as stated, tasted like they’d been made to clean toilets. Simple Truth is Kroger’s natural and organic line, so you can find it in Kroger stores like Fred Meyer. 

The Kirkland Signature Apple Cider Vinegar was notable in that it cost $8.99 for three 32-ounce bottles rather than just one. Compare the $3 average to Heinz, which costs $3.99 for one 32-ounce bottle. Unlike Heinz, though, it didn’t smell and taste like something you would use to give a cat a flea bath. It was apple-y, and not too sour, though it wasn’t as good as any Bragg product — all four of which snagged the top rankings. It also comes with the mother and has a lovely golden color.

If you want to have lots of apple cider vinegar on hand, either because you cook with it a lot or use it for cleaning applications, this is definitely the winner vis-à-vis price. You do have to have a Costco membership to get it, though. In some places, you can get it shipped to your house, while in others, you might have to traipse into the store.

This is the OG apple cider vinegar that we keep in our house. Unlike its three flavored cousins, about which you’ll learn more shortly, it costs $8.99 for 32 ounces of raw, unfiltered, organic, and unpasteurized vinegar. This is the first one on this list that genuinely tastes like real food. It’s mellow, flavorful, and a bit fiery, but in a good way. This vinegar is perfect for any and all cooking applications, and is a good blend of tasty (like the options to come) and affordable (like the previous ones).

Bragg USDA Organic Raw Apple Cider Vinegar is more expensive online than it is at the store for us, but only by a few bucks. It also comes in a variety of flavors, all of which are good (again, more on that shortly). Typically, at least some of the flavors are disappointing compared to the original, but all three of the Bragg spinoffs are excellent, which, in our opinion, is a credit to the brand as a whole.

It’s no coincidence that the three flavored Bragg apple cider vinegar options ranked in the top three spots. Whatever they’re doing over there at Bragg, they’re doing it well, and the flavorings really take things to the next level. You’ve got to be willing to pay for it, however, because each of these 16-ounce bottles costs $8.99. Yikes.

That said, these are really good, starting with the Bragg Organic Honey Cayenne Apple Cider Vinegar. This one brings the kick, for real. It is hawttttt, but incredibly tasty. We could detect both the honey and the cayenne, which would be wonderful in dressings, marinades, chicken, tofu, or seafood. This flavor was also pleasant enough to sip on.

Here is probably a good place to note that flavored apple cider vinegars like this one are often billed as tools for cleansing your body, and you should be careful when using them as such. There is some evidence that suggests that getting more vinegar is a great way to fortify your digestive tract, because the mother is a probiotic. However, there are dangers in taking this advice too literally. For one thing, apple cider vinegar is hard on your tooth enamel if you regularly consume it undiluted. For another, it can aggravate the lining of your esophagus. That’s why you should never drink apple cider vinegar straight. If you’re going to take it as a health aid, make sure you mix it with water and drink it through a straw.

Here’s another high-ticket apple cider vinegar that we can’t recommend enough. While it’s pricey like its brethren (costing $8.99), it is flavorful, smooth, deeply colored, and all the right kinds of gingery and citrusy. It’s perfect for marinades, dressings, or even just to make your bowl of rice a bit tastier. However, if you dilute apple cider vinegar in water as a morning tonic, you might want to skip this one … it’s a serious punch to the mouth, which many people might not appreciate before they’ve had their coffee. Similarly, if you don’t like ginger, you should avoid putting it in anything where the flavor will stand out, because it is very ginger-forward.

Getting these online is a bit hit or miss and seems to be dependent on whether you can get yours through a grocery delivery service. You can find Bragg Organic Apple Cider Vinegar Citrus Ginger Blend online, but this isn’t the case with all of them. Plus, they are even more expensive than in the store, for some mysterious e-commerce reason that we don’t really understand. If you’re going to buy these, buy them in person. You’ll find them at almost every shop, from big box to Asian market to health food hole-in-the-wall, so there’s no need to look elsewhere.

Last but the opposite of least, Bragg Organic Honey Apple Cider Vinegar is the big winner. Even though it’s still expensive at $8.49, we ranked it No. 1 because it ticks every single box that Kroger failed to nail: It came in glass. It contains the mother. It tastes like what it is, which is pure apple cider vinegar. It has an appealing bottle (though beauty is certainly in the eye of the beholder). And you can find it at several stores.

Before this taste test, I never could have imagined myself saying, “OMG, I love that vinegar!” Because, really, who says that? But OMG … I love this vinegar. I’ve become “that” person, the person who evangelizes about vinegar, and I don’t even have any regrets. We thought this was the best one by a mile. If you were going to drink one every day, this one is a good option, with a nice, mild flavor, a smooth finish, and a pleasantly piquant tang.

Plus, because it has no spicy elements such as cayenne and ginger, you could easily put it in a dressing or marinade, just as you could a traditional apple cider vinegar. The honey is only a bonus, because it smooths the flavor well. Although this is more expensive than many other kinds, one typically doesn’t go through apple cider vinegar fast enough to worry overmuch about cost. So we say, wholeheartedly and without reservation, buy it.

There are two components in making a taste test as objective as possible. First, we had to acquire a representative group of products by visiting enough stores to get a good sampling. To collect these 11 vinegars, we visited six different stores, making sure to get both Kirkland and Trader Joe’s brands since those are available pretty much anywhere in the United States.

Second, we had to establish the factors we would use to rank the products against one another. This is pretty easy in the case of, say, peanut butter or chocolate cake, where everyone pretty much knows what they want the product to taste like. With apple cider vinegar, though, most folks aren’t consuming it on its own and so haven’t spent a lot of time considering what makes a “good” apple cider vinegar. It’s just an ingredient that lives in the cabinet until needed in something else. (Cue tiny violin.)

Some debate ensued, but in the end, we felt it was only fair to the vinegars that we taste them plain and with food. Thus, we tried a bit on a spoon and also dipped a leaf of baby spinach into each one. As far as ranking factors go, we used flavor, smoothness, and color. Although we initially thought it would be hard to tell them apart, we were surprised at how easily we ranked them on just a quick taste test. Yes, there really is that much of a difference!