Bacon: It’s a breakfast staple that many Americans will have on hand in their refrigerator, ready to serve alongside eggs or slot into a BLT sandwich. Head to any supermarket, and there can be a nearly mind-boggling number of selections to choose between with no shortage of small differences. You can get it wood-smoked, cured, uncured, and thick- or thin-cut, and that’s without getting into the non-pork varieties like turkey bacon.
To help you figure it all out, Chowhound writer Katie Melynn broke out her frying pan to rate 12 of the most common bacon brands. She looked for a combination of taste and texture while also considering factors like price and how well the bacon cooks in the oven, not just in the pan. Trader Joe’s uncured, dry-rubbed bacon came out on top, helped by a good balance of fat to meat and given a flavor boost by a spice rub. At the other end of the scale was Sugardale’s thick-cut bacon, which landed in last place. The big issue was flavor: While Melynn said she expected that even the lowest-ranking bacons would still be at least somewhat tasty, Sugardale’s version was “bland and too chewy.”
The other cons of Sugardale bacon (and one pro)
A further problem with Sugardale’s bacon is its thick-cut slices: They’re simply too thick to crisp up well in either the pan or the oven. There’s also no extra flavoring added through a process like smoking, which doesn’t help the taste. Even the packaging isn’t ideal. The bacon slices are partially stacked up on top of each other, making them harder to separate than other brands that spaced them out a little.
Other reviewers have flagged similar issues with Sugardale’s bacon: It’s been criticized as too salty, and some consumers have found that it has far too much fat, which leads to a less-than-ideal texture.
All of this said, Melynn could scrape together one redeeming feature for this bacon: It’s certainly budget-friendly, with a 40-ounce package going for just $10. That means it’s potentially useful for feeding a crowd — other brands in her review came in at prices like $5 to $8 for 12 ounces, and Sugardale is just a fraction of the price of its competitors. Unfortunately, it seems that in this case, the low price may reflect the quality of the product.
