These Are The 5 Best Products At Aldi German Week 2026

Millions of people regularly go to their local Aldi for many or all of their grocery needs. The brand's focus on affordability makes it a popular choice, but tighter purse strings also mean little in the way of special events or promotions beyond weekly Aldi Finds. But even ultra-frugal Aldi has a special exemption or three.

It is once again German Week at Aldi locations nationwide. For the uninitiated, German Week is a thrice-a-year event at Aldi locations in the United States where aisles are filled with a litany of authentic German goods, an homage to the grocery chain's home country. All the items are under Aldi's Deutsche Küche brand, a name which appropriately translates to "German cuisine."

This time around, Aldi's sampling of German cuisine for Americans includes dozens of different options. The whole lot is worth a try, but some of the best products among them include some classically German dark chocolate wafers, a variety of saucy egg noodles from southern Germany, a vegetarian strudel, herbed potato sticks, and three different canned herrings.

Germany is commonly associated with fine chocolates, much like other European countries such as Switzerland and France. This is largely due to better ingredients, higher cocoa content, and more refined techniques than what's found in most American chocolates. Aldi sourcing all of its chocolate from Europe is the reason that Aldi chocolate is always so good.

This being German Week, these Dark Chocolate Covered Wafers are no exception to the rule. Crispy square wafers are gracefully coated in smooth, rich dark chocolate, with a hazelnut creme inside. Like similar German cookies, they go great with a morning or afternoon coffee, but can also be enjoyed on their own.

Dark chocolate may not be for everyone, though, and sometimes people want their chocolate experience to be more sweet-forward. For those consumers, these chocolatey wafers are also available in milk chocolate. And if you're not sure which one you want, their low price and limited availability might mean you should consider both.

Spätzle may not be the most recognizable name to American eyes, but it's actually one of the best German dishes anyone should try. Spätzle comes from the state of Swabia in southern Germany. It's a basic egg noodle dish covered in sauces, often cheese-based, hence its reputation as a sort of German macaroni and cheese.

For German Week, Aldi is carrying two types of frozen spätzle: a Cheese variety with a sauce made of mozzarella and raclette, and Garlic Sage featuring a sauce of those two ingredients plus mozzarella cheese.

Spätzle noodles may be a bit more irregular than most mass-produced pasta, to give the dish an authentically rustic charm. But as Germans know, the rougher cut of these egg noodles is also great for clinging to sauce. The bite may be a bit chewier than mac and cheese connoisseurs are familiar with, but the flavor will have them eagerly awaiting the next German Week.

Canned food can sometimes have a poor reputation for the contents having a taste that can only be described as canned, but that's no reason to exclude it from your life, even canned fish. There are so many excellent ways to use tinned fish, from a simple pasta to topping toast or ramen, making fish cakes, soups, pizzas, and much more. 

Aldi's German Week features a line of canned herring filets that come in either tomato, pineapple curry, or mango pepper sauces. Germany may seem like an odd culture for curry to some, but Germans actually love the stuff, so don't let the apparent mismatch scare you off.

Each of these canned herrings has terrific culinary potential, as either the star ingredient in a bigger dish or just a quick snack or small meal on its own. The tomato sauce variety may be a safer choice for a wider variety of dishes, but the other two can make for some adventurous sandwiches, spreads, or wherever your imagination takes you.

If there's one food Germany knows well, it's potatoes. The hearty spud shows up all over German cuisine, from fries with currywurst to traditional potato dumplings and pancakes. And much like America, the power of the potato also reaches into German snacking trends.

Aldi's Deutsche Küche brand has two varieties of bagged potato sticks for German Week. What appears to be the plain version is labeled Hash Brown Style, just a bag of thin, crispy potato sticks. For a little more flavor, reach for the curiously named Herbs of the Alps option, which fans say tastes similar to garlic and herb seasoning blends.

They're a somewhat plain and underrated snack, but there's more you can do with potato sticks like these than eat them straight. They make an obvious side dish choice for sandwiches, but consider putting them directly on a sandwich for an added salty crunch. They also make great fillings for wraps or burritos, sort of like a potato-based tortilla strip.

Strudel is perhaps one of the best-known German foods to international audiences. Americans may be most familiar with the ubiquitous (but not very authentic) Toaster Strudel line of breakfast pastries. But this Aldi offering is several steps above Pillsbury's quick breakfast sweets.

Each Spinach and Ricotta Strudel box comes with two frozen strudels, packed with a tantalizing amount of real spinach and ricotta cheese. Each one weighs about ⅓ pound, significantly more than a serving of Toaster Strudel.

These big pastries can be eaten as an appetizer or especially filling snack, but their hefty size means you can also make a meal out of them. For the cheese lovers reading this, consider pairing them with some of Aldi's spätzle. They could also go nicely with a soup made from one of Aldi's canned herring options. German Week doesn't have to just be for novelty foods; you can plan meals with it, too.