Not Sam's Club, Not Costco: The Worst Chocolate Syrup Comes From This Grocery Chain

Making your own chocolate syrup to drizzle over waffles and ice cream sundaes isn't as difficult as you might think. Simply heat together a mixture of cocoa, sugar, salt, and hot water until thickened, allow it to cool, and pour that chocolatey elixir over your fluffy stack of pancakes (you can even add a drizzle of chocolate syrup to coffee to make it richer and sweeter). However, if you grew up squeezing store-bought chocolate sauce into glasses of milk, there's something wonderfully nostalgic about having a bottle of pre-made stuff ready to go in your pantry. That said, there's one grocery chain option you should avoid, and surprisingly, it wasn't from  Sam's Club or Costco but from Aldi. The loser in our ranking of 10 chocolate syrup brands, the German grocer's Berryhill chocolate-flavored syrup simply wasn't chocolatey enough.

While Aldi's offering boasts an affordable price tag at $2.85 per bottle, it doesn't stand up to the quality of the other contenders, such as Torani's Puremade dark chocolate sauce or even Nesquick's syrup. The worst thing about it was that the first three ingredients didn't feature cocoa. A mixture of high fructose corn syrup, regular corn syrup, and water, the cocoa in the recipe actually came fourth in line, followed by several artificial ingredients, like preservatives and emulsifiers. Perhaps this was why it missed the mark when it came to flavor, texture, and aroma.

Aldi's Berryhill chocolate syrup has some poor reviews online. For instance, one Facebook commenter said the syrup is "surprisingly bad. I love everything from Aldi but can't do this or the Worcestershire," triggering several other shoppers to recommend making a homemade version with additions like cinnamon, instant coffee powder, or even cayenne. Meanwhile, another Facebooker said, "I got hooked on Hershey's syrup too recently and bought the Aldi dupe. Does not cut it!!! The only way I've managed to use it is to add it in as a boost to Swiss Miss instant hot cocoa packets." 

However, on a different Facebook thread comparing Berryhill versus Hershey's chocolate syrup, one shopper said the Aldi version is "fine, but my favorite of them all is the Trader Joe's midnight moo. Puts all other chocolate syrups to shame." This tallies up with our findings too – the best chocolate syrup in our taste test happened to be the very same product from Trader Joe's, which beat stiff competition from heritage brands like Hershey's and Ghirardelli. Free from high fructose corn syrup and unpronounceable additives, TJ's syrup was rich and creamy, making it worth the slightly extra expense.