5 Store-Bought Lemon Meringue Pies, Ranked Worst To Best

A classic lemon meringue pie can be a thing of beauty. Equal parts silky and tart, this citrus-focused dessert is as well-suited to a summer barbecue as it can be for an elegant multi-course meal. The key features that make this pie so distinctive include the delicate, sweet-and-tart lemon curd base, and a perfectly crafted meringue, which should hold its shape and have a satisfying, velvety mouthfeel. 

Though you can certainly try your hand at making one at home, using some baker-approved tips for your lemon meringue pie, this isn't a recipe for the novice chef. It requires patience, skill, and, occasionally, a little luck. If that sounds like too much effort for you, there is a solution that may be quicker, easier, and tastier — hitting your local grocery store and buying one. 

Though something of an old-timey dessert, there are still a number of grocery stores that produce lemon meringue pies in-house, or offer frozen ones from well-known brands, like Marie Callender's. If you're hoping to snag one before your next dinner party, you may want to know which store-bought offering is worth the investment and which might leave you feeling more of a bitter taste in your mouth than what you're getting from the lemons alone. To help take the sting out of trying to find a great lemon meringue pie, let us do the heavy chewing. Some of the best, store-bought lemon meringue pies may just surprise you. 

Perhaps it should be no surprise to anyone that a sugar-free pie would land at the bottom of this ranking, but I had higher hopes for this offering. The No Sugar Added Lemon Meringue Pie from Rocky Mountain Pies was on sale at my local Schnucks. Aesthetically, the pie was quite appealing, having that perfectly fluffy, shiny meringue top that's delicately browned, and a crust that was just baked well enough to have a golden hue to it, all of which was quite promising. 

However, the moment I opened the pie's plastic container, I knew we had a problem. This pie had zero aroma — zilch. I also detected some liquid that had pooled at the bottom of the container, which tells me the meringue wasn't properly set up. Nonetheless, I cut a slice of the pie and dug in. 

Among the many flaws of this pie was that the layers didn't hold together when I tucked in. The meringue pulled right off the curd, while that separated from the crust. The meringue itself was super spongy, almost like styrofoam, while the curd was sickeningly sweet, with hardly any tart elements to offset the sugar. While the crust was actually fairly well done, it couldn't save this pie. Lastly, my mouth was filled with a rather unpleasant artificial aftertaste that didn't want to quit after I tasted this pie. For all of these reasons, it placed dead last in this ranking.

In second-to-last place on this ranking is the Lemon Meringue pie from the well-known Marie Callender's brand. Having previously ranked every pie from this brand, I have a unique insider perspective that perhaps made me slightly biased, giving me expectations that were potentially unfair. I expected greatness and was admittedly disappointed by what I got here. 

Let me be clear, it isn't that this pie was bad, per se, but it wasn't great either. While the aroma of this pie was much more distinctively that of, well, pie, and the pie itself was visually pleasing, the texture and flavor were ... less so. The crust of this pie was mediocre at best. it was thin and brittle, falling apart when I sliced the pie. It also had a slightly synthetic taste that I didn't especially enjoy. 

As for the filling, the lemon curd itself was a decent balance between sweet and tart, but still had a distinctive artificiality I didn't love. The topping, which should be a meringue, was more akin to marshmallow fluff. Though it was tasty, it wasn't meringue, which meant this pie lost points from me strictly on the basis of execution (I'm a former professional chef so I'm a traditionalist). Overall, this pie was certainly edible, but nothing to write home about. 

When it comes to baked goods, the grocery chain Hy-Vee typically fares well in most areas. The key word here is "typically," as its Lemon Meringue Pie had some notable flaws that placed it squarely in the middle of this ranking. The first issue I had with this pie was the excessive moisture that had collected at the bottom of the plastic packaging. This wasn't just ordinary condensation. Instead, it was a veritable swimming pool of moisture that not only rendered the crust soggy, but made a huge mess on the countertop as I unearthed the pie to cut a slice out of it. 

Another issue with the crust was that it almost appeared underbaked. It was incredibly pale and almost doughy, despite the fact that the flavor itself was more homemade-tasting, with notes of butter, but a tad on the salty side. This made the pie virtually impossible to slice cleanly. 

The filling was unique in that there was more curd to meringue in this pie than the others, which was something I actually enjoyed as it felt better balanced. The curd itself was a perfect silky texture, with a flavor with equal parts tart and sweet, as it should be. When it came to the meringue, it was the right texture, fluffy and light, and it did have a decent nutty flavor. Had this filling been in a better pastry shell, this pie might have snuck into the top spot. 

Just eking its way into the top two was the Lemon Meringue Pie from Schnuck's bakery. While this pie had some better qualities to it, it was still flawed in a couple of notable ways. Let's start with the positives, though. The aroma of this pie was buttery, and it did have a nice-looking meringue. The curd was quite pleasant, having a more natural quality to it, with notes of actual lemon juice and a tempered sweetness that just counterbalanced the tartness. I also enjoyed the ratio of curd-to-meringue-to-crust of this pie. It gave it a well-balanced mouthful in each bite. 

My biggest pet peeves about this pie, though, were the crust and the meringue. The crust was just a tad underdone and soggy. That said, it did have a nice flavor that didn't feel artificial. The meringue was a bit spongy, lacking some of that velvetiness you might expect, as if it had been slightly overbeaten. But, again, the flavor was decent, so I couldn't totally discount it.

Overall, while this wasn't a perfect pie by any stretch of the imagination, it was a solid choice that I'd at least consider eating a full slice of. it just wasn't good enough to land in the top slot in this ranking. 

The highest-ranked pie on this list was one I didn't anticipate performing well, which is a good lesson for me in curbing my implicit biases. Walmart's Freshness Guaranteed Lemon Meringue Pie was fresh, and it guaranteed flavor — two things I don't often associate with this store. Let me be entirely clear that this wasn't a textbook example of what a homemade lemon meringue pie should be, but of the ones I tried, it did perform markedly better on all fronts. 

From the moment I took the lid off the packaging, this pie had a pleasant aroma, slightly sweet and buttery. When sliced, this pie held together really well, with the crust intact and the layers of filling remaining a unified team. The crust itself, while pale in appearance, had a great taste and texture. It was flaky, tender, and buttery — just what I'd expect from a freshly baked pie. The curd had a smooth, luxurious texture and a flavor that was more on the tart side, like a key lime pie, but still sweet enough to be pleasant and to offset the meringue. 

Speaking of which, the meringue was the best of the bunch. It was exactly what you expect a quality meringue to look and taste like. It was glossy, firm, and smooth. In the world of store-bought pies, Walmart exceeded my expectations and came out on top. 

Finding lemon meringue pies at grocery stores in Central Illinois during September proved to be somewhat challenging, but I managed to locate five of them after visiting 10 stores. I kept the pies in a cooler with ice packs, to prevent the meringue from melting, and got them home to safety. I sampled them the next morning after thawing the pie from Marie Callender's overnight in the refrigerator. 

The criteria that was most important to me as a former professional chef was the execution of the crust and meringue, both of which can make or break this type of pie. I also factored in the texture and flavor of the components of the pie. Lastly, I looked at how well the pie sliced into pieces, as this is important when you're trying to serve it at a gathering (unless you plan to turn eating a pie into a group activity by handing each attendee a fork and letting them have at it, or are simply planning on a pie throwing contest). 

Overall, I'd argue that you'd probably be better off sourcing a lemon meringue pie from a local bakery, but in a pinch, you can rest assured that there are some decent options out there to satisfy your sweet tooth. If none of these suffice, you might want to try one of these hacks to take a store-bought pie up a notch.