I Tried 5 Cans of Cranberry Sauce To Find the One Worth Buying for Thanksgiving

I didn’t fully embrace the traditional Thanksgiving spread until my 30s. I knew turkey was a staple, and potatoes of all kinds had a home on my plate. But cranberry sauce? I never saw the need for it. I loved a salty-savory holiday feast and didn’t crave the cold, tart shock of cranberry sauce.

Eventually, though, my palate began to seek that perfect combination of sweet, savory, and tangy. I wanted—no, needed—cranberry sauce sliced from its can-shaped loaf. 

Ocean Spray is the most ubiquitous canned cranberry sauce at the grocery store. But is it the best cranberry sauce? I bought and taste-tested five different brands to assess each one’s tartness, smoothness, and, of course, jiggliness.

Cranberry sauce is easy to make at home, and there are plenty of whole berry cranberry sauces that don’t come out of the can as one thick, translucent log. Neither of those varietals will be addressed here. I shall be focusing entirely on the ridged cylinder that can be sliced into rounds for easy spreading on turkey and stuffing—and I will not apologize for that.

The Cranberry Sauce I Tested

You’d think it would be complex to achieve this wiggly wonder of a side dish, but the five brands I tested had only slight variations on the same formula. 

Here’s a closer look at the ingredients list for each one:

• 365 Organic (Whole Foods): Organic cranberries, organic cane sugar, filtered water, organic lemon juice concentrate 
• Kroger: Cranberries, high fructose corn syrup, filtered water, corn syrup, citric acid
• Ocean Spray: Cranberries, high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, water
• Simple Truth Organic (Kroger): Organic cranberries, organic sugar, filtered water, organic lemon juice concentrate 
• Sweet Harvest (Aldi): Cranberries, high fructose corn syrup, filtered water, corn syrup, citric acid

The sugar content in each can was virtually identical. The only real deviation was Ocean Spray, with 10 more calories per quarter-cup serving (120 vs. the 110 of other brands). We’re not interested in counting calories here, but that difference points to the fact that Ocean Spray’s product contains a higher concentration of corn syrup. “Water” is listed dead last on its label, indicating that it’s the most sparingly used ingredient. 

Price-wise, however, they tended to vary more widely. 365 Organic cranberry sauce at Whole Foods will set you back nearly twice as much as a can from Aldi. Here’s what I paid for each can in Chicago:

• 365 Organic: $2.99
• Kroger: $1.99
• Ocean Spray: $2.49
• Simple Truth Organic: $2.79
• Sweet Harvest (Aldi): $1.59

So we know the brands, the prices, and the nutrition facts. Let’s get to the most important part: how each cranberry sauce tastes. 

Ocean Spray

Ocean Spray is the most widely consumed brand of cranberry sauce in the United States, so let’s start here. As noted, its higher concentration of corn syrup means it’s remarkably solid, exiting the can with an authoritative gasp of air. Slicing it into rounds, the jelly was velvety smooth and shiny.

For all that corn syrup, though, it doesn’t taste too sweet. The top note is tartness, which carries all the way through and lingers. There’s a faint note of artificiality on the end, like you get after eating a bag of fruit snacks. But that’s only true if you eat the cranberry sauce on its own (y’know, like a fruit snack). Paired with salty turkey and savory gravy, the flavors meld as they’re supposed to. 

Sweet Harvest

The most inexpensive option comes from Aldi, and its flavor is perfectly fine—but avoid this brand if you’re looking to serve perfect sliced rounds. It had by far the most liquid on top when the can is opened, and the contents came out in a few pieces rather than an unbroken whole. 

This sauce is distinctly more textured than Ocean Spray, verging almost on grainy, but not in an unappetizing way. There’s less tartness here, and a mild fruity flavor. Ultimately, you might find that it doesn’t quite hold its own when paired with a well-brined turkey.

Kroger

This one tumbled its way out of the can with authority. It has most of the same sheen and cohesion as the Ocean Spray cylinder, but with a slightly more ragged surface from being unsheathed. Its tartness is again less pronounced, but it’s not quite as grainy as Sweet Harvest. As the second-cheapest variety, Kroger is the best budget option. 

Simple Truth Organic

This one had the closest approximation of Ocean Spray’s gelatinous solidity, but with an important distinction: lots of visible cranberry fragments throughout each slice. Its fruit flavor was more pronounced than Sweet Harvest or Kroger, which, in the absence of a strong tartness, is what you want. For an infusion of sweet without much sour, Simple Truth Organic is the move. 

365 Organic

This one exited the can nearly flawlessly, though Ocean Spray still has it beat. It contained lots of fruit flecks like Simple Truth Organic, but its fruit flavor was no more pronounced, and with an identical ingredient list, coming in at 20 cents more expensive than Simple Truth means it didn’t provide a compelling reason to buy. 

The Best Canned Cranberry Sauce

Ocean Spray gives the people what they want, at a price that’s right down the middle. Cranberry sauce is meant to be tart, and that’s what this brand delivers more than any other; the sugar never gets in the way of the tart, tangy cranberry flavor.

If there are picky eaters in your party who might want something more on the sweet side, Simple Truth Organic is the way to go, if you don’t mind shelling out the extra 30 cents per can. But most budget options will leave you longing for Ocean Spray, which is a classic for a reason. Might as well stick with it!

_{To learn more about our approach to product recommendations, see HERE.}