To any home baker, cheesecake is known as a high-maintenance dessert that’s easy to mess up. It requires time, patience, and precision, but even then it can come out of the oven cracked or burned. On the days when you don’t have the patience for all of that, a quick and totally acceptable way to satisfy your cravings is a good frozen cheesecake from the store. Emphasis on good; if you drive to Walmart and buy their Great Value whipped cheesecake, you’ll be sorely disappointed. Despite its budget-friendly price and aesthetically pleasing looks, the cheesecake is just not worthy of the name — or your money. Our very own Sara Klimek tested six frozen store-bought cheesecakes and found Walmart’s whipped cheesecake to be the worst of the bunch.
Perhaps the greatest indicator that Walmart has really missed the mark with this cheesecake is that over half of the reviews on its official product page are one-star ratings. Customers are very displeased by the flavor, saying it doesn’t even resemble the taste of a real cheesecake. They report the cake tastes like sweetened whipped cream, with no notes of cream cheese whatsoever. Even if you’re a staunch lover of whipped cream, you’ll want to hold off on this cake. Several disappointed buyers said the overall flavor was simply weird, unnatural, and off. The consensus is therefore loud and clear: The cheesecake doesn’t taste good, and most people firmly stated they regretted their purchase.
Read more: 30 Popular Frozen Pizzas, Ranked Worst To Best
There’s No Great Value In Walmart’s Frozen Cheesecake
In addition to the poor flavor, Walmart’s cheesecake falls short on texture. The filling doesn’t have an appropriate thickness, as it’s too loose and melty for this type of dessert. Much like the flavor, it resembles straight whipped cream. This is in stark contrast to the crust, which is (ironically enough) on the opposite side of the texture spectrum: It’s hard, thick, and very unpleasant to eat.
One of the best things about frozen cheesecakes is that there’s no baking required, you simply have to thaw them. Customers complained in large numbers that Great Value’s cheesecake thaws miserably. Many have found a pool of thick, slimy liquid at the bottom of the cake after thawing it in the fridge, with one reviewer calling it “a soggy disaster.” This thawed liquid was the main reason several people decided to completely toss the cheesecake, finding the slime incredibly gross and off-putting.
Despite the name, there was no great value found in this tragedy of a cheesecake. So, you and your wallet will both be better off if it stays out of your shopping cart.
Read the original article on Tasting Table.