What's the best brand of frozen fruit?

[jrshaul]

I've got some recipes that require blackberries and blueberries, and I'm wondering what brand is the best. All of these are admittedly out of season, but even the appropriate time of the year they're mind-bogglingly expensive.

[JAZ]

I've been trying several brands of berries, and Dole is the best of the brands I've had. Cascade Farms is pretty good; Trader Joe's mixed berries were disappointing, and my supermarket brand is mostly pretty bad (blueberries are decent but raspberries are vile).

[jrshaul]

I've been trying several brands of berries, and Dole is the best of the brands I've had. Cascade Farms is pretty good; Trader Joe's mixed berries were disappointing, and my supermarket brand is mostly pretty bad (blueberries are decent but raspberries are vile).

That's good to hear - Dole is as ubiquitous as anyone could ask for. Any thoughts on particular varieties of berries?

[Chris Hennes]

I use the Dole strawberries in smoothies: they are flavorful and tart (which I like). I have not tried either the blackberries or blueberries, I'm afraid.

[Fat Guy]

I've got to hand it to the Dole people, they do really good frozen fruit. I believe I've tried every variety and had no complaint. And Trader Joe's frozen fruit is surprisingly bad, given how great a lot of TJ's stuff is.

[Chris Hennes]

Steven, have you tried the Dole pineapple? I found that in smoothies at least it had an oddly unpleasant aftertaste.

[Fat Guy]

I've used the Dole pineapple and not noticed that, but pineapple is also the only TJ's frozen-fruit product I find acceptable so I've been using that. I also use a no-brand 5-pound bag of frozen strawberries that they sell at Fairway, where I shop. And I use some Richfood products, because they're the cheapest and they're fine. I use frozen fruit exclusively for blended things, usually mixed-fruit smoothies or frozen desserts, so I'm not absolutely committed to every ingredient being the best. I also look at price and will generally do a mix of fresh and frozen, as well as fruit that I've frozen myself (bananas especially).

[JTravel]

I really like the house brand at Aldi, their red raspberries are $2.89 for a pound bag. Sam's Club has bigger bags of Dole, but they get icy when I keep them too long. I use them for blended things and also I use them frozen instead of ice cubes in my Wegmans Wedge (grapefruit soda.)

[VibeGuy]

I'm a fan of Wyler's frozen wild blueberries. I like them a bit better than the TJs ones, which are frankly, pretty good.

[DanM]

Costco has a decent mixed berry blend that I use for smoothies. It comes in 5 lbs bags, so freezer burn is an issue if you don't use it quickly.

Dan

[Fat Guy]

I've liked the Costco fruit, quality-wise, the couple of times I've tried it, and I've got no problem with the quantity because it gets eaten. I have two issues with Costco fruit, though: First, I don't like blends. Any combining I do, I like to do myself. Second, the travel time to Costco for me is too much for frozen food, unless I go through the acrobatics of putting a cooler and ice packs into the car.