The 10 Taste Tests Our Readers Clicked on Most in 2025

Hot dogs, chili, coconut water, and more —here are the products that topped our most popular taste tests of 2025.

By Megan O. Steintrager
Published December 29, 2025
Various food samples displayed for a taste test event with text Top Taste Tests 2025 visible

Serious Eats

We conducted a lot of taste tests in 2025. Some products made us rub our hands in glee, others had us wanting to run from the test kitchen as soon as we laid eyes on the samples. But nothing stops this team from finding the very best for you, our readers. So we persevered—through many, many cans of sardines, glasses of orange juice, sample cups of barbecue sauce, and slices of pumpkin pie. In each of our taste tests, we evaluate without knowing which brand is which, or even which brands are on the list. This keeps our preconceptions from interfering with the results.

As the year draws to a close, we're looking back at 2025's most popular taste tests, the ones our readers clicked on the most. See our top 10 below, and get ready to wash down some excellent chili-topped hot dogs with the most refreshing coconut water.

  • Hot Dogs

    Small bowls of hot dog slices labeled with numbers

    Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez

    For this taste test—our most popular of the year—we did some Joey "Jaws" Chestnut cosplay and chomped our way through 13 brands of beef hot dogs to crown our weiner (er, winner): Boar’s Head Uncured Frankfurters, a snappy, savory frank we'd be happy to throw on the grill anytime.

  • Canned Chili With Meat

    Six bowls of chili arranged on a tray each displaying a different type of canned chili for taste testing

    Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez

    What's a hot dog without some chili? In this taste test of canned chili with meat, our winner was the tomato-forward, slightly sweet Wendy's Chili With Beans, but we also crowned two runners-up. We also did a veggie chili taste test, if that's more your thing (it's mine).

  • Coconut Water

    A variety of coconut water brands in cartons and bottles displayed on a surface

    Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez

    Feeling a little parched after the chili and dogs? Quench your thirst with the winner of our coconut water taste test, Trader Joe's Single Origin Organic Coconut Water—a more coconutty, sweet coconut water than the others, and cheaper than many we tried too.

  • Canned Sardines

    Multiple bowls containing tinned sardines shown in various presentations

    Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez

    Tinned fish got a lot of love everywhere this year, and we found a lot to like when we sampled canned sardines. Good news if you like to buy your fish in the same place as your active wear: Our winner out of the 17 brands we tried was Patagonia Provisions Sardines in Olive Oil, but we also crowned four runners-up that would also make for a tasty no-effort snack.

    Continue to 5 of 10 below

  • Salsa

    Multiple labeled cups of salsa with spoons for a taste test

    Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez

    Grab your tortilla chips and get ready to dip 'em, because we tasted 21 jarred salsas to find the best. And guess where we found it. Guess! OK, don't want to guess? It was Target. We found it at Target. Along with Target's Good & Gather Medium Restaurant-Style Salsa, we also crowned six runners-up.

  • Orange Juice

    5 of the 6 orange juices

    Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez

    And the winner of our heart-burningest taste test of the year: Wegmans Premium No Pulp Orange Juice.

  • Dill Pickles

    pickles with bites taken out of them lined up on a plate

    Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez

    Leah may have decried the pickle-ification of everything—"dill-drenched monstrosities"—in our rundown of 2025 food trends, but that doesn't mean we don't still love a straight-up pickled cucumber. The biggest dill of them all in our taste test: Wegmans Kosher Dill Pickles. That's two Wegmans winners so far, if you're keeping score.

  • Pumpkin Pie

    A variety of pumpkin pies displayed on a table and baking trays

    In retrospect, the ginormity of our winning store-bought pumpkin pie should have been a tip-off about the brand. It's Costco, of course.

    Continue to 9 of 10 below

  • Barbecue Sauce

    Rows of small condiment cups filled with barbecue sauce on a table

    Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez

    Look out Wegmans, Trader Joe's is coming for your most-taste-test-winners crown, nabbing the top spot for Kansas City–style BBQ sauce with its Organic Kansas City Style BBQ Sauce. Actually, it was a tie, and TJ has to share gold with Bull's Eye.

  • Tomato Soup

    Various bowls of creamy tomato soup with spoons arranged on a tray for a taste test

    Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez

    The runner-up for the most heartburn-inducing taste test: tomato soup! But, for real, we loved some of these soups, especially our winner, Rao's Creamy Tomato Soup, which I'd happily eat even if it weren't part of a taste test.

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