Canstar Blue’s block cheese review has seen 13 brands, such as Mainland, Jarlsberg, Cracker Barrel, Westacre (ALDI), Woolworths, Bega, Devondale, Coon and Coles, compared on their taste, variety, packaging design, value for money and overall satisfaction.
Mainland was rated best in our latest block cheese review, achieving five stars for variety, packaging design and overall satisfaction. It got four stars for taste and value for money.
No fridge would be complete without a nice big block of cheese, ready to use whenever it’s called upon. Whether you eat it in sandwiches, on toast, with a larger meal, or simply on its own, cheese has become part of the regular weekly shop for many Aussie families. But with so many different products crammed into supermarket fridges, finding the cheese that tickles the right tastebuds takes quite a lot of trial and error. You may enjoy trying different cheeses, but if you want to cut straight to your new favourite slice, our customer satisfaction review is worth considering.
More than 1,000 Aussie consumers have taken part in our 2020 ratings, to provide their feedback on the supermarket block cheese they most recently bought and ate. Survey respondents rated brands on their taste, variety, packaging design, value for money and overall satisfaction. This year, 13 brands received the minimum required survey sample size of 30 responses to be included in the results. So, what did we find?
Mainland sliced the competition as the only brand to achieve a five-star rating for overall satisfaction, replacing last year’s winner, Cracker Barrel. Mainland also scored full marks for variety and packaging design, with four stars for taste and value for money.
Here are the best block cheese brands in Australia, as rated by consumers in Canstar Blue’s 2020 review:
Mainland rated best for overall customer satisfaction with five stars, while most other brands landed on four stars overall. This includes last year’s winner Cracker Barrel, Jarlsberg, Westacre (ALDI), Woolworths and Bega, amongst others. Coon, Coles and Hillview rounded out the results on three stars each.
But that’s not to say Mainland was the only entry to enjoy a taste of success. Jarlsberg pushed our 2020 winner out of top spot when it came to taste, while discount supermarket chain ALDI tipped the scales by beating Mainland on value for money. Cracker Barrel also managed to match Mainland with its own five-star rating for variety, similar to Great Ocean Road in the packaging design category.
It seems Aussies fancy themselves as cheese connoisseurs, or maybe we just know what we like. After all, a whopping 64% of Aussies in our survey usually pick up cheese during their regular grocery shop. Either way, we’re a pretty hard bunch to please, as five-star ratings were not easily earned this year. Only seven five-star ratings were achieved across 13 brands, with Mainland claiming three of them.
More than a quarter of survey respondents (27%) always buy the same brand of cheese, with almost two-thirds (66%) trying multiple brands of cheese. A third of respondents (30%) said they enjoy trying different flavours, such as spicy variants.
When it comes to price, the survey revealed that only 28% buy the cheapest brand, meaning we don’t mind shelling out a few extra dollars for the cheese we really like.
Mainland is home to a variety of cheese and butter products. In line with its slogan, ‘good things take time’, this manufacturer churns out several types of block cheese that have all been aged anywhere between 12 months and up to 32 months. Each product generally comes in either a 75g, 200g, 250g, 400g or 500g pack, depending on what you choose.
Different block cheese options include Colby, Edam, Epicure, Gouda, Swiss, Vintage, Tasty and Extra Tasty. Prices usually start from $3 and reach up to $9 in most supermarkets.
This report was written by Canstar Blue’s home & lifestyle journalist, Tahnee-Jae Lopez-Vito. She’s an expert on household appliances, grooming products and all things grocery and shopping. In addition to translating our expert research into consumer-friendly ratings reports, Tahnee spends her time helping consumers make better-informed purchase decisions on all manner of consumer goods and services, while highlighting the best deals and anything you need to be aware of.
Canstar Blue surveyed 3,000 Australian adults across a range of categories to measure and track customer satisfaction, via ISO 26362 accredited research panels managed by Qualtrics. The outcomes reported are the results from customers within the survey group who have purchased and eaten block cheese from a packet (i.e. not from a deli) in the last three months – in this case, 1,111 people.
Brands must have received at least 30 responses to be included. Results are comparative and it should be noted that brands receiving three stars have still achieved a satisfaction measure of at least six out of 10. Not all brands available in the market have been compared in this survey. The ratings table is first sorted by star ratings and then by mean overall satisfaction. A rated brand may receive a ‘N/A’ (Not Applicable) rating if it does not receive the minimum number of responses for that criteria.
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