Compare block cheese from Cracker Barrel, Great Ocean Road, Mainland, ALDI Westacre, Devondale, Bega, Coon, Coles, Woolworths and Hillview on taste, packaging, value for money, variety and overall satisfaction.
Cracker Barrel wheels through the competition to lead Canstar Blue’s block cheese ratings. It earned five-star reviews for taste, packaging, variety and overall customer satisfaction in 2019.
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 adults have taken part in our 2019 review, providing their feedback on the block cheese they most recently bought and ate. Ten brands received the minimum sample size to be included in the results, rated on their taste, packaging, value for money, variety and overall customer satisfaction. In 2019, Cracker Barrel climbed all the way to the top of the cheese board, improving on its four-star rating last year.
The 10 brands in our 2019 block cheese review were rated in the following order for overall customer satisfaction:
Great Ocean Road, Mainland, ALDI Westacre and Devondale all got four stars for overall satisfaction, while Bega, Coon, Coles, Woolworths and Hillview were left on just three stars.
It seems Australians fancy themselves as cheese connoisseurs, or maybe we just know what we like. 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 all 10 brands, with Cracker Barrel claiming four of them.
The others went to ALDI Westacre for value for money, plus Great Ocean Road and ALDI Westacre for packaging. While packaging shouldn’t make any difference to the overall product, it might help you choose one brand over another while you stroll through the lengthy dairy aisle. After all, you want something that’s easy to get into, as well as easy to re-seal, so you don’t ruin your cheese.
Over a quarter of survey respondents (29%) always buy the same brand of cheese, the research found, with almost two-thirds (64%) trying multiple brands of cheese. A third of respondents (32%) said they enjoy trying different flavours, such as infused sweet variants.
When it comes to price, the survey revealed that only 27% buy the cheapest brand, meaning we don’t mind shelling out a few extra dollars for the cheese we really like.
Cracker Barrel is owned by Warrnambool Cheese and Butter, one of Australia’s oldest dairy processors. Its vintage cheddar is claimed to be carefully aged to develop a sharp, full bodied flavour and crumbly texture. Other options in the line-up include its Infused Cheddar Cheese range with Maple and Toffee Bites or Cracked Pepper. Its Special Reserve cheese range is claimed to have a distinctive sharp flavour and complex character, with Cracker Barrel also offering sliced cheese, making it a handy option for those lunchbox sandwiches.
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 3 months – in this case, 1,375 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.
Block Cheese (2018)
Block Cheese (2017)
Block Cheese (2015)
Block Cheese (2014)
Taste Awards (2013)
Taste Awards (2012)
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