Why We Avoid Buying Sara Lee's Whole Wheat Bread At All Costs

Not all breads are created equal, which of course is common knowledge if you're like most people and have been eating bread regularly for most of your life. Wheat bread in particular is all over the bagged bread spectrum, ranging from being packed full of grains and seeds to being essentially just white bread cleverly marketed as wheat bread with a misleading label. To decide how the big brands really stack up, we ranked 10 common grocery store wheat breads by putting them to the taste test. Surprisingly, Sara Lee came dead last.

Yes, despite Sara Lee sliced bread being highly popular and raking in over $1 billion in annual sales, its wheat bread just happens to fall short of other popular wheat bread brands. Our reviewer found it both dry and bland-tasting, making the flavorless loaf simply not worth buying. Sure, it's still one of the more affordable wheat sandwich breads out there, but it could be worth paying slightly more for better quality. However, there are even cheaper brands like Great Value that held up better in our taste test. (It's worth noting that Sara Lee is actually the provider of Walmart's Great Value wheat bread. Even so, we still found that the Great Value loaf was better than Sara Lee's.)

So, if you happen to have a loaf of Sara Lee's wheat bread at home and have found yourself disappointed, you're not alone. You can always try improving upon it by toasting it and slathering it with some butter or honey. But hey, at least it was fairly cheap, right? For comparison, Pepperidge Farm's wheat bread came in first place, tasting like it came fresh from the bakery.

The Sara Lee name's been in the bread business since 1939, but are any of its loaves still worth buying today? Wheat bread off the table, some of Sara Lee's loaves are actually pretty decent. The brand's Delightful line of 45-calorie bread has had fans raving online about it not tasting like light bread, and in our ranking of store-bought white bread brands, we found that Sara Lee's white bread was nice and soft (albeit a bit small) compared to other brands. 

When looking at cost though, that's where the brand truly shines. Priced competitively against brands like Wonder Bread, Sara Lee often falls in the mid-range, making it more accessible for the average consumer. Additionally, its widespread availability means the average shopper can easily find it on sale or with store promotions, which of course just adds to its value.

Sara Lee's Artesano bread is meanwhile renowned for its soft texture and thicker slices, though it is among the brand's more expensive products. Even so, it's still more affordable than a lot of other options. Many higher-end bread brands offering these fancier loaves can be even more expensive due to specialty ingredients or artisanal production methods, but Sara Lee offers more cost-effectiveness without a major difference in quality.