Five total macaroni and cheese brands

• Kraft Mac & Cheese
• Annie’s Mac & Cheese
• Velveeta Mac & cheese
• Whole Foods 365
• Nature Crazy Bugs Mac & Cheese

Scoring guide

Each brand can earn up to 50 points, and each category was judged out of 10 points except for creativity, which was out of five points. We took our scores from each judge and averaged them up for each category.

Cheesiness – Is it uniformly spread? Does it look like cheese? Does it taste like cheese?

Taste – Overall, how tasty is it? Does it leave you wanting more? Would you eat it again?

Texture – Is soft enough to bite down? Is it soggy? Is it clumped together?

Creativity – Is it just a normal noodle or is it a fascinating noodle design? Is the cheese blend unique?

Convenience – How convenient is it to cook and eat? Can you whip it up in a matter of minutes or will it take you half an hour?

Kraft

Cost: 99 cents

Cheesiness: 9/10

Taste: 9/10

Texture: 8/10

Creativity: 0/5

Convenience: 9/10

Total: 35/45

When you think of mac and cheese brands, this one is the go-to-brand. It takes the cheese for the popularity aspect. Quick and easy to make, this mac and cheese tasted phenomenal compared to its competitors. It is one we recommend for a good time. One flaw this brand did have, however, was the neon yellow cheese. The cheese was bright and looked radioactive. Nonetheless, we still ate it, and all of us finished the pasta. If you’re willing to ignore the aesthetic and go for a budget meal, definitely try out this one.

Velveeta

Cost: 99 cents

Cheesiness: 4/10

Taste: 2/10

Texture: 3/10

Creativity: 2/5

Convenience: 10/10

Total: 21/45

Veni, vidi, vici, Velveeta. It was a struggle getting this one down, but we ate it for you guys. Velveeta was advertised as “liquid gold” that was easy to cook in its mini microwavable cup. As for the convenience, they were right. Filling water into the cup until the water reached the fill line and microwaving the mac and cheese for three minutes made for a swift and feasible meal prep. Even though the effort was minimal, it made us feel like our efforts were gone to waste. Velveeta was like El Dorado with sewage flooding the city. The “liquid gold” was more like toxic sludge. Not to mention, Velveeta did not make an attempt to hide how processed their brand is. Do not fall into the bait. Do not eat Velveeta, unless you want to try some radioactive waste.

Annie’s

Cost: $1.25

Cheesiness: 7/10

Taste: 5/10

Texture: 6/10

Creativity: 2/5

Convenience: 7/10

Total: 27/45

Annie’s provides a great balance. It has the health factor, the cheese factor, the cost factor and the texture factor, making it appear above average on paper. However, the taste is something we need to discuss. It was somewhat unusual. Although we were not fond of the oddly flavored powdered cheese, this was not the major issue. The major issue behind this was the pasta. The shells’ divots messed with the brand potential and the packaged powdered cheese clumped, making the cheese not uniformly spread. Overall, Annie’s brand is an above average mac and cheese, but its inconsistency led it to its demise.

Nature Crazy Bugs

Cost: $3.28

Cheesiness: 2/10

Taste: 4/10

Texture: 8/10

Creativity: 5/5

Convenience: 5/10

Total: 24/45

When eating this brand, we were disappointed about how much the brand sacrificed to make this healthy. The pasta tasted like nothing, the cheese was bland and there was no flavor whatsoever. It was all too… natural. However, one positive part about Crazy Bugs was that it definitely lived up to its name, with its “back to nature” claim and the variety of crazy shapes and styles of noodle. Expensive due to the brand being organic, this mac and cheese was not appetizing or worth the money. If you want to go “back to nature,” try this out.

365 Whole Foods

Cost: $2.99

Cheesiness: 5/10

Taste: 5/10

Texture: 6/10

Creativity: 2/5

Convenience: 5/10

Total: 26/45

There are 365 days in a year, but if you insist on eating mac and cheese once a day, absolutely do not eat this one. While the texture was nice, the mac and cheese tasted like cardboard. By all means, we are not pasta aficionados, but we do know that if a pasta tastes like cardboards, it is not good pasta. You would think that with a price so high at $2.99 for just a small box of mac and cheese, it would taste amazing. We thought this too, and we were poorly mistaken. With its high price tag and average taste, we do not recommend eating this.