We Found the Best Feta Cheese to Buy Outside of Greece [Taste Test]

The best feta cheese is firm and crumbly but still creamy. It’s tangy but rich. It’s great in salads and it also melts into pasta. And, while the actual best feta cheese is probably only found on some island in Greece, you can find some pretty good facsimiles in the grocery store. You can even find good vegan feta cheese these days. 

For a long time, I thought all feta tasted pretty much the same—and I wasn’t a fan. It was always too dry and tart for me. But then I moved to a Greek neighborhood for a while where I had access to little shops that sold things like single source olive oil from a multitude of Greek islands, fresh baked baklava, and real feta—creamy feta, moist feta, feta with grassy flavors that go beyond “tang.” I don’t live there anymore, though, so I need to get my feta fix from the grocery store like most of the country. Poor me. 

Luckily, there are more feta cheese brands out there than ever before. And some of them are making really good cheese. A quick primer on what qualifies as feta: A brined, salty, white cheese (usually Greek, though other countries make it), made from sheep milk or a mix of sheep and goat milk. At least, that’s what it should be and what it would be if you were in Greece. But, here in America, we play a bit fast and loose with the term “feta,” so you will find some cow’s milk feta out there as well. 

I tasted 14 different feta cheeses looking for the best feta cheese brand making the best chunk feta, the best feta crumbles, and even the best vegan feta. Here are the seven that made the cut. 

Best Vegan Feta

I won’t pretend this vegan feta tastes like non-vegan feta. But, for a vegan cheese, it’s very impressive. It’s definitely briney and tastes a bit like olives. And it’s just creamy enough. Use it in a vegan version of that viral TikTok feta pasta or sprinkle it onto a salad. If you’re vegan and are used to plant-based cheeses, I think you’ll agree it’s the best vegan feta cheese brand.

Credit: Merc / Ralphs

Rating:

6/10

Sporks

Best Reduced Fat Feta

The only reason you would know this is reduced fat (it has 1/3 less fat than Athenos’s classic crumbles) is because it is on the dryer side of the feta spectrum. But it’s still pleasantly salty with a good depth of flavor. If you’re just using this to sprinkle on salads, then you can easily mitigate the dryness with some salad dressing. Even a drizzle of olive oil will do the trick.

Credit: Merc / Target

Rating:

7/10

Sporks

Best Crumbled Feta

A real Greek feta die-hard would reject this Italian-made feta as counterfeit, but these were still some of the best feta cheese crumbles we tasted. They’re creamy—almost like a more solid cottage cheese—and the flavor is grassy and salty with a mild bite on the end. I think this would be the best feta to sprinkle on a pizza. It won’t be too overwhelmingly tangy and just creamy enough to melt onto the crust.

Credit: Merc / Walmart

Rating:

8/10

Sporks

Best Brined Feta

While all feta is aged in brine, Odyssey’s chunked feta arrives swimming in it—so be careful when you open it. The Wisconsin-made cheese itself is extremely creamy. It absolutely fills and coats your mouth with lots of briney feta flavor. The flavor almost reminds me of olive brine—so it would certainly be the best feta to stuff into olives for your own DIY Dirty Martini. It would also be great on a mezze plate, scooped up with pita.

Credit: Merc / Instacart

Rating:

8.5/10

Sporks

Best for Cooking

While this is another dry feta, it has a really great spring to it, almost like fresh cheese curds. The dryness makes it easy to cut and prep for cooking, so it’s the best feta cheese to use in recipes like baked feta or feta skewers with fruits or vegetables or cubed into pasta salads. Definitely finish whatever you make off with a drizzle of olive oil, though, to add some moisture.

Credit: Merc / Vons

Rating:

9/10

Sporks

Best Funky

Okay, so the word “feta” doesn’t appear anywhere on the label. But it does have a Greek salad on the packaging. So, I think it counts. It’s sheep’s milk cheese aged in brine. That certainly qualifies it as feta more than a lot of American brands. And it’s so good if you like a funky cheese. If you want your cheese to remind you a little of feet, this is the best feta cheese brand for you, even if it’s not “technically” feta.

Credit: Merc / Instacart

Rating:

9/10

Sporks

Best of the Best

Big surprise, the best feta cheese you can find at the grocery store is actually made in Greece. Made with a mix of sheep and goat’s milk, it has a creaminess up front and it’s somehow moist without being kept in brine. And it has more flavor than just “tang.” There’s an actual cheesy quality that so many other feta cheeses lack. But it’s still mild enough to fulfill that feta cheese vibe. It’s mouthwatering and it keeps you coming back. It’s absolutely the best feta for a salad—plonk the whole slab right on top of the cucumber, red onion, and tomato. You’ll be eating a lot more salads if you make them like that.

Credit: Merc / Instacart

Rating:

10/10

Sporks

Other feta cheese brands we tried: Emporium Select Tomato and Basil, Athenos Feta Crumbles, Emporium Selection Feta Chunk in Brine, Emporium Selection Feta Chunk, Emporium Selection Crumbled Feta Reduced Fat, Emporium Selection Crumbled Feta Original, Private Selection Crumbled Feta

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