7 Costco Kirkland Sweet Snacks, Ranked Worst To Best

If you're a Costco membership holder, you know by now that the store is a veritable treasure trove for consumers with a sweet tooth. Sure, it's not a candy store, but it's full of sweet treats that can fit the desires of any palate. Chocolate lovers can choose from its chocolate-covered treats or wide selection of plain chocolate, tummies who want baked goods can go wild in Costco's bakery, and those who prefer to indulge in dried fruit to satisfy a sweet tooth will find some in store. As for Costco's Kirkland brand itself, of course it's cashing in on the desires of sugar-obsessed customers with its own line of sweet treats.

While I wouldn't say the Kirkland brand has a ton of sweet treats, the ones it does have are varied enough to satisfy a wide pool of people. But how do they stack up against one another? As a Costco fanatic who's taken the time to sample many of Kirkland's products, I took to my local store and grabbed one of each to find out. I tasted and ranked them, focusing on a few specific factors: how well the snack held up to its bag description, whether it was balanced in its different elements, and simply how likely it was to satisfy a sweet tooth. If I'd had other versions of the product before, I took that into slight consideration as well. Spoiler alert: Kirkland's sweet snacks were pretty decent, but few met my expectations.

Despite being a personal fan of animal crackers (I relish the days of preschool, where the biggest concern was how long of a nap I'd get), I'm unfortunately obligated to put them in last place. Kirkland's organic animal crackers aren't bad by any means, but they're unlikely to satiate the average sweet tooth. Will you find yourself snacking on some as you pass them out on plastic plates to your little ones? Sure. Are you likely to seek them out to indulge in yourself? Probably not.

Here's what I will say: These animal crackers, which are slightly sweet and soft enough for even baby teeth to bite into, are a pretty versatile snack with some surprisingly creative uses that will have you pulling them out for your baking projects. You can also use animal crackers as a dessert bar crust, or pulse them in a food processor and incorporate them into a crumble. The endless options make it worth it to grab Costco's large container, especially if you also use it as a snack for a child or two. If you want a sweeter treat for yourself, coat some in icing or melted chocolate as an adult snack, but they still don't offer enough as a solo snack to get a higher spot on this list.

I have a feeling this will be a divisive hot take, but here goes: Kirkland's milk chocolate raisins simply aren't that good, especially considering other chocolate raisins available on the market. I really like chocolate-covered raisins (both milk and dark chocolate), and these were incredibly subpar. To be perfectly frank, I liked the animal crackers more than these, but they get the second-to-last spot on my list because they're definitely sweet enough for the sweet-toothed among us.

Though chocolate-covered raisins are always a good idea, I'm of the opinion that this particular milk chocolate is way too sweet for the raisins it carries. It severely overpowers them. Moreover, the raisins aren't big enough to hold their own here, and I found myself looking for them in every chocolate morsel I ate. I think dark chocolate would have provided a better balance here and allowed the raisins to be more noticeable; regardless, I'd say the chocolate coating is just too thick. I've had chocolate-covered raisins better than these, and if you're after that snack in particular, I'd recommend going with another brand. However, feel free to grab these if you're mostly looking for a super sweet, light milk chocolate snack.

It seems that though some of Costco's best snack bars are covered in chocolate, that doesn't necessarily hold true for the rest of the store's snacks. As a fan of both dark chocolate and mangoes, I was ready to at least moderately enjoy these. I encountered the first problem straight out of the bag — though the image on the bag shows relatively thin pieces of dark chocolate-covered mangoes, what I poured out were incredibly thick, misshapen pieces. I'm not upset about the cosmetics, but it indicated that this was probably another snack that wouldn't be very balanced in its elements.

Unfortunately, I was right — but first, I have to mention that simply biting into these is a chore. Getting through the dark chocolate layer is one thing, but biting through the sticky mango didn't yield a payoff that was worth the hassle. As with the chocolate-covered raisins, these pieces were way more chocolate than mango. I only tasted mango at the end, and if I hadn't known it was there, I may not have identified it at all, making these feel more like slightly fruity dark chocolate than the chocolate-covered mango strips they purported to be. On the plus side, the chocolate was a good dark chocolate. If you buy these, lower your expectations for their mango element — but if you're after a good, rich dark chocolate (that you aren't worried about sticking in your teeth), go for it.

Overall, Kirkland's caramel s'mores clusters are pretty good. I can see the average sweet-toothed consumer really enjoying these, and I think kids and adults alike would snack on them — plus, they have pretty balanced components. The reason I couldn't score this snack higher was because its name was, in my opinion, pretty misleading. I don't know that I'd have identified these as being s'mores-inspired had the bag not told me.

Where did these little s'mores bites go wrong? The graham wasn't nearly strong enough to shine through and was easily overpowered by the caramel, making these taste more like chocolate-and-caramel-covered marshmallow pieces. Again, that's not a bad thing — they were definitely sweet, and I liked how the textures played together, with the spongey marshmallow holding together sticky caramel amidst a slight crunch of chocolate shell. If you want to make them more s'mores-esque, chop them up and toss them into a homemade s'mores dip. Of course, feel free to eat them on their own. I'd venture a guess that you'll enjoy them, but if you're a s'mores lover, these clusters may fall unfortunately short of your expectations.

Given that Kirkland's milk chocolate almonds are so similar to the aforementioned chocolate-covered raisins, I was surprised to find such a disparity between the two when I was ranking them. The difference simply came down to the balanced components in this snack. I believe the same chocolate was used in both snacks, though I can't say for certain, but they tasted the same and looked the same, so it wasn't a difference in chocolate that I appreciated. 

The milk chocolate coating was just as sweet as the chocolate that coated the raisins, but the almonds in this snack are big and salty enough to cut through the sweetness of the milk chocolate. They also provide a satisfying crunch, making it easier to distinguish between the chocolate and almond, while the chocolate and raisins got muddled together and became hard to identify. The salty component added a nice balance, and I'd call these pretty good chocolate-covered almonds. They're also a nice, snackable size. If you don't like your chocolate-covered nuts to be particularly sweet (say, if you prefer dark chocolate to milk chocolate), these may not be your cup of tea; otherwise, they're definitely worth a try.

As a home baker, I'm typically one to eschew store-bought cookies. I find they're either too hard, too sweet, or not flavorful enough, and I was expecting the same from Costco's mini chocolate chip cookies. Instead, I was surprised by the quality of these — while they still aren't better than homemade cookies by any means, they're pretty good store-bought cookies. I think the mini size serves them well. It helps these feel less overwhelming and more of a satisfying snack that you can have two or three of instead of an entire cookie to eat in one sitting.

These chocolate chip cookies, despite their small size, still manage to be soft and chewy. Each cookie had an adequate amount of chocolate chips, so while I was getting some chocolate in every bite, I wasn't inundated with it. Though you could snack on them on their own, I can also see a variety of uses for these — pack them as a sweet treat in your child's lunchbox, break them up and mix them into ice cream, or even use two to create mini ice cream sandwiches. Their small size makes them especially versatile, so if you have a creative baking brain and are looking for an easy snack to keep on hand, I'd say these are a good buy.

Last but certainly not least, what is (in my humble opinion) the crème de la crème of Costco's sweet snack offerings: Kirkland praline pecans. Admittedly, I've loved these for a minute now, but I tried not to let that play into my ranking. Despite giving all the other snacks a fair chance at taking the top spot on this list, the praline pecans reigned supreme for a few reasons. 

First, I'm not sure how Kirkland managed to create a praline-coated snack that doesn't stick in your teeth, but somehow, these pecans don't, which I very much appreciate. They're delightfully crunchy without being hard to bite through, and the praline coating melts in your mouth as you chew on it. I find myself grabbing small handfuls of these pecans to snack on throughout the day — they're sweet enough to satisfy a craving even though the pecans are salty. The sweet and savory elements balance each other well. While these are very easy to snack on solo, they're also a great option for a garnish. Crush some up and sprinkle on top of cakes or cupcakes, incorporate them into praline pecan pie, or throw some in a food processor and use to coat the rim of a nutty Christmas cocktail.

To rank these sweet snacks, I tried to put personal opinions aside in favor of focusing on more objective elements of each snack. I asked a few key questions when considering each one. First, was the package description an accurate portrayal of the snack? Was the snack likely to satisfy a sweet tooth? And, finally, was the snack balanced in its various components?

The highest-ranking snacks got an easy "yes" to all the above questions. Distinguishing between my bottom choices was a bit trickier, and ultimately, sweetness was the most important factor when ranking the bottom few choices while considering balance next and description accuracy third. That's why the animal crackers ranked lower than the milk chocolate almonds (though I personally preferred them) and why the dark chocolate mangoes ranked slightly higher. Ultimately, it will be up to your own personal preference to decide which snacks are the best, but hopefully, this can guide you to making the right purchases for your particular palate.