Aldi Vs Trader Joe's: Which Grocery Store Is Better For Affordable Charcuterie Items?

The topic of how to arrange a charcuterie board is a social media fixation, with attendant images of succulent meats and cheeses, crispy crackers, and luxuriant add-ons like gourmet pickles, cut fruit, and rich chocolate. Which leads, logically, to the next question: Where can we go to get high-quality charcuterie staples for the best price? Charcuterie boards thrive on variety, and buying lots of frou-frou ingredients can get spendy. Trader Joe's and Aldi are often vaunted as two of America's most-recognized discount grocers. Which one is packing the goods when it comes to filling your board?

Overall, Aldi is widely acknowledged to be the cheapest grocery store in the United States. Reports online have shown shoppers making impressive charcuterie boards from Aldi in the $30 to $75 range, utilizing Aldi's inexpensive, high-quality house brands like Priano and Savoritz. Similar reports have shown Trader Joe's-sourced boards being created for $15 to $65 – but these were much simpler affairs, with fewer overall ingredients. When it comes down to affordability, Aldi is the winner.

The "rule of threes" for charcuterie boards posits that you should have three meats, three cheeses, three starches, and three accompaniments for a well-balanced presentation. While Aldi will undoubtedly get you there cheaper, if you are looking to impress with your ingredients, you might be tempted to shop at Trader Joe's. For example, let's talk about brie, a charcuterie standard. Aldi's premium brie is Happy Farms Double Cream Brie, which sells for $4.95. Trader Joe's has a few brie options, including a double cream specimen for only $4.49, but it also sells Saint André Triple Crème Brie that's made in France and contains 75% butterfat, leading to a luxuriant, gourmet taste. It, on the other hand, sells for $13.99. Do you actually want to pay that much for fancy brie? Maybe, maybe not, depending on the occasion ... but you don't have that option at Aldi.

We also looked at crackers, a cornerstone of scooping, spreading, and sandwiching with charcuterie. Trader Joe's website lists a cornucopia of options, from strawberry and jalapeño crisps to organic garlic naan crackers. Aldi's selection was much more limited and pedestrian (think generic Cheez-It and Ritz dupes) but the prices on what was there were great. At the end of the day, if affordability is your main criterion, Aldi is gonna rock your charcuterie board. For a little more variety and quality, however, you may opt to supplement at Trader Joe's.