The Best Chocolate Pudding: Our Taste Test Results

Taste Test: The Best And Worst Store-Bought Chocolate Puddings
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We've all eaten pudding cups as kids, packed lovingly in our lunches by parents who had no idea what they were feeding us. And some of us have had a pudding moment as adults, stealthily grabbing it off the store shelf and throwing it into our carts during a moment of weakness. And then, of course, we tried to camouflage it from other shoppers' eyes by burying it under a head of lettuce in the checkout lane.

But when you actually take the time to taste it, is store-bought chocolate pudding really any good? Is it rich, flavorful and creamy as it should be, or is it weak, slimy and gelatinous? Our editors put 8 popular brands of store-bought chocolate pudding to a blind taste test to find out.

Which brands came out on top? Check out the slideshow below.

As always, this taste test was in no way sponsored or influenced by the brands included.

Chocolate Pudding Taste Test
#1: Swiss Miss Creamy Milk Chocolate (Recommended)(01 of08)
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150 calories, 3.5g fat per servingComments: "Tastes like chocolate cake batter, in a good way." "Creamy and rich. Just right." "Darker than most, and thick." Ingredients: Nonfat milk, sugar, water, modified corn starch, hydrogenated coconut oil, cocoa (processed with alkali), less than 2% of: salt, sodium stearoyl lactylate, calcium carbonate, color added, artificial flavor. (credit:Damon Dahlen/AOL)
#2: Jello Temptations Double Chocolate Pie(02 of08)
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120 calories, 4g fat per servingComments: "The layer of mousse is unnecessary, but the chocolate flavor is nice." "I dig the two different textures." "Has a rich, dark color but the flavor doesn't really deliver. I like it though." "The textures don't blend together as well as I'd like." "I hate the double texture. The mousse feels like a sponge."Ingredients: Skim milk, water ,sugar, cocoa (processed with alkali) , cream, modified cornstarch, contains less than 2% of: gelatin, hydrogenated coconut and palm kernel oil, salt, sodium stearylate (for smooth texture), sucrose fatty acid esters, natural and artificial flavor, sucralose, acesulfane, potassium, vitamin A palmitate, vitamin D3. (credit:Damon Dahlen/AOL)
#3: Jell-O Chocolate Pudding(03 of08)
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120 calories, 1.5g fat per servingComments: "Par for the course." "Stereotypical pudding cup flavor." "Tastes just like the pudding from my childhood. Mediocre and comforting." "Strange metal aftertaste." "Standard Jell-O flavor." "A little salty? Nice texture."Ingredients: Skim milk, water, sugar, modified food starch, cocoa processed with alkali, contains less than 1.5% of hydrogenated vegetable oil (coconut and palm kernel oils), cornstarch, alt, sodium stearoyl lactylate (for smooth texture), sodium alginate, calcium phosphate, natural and artificial flavor, artificial color, vitamin A palmitate, vitamin D. (credit:Damon Dahlen/AOL)
#4: Swiss Miss Triple Chocolate Dream(04 of08)
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160 calories, 4g fat per servingComments: "Gray and weak-tasting." "The gray color is off-putting." "Silky-sweet." "Tastes like smoky dirt." "This looks like cement and tastes like sugar."Ingredients: Nonfat mike, sugar, modified corn starch, water, hydrogenated coconut oil, less than 2% of: cocoa (processed with alkali), salt, color added, sodium stearoyl lactylate, coffee powder, calcium carbonate and artificial flavors. (credit:Damon Dahlen/AOL)
#5: Kozy Shack Chocolate(05 of08)
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140 calories, 2.5g fat per servingComments: "Nice custardy texture, but it just tastes like vanilla pudding." "Way too sweet." "Yuck. Gross." "Very, very smooth." "Tastes like watery plastic." "Terrible rubbery texture."Ingredients: Low fat milk, sugar, modified tapioca starch, cocoa, salt, natural flavors, carrageenan. (credit:Damon Dahlen/AOL)
#6: Trader Joe's Belgian Chocolate Pudding(06 of08)
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300 calories, 15g fat per serving (No, this is not a typo)Comments: "Has the texture of buttercream frosting, but it's chalky and the flavor is slightly bitter." "Too thick and bitter." "This is in a league of its own. Rich and complex." "I hate this." "Fudge-like but tastes off."Ingredients: Whole milk, belgian chocolate (chocolate liqueur, sugar, cocoa butter, soy lecithin, vanilla), sugar, whole eggs, cream (cream and carrageenan), modified food starch, vanilla, cocoa powder (pro), caramel color and salt. (credit:Damon Dahlen/AOL)
#7: Kozy Shack Chocolate Hazelnut (07 of08)
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110 calories, 1.5g fat per servingComments: "Thin and awful." "Strange flavor. Is this Nut-based?" "Nice milk chocolate flavor." "Too loose, and bad flavor." "Tastes like nail polish remover."Ingredients: Low fat milk (vitamin A and D), sugar, modified tapioca starch, cocoa and breakfast cocoa (processed with alkali), natural flavors, salt, carrageenan. (credit:Damon Dahlen/AOL)
#8: Zen Chocolate Pudding made with Soy Milk(08 of08)
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110 calories, 1g fat per servingComments: "Too think and watery." "Gross." "Strange, watery consistency. Offputting." "Weird, awful taste. Medicinal." "Watery and awful."Ingredients:Filtered water, certified organic soy milk, certified organic granulated cane juice, certified organic corn starch, certified organic cocoa (processed with alkali), natural flavors, carrageenan, calcium carbonate, sea salt, soy lecithin, organic locust bean gum, vitamin a palmitate, vitamin D2, vitamin B2, vitamin B12. (credit:Damon Dahlen/AOL)

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