What’s the best ranch dressing you can buy? 11 popular brands ranked.
For years, ranch dressing has been the universal solvent of condiments. People are dunking all kinds of things in the creamy, tangy mixture, from pizza crusts to florets of broccoli. It’s onion-y, tangy flavor is used in products as varied as tuna, soda and baby food.
And it has become a darling on social media, too, with TikTokers pulling off ranch-related stunts (a popular one involves emptying a packet of dressing mix into a jar of pickles and shaking it to mix).
Now that ranch dressing is reaching icon status, it’s going by a moniker befitting a diva. Like Cher or Adele, “ranch dressing” is now just “ranch.” That’s according to Deborah Crandall, the marketing director for Hidden Valley Ranch, the genre’s standard-bearer and originator (literally, the company was founded by the guy who invented ranch dressing.)
Whatever you call it, ranch dominates its field — of households that had used dressing in the previous six months, more than half reported it was ranch, according to consumer-insights firm MRI-Simmons.
But of the dozens of bottles that populate grocery store shelves, which deserves a coveted spot in your basket? Like proper supermarket cattle hands, we rounded up the top-selling dressing brands, according to MRI-Simmons, a list that included two varieties of bottled Hidden Valley Ranch and several unspecified store-brand options (we chose several from popular grocery chains). And although there are a seemingly infinite number of variations on the theme of ranch (you can find versions with all manner of seasonings, from Buffalo flavoring to everything-spice), we stuck to the classic.
As has been the case for previous pandemic-era taste tests, the logistics were challenging. Since we hadn’t yet returned to The Washington Post HQ — home to our beloved Voraciously food lab — we arranged a fully remote, blind taste test in which Voraciously editor Matt Brooks portioned out samples of the 11 dressings and delivered tasting kits to colleagues in an epic journey across the District, Maryland and Virginia. Each of the eight judges (six ranch fans, including one colleague’s 7-year-old son, and two ranch agnostics), awarded each sample with a score of 1-10, taking into account the taste, seasoning and texture to be ranked.
The effort was worth it, though. Our intrepid judges determined that there’s a lot of bland, mayo-like gloop on those grocery shelves, along with a few flavorful finds, and if we can save readers from the horrors of an inferior ranch, well, we’re up to the task.
As for what you want to dunk in it, there’s no right or wrong there.
Let’s get to the rankings to find out our best ranch dressing. The maximum possible score was 80 points.
11. Newman’s Own
Score: 14
Sadly, the dressing we most hoped our panel would like (huge “Butch Cassidy” fans here; also the company does great things for charitable causes!) was the biggest loser of the bunch. Several tasters found it went beyond tangy into excessively vinegary territory. One deemed it “artificial,” and it left another eager to simply move on: “I’m just speechless, next please.”
10. Organicville
Score: 19
A “thin, “loose” texture was a strike against this nondairy, organic-ingredient entry for some. Wan, muddy flavors made a couple of tasters wonder whether they would even have identified it as ranch if they weren’t informed of the general category of dressings they were sampling. And one taster correctly pinned this guy as the One Without Dairy, picking up on the presence of coconut cream, the alternative ingredient used to give it that signature mouthfeel: “Tough to shake off that tanning-lotion tell.”
9. Hidden Valley Simply
Score: 27
There was a lot of consensus on this one - but alas, that wasn’t a good thing. A majority of tasters dinged it - the ranch giant’s version that professes to be made without artificial ingredients - as an overly mayonnaise-forward blend, while another likened it to straight mayo-adjacent Miracle Whip. An outlier, though, praised its subtlety and dubbed it “an overall star.”
8. 365 Organic
Score: 31
If the Hidden Valley Simply was mayo posing as ranch, our tasters determined that the version from Whole Foods’ in-house line was another pretender: “Sir, this is a vinaigrette,” snipped one. “Italian dressing cosplaying as ranch,” another wrote. The texture seemed to be the tell - too oily, not creamy enough. Still, it was reaching for middle-of-the-pack status here, with one taster finding it “inoffensive.”
7. Trader Joe’s
Score: 33
The grocery chain’s packaged products are often cult favorites, but there’s no such crown awaiting this one. Tasters discerned lots of off flavors (too heavy on black pepper, a strangely prominent thyme note and a “pickle-ly” vibe were among them), and several found it unappealingly cloying. “Ranch dressing should not be this sweet!” opined one. “What is this, a raspberry vinaigrette?”
6. Marie’s
Score: 42
Appealing flecks of green herbs got our panel all excited, with one taster awarding it the title of the “most visually appealing” of the bunch. But just like a disappointing middle school crush, its good looks couldn’t overcome a bland personality - yep, it was another dressing that left our panel wondering where the ranch in this ranch went. “It’s just dairy,” said one. “Underseasoned,” complained another. But one man’s milquetoast is another’s easygoing, and one taster professed they could “keep dipping and dipping” into this “easy” mixture.
5. Kraft
Score: 48
A thicker body was appealing to several tasters, including one who noted it might work better as a dip than a salad dressing. Most tasters found this one acceptable, even if they weren’t overly enthusiastic. “A solid ranch,” declared one. Several found it slightly on the bland side - “a little low on seasoning,” as one put it.
4. Wish-Bone
Score: 49
If you invited this ranch to a party, it would probably be the wallflower of the crowd - but at least it isn’t likely to offend anyone either, according to our panel. “Nothing life changing, but solid,” said one taster. “It’s what you settle for when your favorite brand is sold out,” said another. And a couple detected glimmers of the benchmarks of a good ranch: One taster appreciated a strong onion note, while another found “a nice tang up front that suggests buttermilk.”
3. Hidden Valley
Score: 51
The ubiquitous classic scored well with most of our tasters, and it might have taken top honors but for a couple of low scores dragging it down. One pegged it as a “familiar ranch,” which it probably was - for many, it’s the ranch of our youth. Another called it a “wonderful, classic ranch - creamy, balanced, the reason I will aggressively defend the dressing to any naysayer.” And a taster praised the “lots of herbs and a clear hit of garlic.” But a couple of detractors pulled its score down, with one insisting “I’d rather go without than have this one. And that’s telling, because I tried this on its own and preferred the taste of a plain spoon.”
2. Ken’s
Score: 58
We seemed to be pulling into the vicinity of Flavortown with this bottle. Our tasters liked the “bolder” hits of herbs and garlic, although one taster found the latter a bit overwhelming. “Garlic tastes great, but I want to taste the food I’m eating with it,” they wrote. The dressing seemed to conjure some nostalgia, too: “It’s PTA mom approved, which is a key endorsement for ranch dressing,” wrote one. “This tastes like the ranch dressing that comes in the vegetable platters you buy at grocery stores,” mused another.
1. Marzetti’s
Score: 61
This was the ranch many on the panel had been waiting for. “Classic ranch,” said one. “This is the epitome of what I think of when I think of ranch,” another enthused. A thick texture, a tang that didn’t veer into sour territory, and a good flavor profile (with discernible chives, according to one judge) were its selling points, though one taster found the taste artificial - “there’s something about the seasoning that tastes like an off-brand bag of sour cream and onion potato chips.” But it was our 7-year-old ranch aficionado who sealed this dressing’s spot at the very top of our list with his boffo rave: “10!!!!!! BEST!!! BEST and favorite.”
