Sour cream is delicious. While I don’t get to use it very often, my wife likes to make tacos every once in a while, and they are a required condiment for those. I also like to put some on Aldi’s own Mama Cozzi’s Taco Pizza, which is one of the best frozen pizzas I’ve ever had two dozen times.
Like a lot of people these days, though, I try keep an eye on what I eat. Now this doesn’t mean I won’t down a whole frozen pizza occasionally, or I won’t slather some ice cream with unhealthy chocolate and cookie toppings; it just means I try to at least make up for the extra calories by cutting back somewhere else, whether it be limiting my soda intake, or drinking more water or healthy juice–anything to try to offset the added calories at least somewhat. But when I stumbled on Friendly Farms’ Light Sour Cream, I wasn’t really sure what to expect. The term “light” always tends to make me very nervous, and other light sour creams that I’ve tried were…well…disgusting, to say the least. But for the same price as regular, I decided that we could give it a shot.
It’s now all that we buy. Now, let’s be clear here: Of course, a lighter sour cream doesn’t mean it’s at all “healthy”, or that you can slather it all over everything with no health consequences; this is still some pretty unhealthy stuff. But it does manage to cut just about everything back in half; whereas the “full flavor” tub has 5 g of fat per 2 tbsp serving, the light version has just 2.5. Ditto for saturated fat (3.5 g “full”, versus 1.5 g light), and cholesterol (20 mg “full”, versus 10 for light). Even calories are cut down by one-third (60 vs. 40) which can be a help to those counting calories.
How does it taste? I’d love to set up a blind taste test, because it’s so close to the real thing that I’d say it’s virtually indistinguishable. Others I’ve tried had a gross “diet” taste–you know, that terrible fakey sweetness that is so repulsive, I wonder how people even attempt to drink diet sodas–but Friendly Farms somehow almost packs full flavor flavor into a lighter package. Now, I did say it’s “virtually” indistinguishable: I’ll admit that I can taste a bit of a difference just taking a sample straight out of the tub, but I truly hope you’re not just going to be shoveling this into your mouth by the spoonful. On the other hand, when it’s used as a condiment, I really can’t tell this apart from the “full flavored” version, which is more than enough reason to keep purchasing this. One of our staples, and a hidden gem!
Overall: 9/10. While eating it straight out of the tub reveals that the taste is just slightly off from the “full flavored” sour cream, I can’t detect a difference at all when using it as a condiment on, say, tacos. And who the hell eats this straight out of the tub, anyway? It’s not like this stuff is “good” for you, but it does cut back on the fat, and sometimes every little bit helps. As a result, this has become the go-to sour cream in our household, especially since it’s the same price as the regular stuff. Unless you’re a sour cream snob, you probably won’t be able to tell the difference!
