Costco can’t seem to move a muscle — or a pallet of Muscle Milk — without riling up the fanbase.
From minor changes at the beloved food court to interesting new items on the shelves, the slightest tweak appears to spark an entirely new, seriously high-energy discussion.
And excitement was definitely heavy on the air late last year, when the Issaquah, Wash.-based warehouse retailer came out with its new frozen Kirkland Signature Breakfast Sandwiches.
Shoppers couldn’t help but immediately notice the similarities shared with Starbucks’ long-running Double Smoked Bacon, Egg & Cheddar sandwiches — both served up on a croissant-style bun.
But do the new kids on the butcher block bring home the same, smoky flavor?
Plenty of the early adopters thought so, with some even suggesting that both hand-held morning meals tasted exactly the same.
Hungry for a bite to eat and eager to siice through the hyperbole, much of it emanating from Costco’s ever-popular sub-Reddit, r/Costco, a service-minded reporter from Eat This, Not That! tried both sandwiches.
To find out if Kirkland had managed to manufacture a winning dupe — or if we’d all simply been duped — professional taste-tester Zoe Strozewski stopped by a Starbs to snap up the O.G. morning offering, heading home to sample her score side by side with one of its Kirkland-brand kissing cousins, which can be quickly heated in the microwave.
For the Starbucks sammie, Strozewski paid $6.13 total — slow-smoked hickory bacon, a cage-free fried egg and a slice of cheddar, on a heretofore unique croissant bun, packing a 500 calorie punch, but also containing 21 grams of protein, nearly half of some people’s recommended amount per day, according to the Mayo Clinic.
The on-the-job eater noted the “squashed” and “messily assembled” look, but also admitted to a certain allure — “warm, melty and with a pretty decent portion of bacon.” The golden brown color of the bun was another plus, she said.
She found the taste to be “impressive,” thanks to a “buttery and slightly sweet” bun, “sharp and savory” chedder and “smoky, salty” bacon. Everything else was less great — the egg had a “mealy texture,” and the bun was no match for an actual croissant. On the whole? Pretty good, but “far from perfect.”
Next up, with 390 calories and 17 grams of protein, was the Kirkland Signature Breakfast Sandwich.
The players: Applewood-smoked bacon, cage-free egg, slice of cheddar on croissant bun. Seeing double? You’re not the only one. Big difference, though — eight sandwiches costs $15.99, or about $2 per sandwich. A massive savings over going to Starbucks, but no surprise there.
Strozewski was pleased to find that the actual product looked just like it did on the box. She deemed the Kirkland bun to be “taller and lighter in color” than Starbucks. The bacon was thin and sparsely populated. But the rest, she said, looked just about the same.
Taste-wise, however, things seemed to fall apart — calling her opinions “pretty mixed,” she noted the “enjoyable buttery flavor” of the bun, the “smoky and savory” bacon and a more pleasant egg patty. But the bun “wasn’t flaky at all,” and “tougher.”
The bacon was “way too thin, not crispy at all, and there wasn’t enough of it for the flavor to really shine through.” In summary, she said — mostly she tasted croissant bun, when what she wanted was bacon.
In the end? Yes, the day-starting doppelgangers are similar, Strozewski admitted. But it was Starbucks who literally brought home the bacon — quite literally. Bacon is the dominant flavor in the pricier offering, while sitll complementing the egg, cheese and croissant well.
Without that punch of smoke, salt and pork, the Kirkland sandwich “falls a little flat in comparison.”
But in the end, maybe it didn’t matter, the reporter admitted — for $2, the dupes are a pretty good deal, for not a lot of dough.
“If I regularly ordered Starbucks’ Double-Smoked Bacon Sandwich, I’d switch over to the Kirkland version just for the discount,” said the cost-conscious critic.
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