Good ol’ pumpkin pie … just like Walmart used to make?
To be clear, the buy-everything-here megachain does still bake and sell the classic holiday dessert staple — but that doesn’t mean everyone thinks it necessarily should.
Chowhound tasted and ranked six store-bought pumpkin pies, and Walmart bakery’s version finished in dead last.
“I was in for an unpleasant surprise upon unboxing this particular pumpkin pie,” taster and writer Samuel W. Allenton penned on the Chowhound list. “The tin was slick and oily to the touch, and the pie itself ended up splitting at the center. It was not holding itself together very well.”
Even worse, Allenton — who went into his tasting with high hopes after having tried and enjoyed Walmart’s Great Value Hearty Beef Pot Roast Soup — described the 8-inch, bland $5 Thanksgiving pastry as having a “strangely sour aftertaste.”
“That’s not what I want from a dessert. Throw this on the list of Walmart products to avoid,” wrote Allenton.
Further sporadic reviews of the pie featured on YouTube and the product page comments came to similar conclusions — namely, that Walmart’s take on this beloved pie flavor is, well, pretty crumby.
“I have been craving pumpkin pie. BUT not this pumpkin pie,” wrote one unsatisfied reviewer. “The texture is nasty — mushy and dry and pumpkin flavor tastes just off. There are flavors of spice and sugar but you can’t taste pumpkin at all. If pumpkin pie tasted like this it would not be a seasonal favorite or a treat.”
Better to stick to other store bakery fan favorites, like the Marketside Iced Lemon Loaf Cake — and leave the pumpkin pie to the pros (or your grandma).
