I've found that Aldi's Millville brand toaster tarts are a cheap and tasty alternative to Kellogg's pop tarts and wanted to share my impressions of how they are different for anyone who wanted to try the off-brand. I'm not associated with Aldi in any way, just an ordinary guy trying to help out curious consumers. The Millville ones may not quite be as "crazy good" as the real pop tarts, but they are't far from it either, and they're much cheaper.
Millville toaster tarts are only available in a box of 12 for a whopping $1.99 per box at my local Aldi store, although they never go on sale (16.6 cents per tart). Kellogg's pop tarts usually are $2.89 per box of 8 (36.1 cents per tart), but sometimes they do go on sale. That's a substantial price difference (less than half the cost!) and is the main reason why I buy the Aldi brand ones. I'm not even sure if you could make homemade pop tarts as cheap as you can buy the Aldi ones once you factor in your time, cost of electricity for baking, ingredients, cleanup, etc.
Anyway you can see the main difference right away - the Aldi Millville toaster tarts are a little bigger lengthwise than the Kellogg's pop tarts. They are the same width, but the Aldi tart is longer. (However the frosting is more uniform on the Kellogg's brand one so there may actually be more frosting on the brand name pop tarts.)
And if you were thinking maybe the Aldi Millville tarts were thinner to account for the difference in size, I found the Millville tarts are actually slightly thicker, due to a more robust pastry and slightly thicker filling. (They aren't quite as thick as they appear in this image, because they were cupped slightly, creating an arch shape that makes them look thicker than they really are.)
Here's a look at both of them cut in half. The Aldi toaster tarts are on the left, Kellogg's are on the right. You can see the thicker crust on the Aldi brand toaster tart.
A quick glance at the nutrition facts confirms that the Aldi toaster tarts are 2 grams larger than the Kellogg's version (see the serving size). You can also compare the ingredients and see they're mostly the same, except Aldi's tarts list corn syrup first and Kellogg's tarts list sugar first. The Aldi brand tarts also list a couple more nutrients and have a little less fat than the Kellogg's brand... they might be healthier for you? The nutrition facts also say that the Aldi brand contains more allergens, if that's an issue.
Here's a close-up of the Aldi brand toaster tarts. I found them to have a crisper crust or pastry that can best be described as "robust". It is thicker than the Kellogg's crust and seems to resist breaking or crumbling in my lunch box. I'm not sure if the Aldi food scientists were aware of this, but the thicker crust also saves the day when the Aldi checkers are literally throwing the boxes into your cart. Even though I buy these all the time and the checkout people slam them back into the cart, I've never had a broken one. The filling is sweeter than the Kellogg's brand and has more brown sugar flavor, and not very much cinnamon flavor.
And here's the Kellogg's pop tart up close. The pastry or crust is softer and more tender, which makes them prone to crumbling in the package if they get bumped around, but might be preferable to some palates. The crust also has a buttery flavor that the Aldi brand tarts don't have, and the filling is less liquid-like and more sugar-like. Kellogg's filling also packs a pleasant cinnamon zing that is missing from the Aldi brand.
The bottom line is I find Aldi's Millville toaster tarts to be a wholly acceptable substitute for Kellogg's pop tarts. They compete well on size, taste and price. Hopefully this post was helpful if you've been thinking about trying the Aldi brand tarts but wanted to know what they were like first. As always, let me know if you agree or disagree with my thoughts in the comments section!
