Costco Salted Caramel Cheesecake Review
Author’s note: I don’t work for Costco. This review is unpaid and unbiased. So there.
Someone has to be last.
I have zero ability to resist a cheesecake from the Costco Bakery. So far, I’ve reviewed, erm, three different ones. (Four, if you include the cherry-topped version of the plain cheesecake.)
I like this new Salted Caramel Cheesecake. But it doesn’t really make my list of favorites. In fact, as far as “Costco Cheesecakes” go, this one is probably dead last.
That’s too bad, because “salted caramel” is generally one of my favorite flavors. I’d probably eat my own shoe laces, if they were salted caramel flavor.
Texture & flavor
Anyway. This gargantuan dessert has a creamy, fluffy cheesecake body with the lush, buttery mouthfeel you’d expect from a Costco cheesecake. But the caramel flavor is extremely subtle. In fact, if I’d been handed a slice without an explanation, I might not have guessed the flavor with total certainty.
As usual, I appreciate how gently sweet the dessert is. And the coy saltiness is appreciated. It’s delicate and understated.
Whipped topping
The whipped topping disappoints me. I had high hopes, after the better-than-usual mascarpone whipped layer on Costco’s Tiramisu Cheesecake. But this is just “frothy plastic sadness and despair.” Alas.
I do appreciate how “barely sweet” it is. And it does hold a very good shape on the cheesecake, without melting or deflating. But. Ultimately, no. It’s too full of high fructose corn syrup and weird stuff. More about the ingredients later.
Caramel sauce
There’s an artistic drizzle of caramel sauce on top. But not very much. Each slice gets a toothpick-sized amount. (Maybe two toothpicks. Maybe.) I wish there was more caramel sauce, honestly. This cheesecake needs a little more pop of flavor and slippery texture contrast.
Crust
There’s a lot of crust. It’s a moist, soft, crumbly crust. Very demurely sweetened. Here again, I wish there was more flavor. Perhaps a biscoff-flavored cookie crumb crust, with that alluring burnt-sugar flavor. Or a spicy gingerbread cookie crumble. A layer of caramel sauce between the crust and the cheesecake would also impress me.
However, this is pleasant. It has a very basic graham flavor. Just not anything special. I ended up leaving most of my crust on the plate. It was fine, just not worth the extra calories.
Ingredients in Costco Salted Caramel Cheesecake
Here is my best attempt at typing out the ingredients, from the label. As you can see, my label is chopped off on one side, so I have to guess at some of this:
- Cream Cheese (Pasteurized Milk, Cream, Salt, Cheese Culture, Guar Gum, Carob Bean Gum)
- Whipped Topping (Water, Palm Kernel Oil, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Sugar, Dextrose, Coconut Oil, Carbohydrate Gum, Polysorbate 60, Sorbitan Monostearate, Polyglycerol Esters of Fatty Acids, Natural and Artificial Flavors, Salt, Sodium Citrate, Disodium Phosphate, Xanthan Gum, Soy Lecithin, Beta Carotene [Color])
- Graham Crumbs (Enriched Flour [Wheat Flour, Vitamins B3, B1, B2, B9, Iron], Graham Flour, Sugar, Palm Oil, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Molasses, Salt, Baking Soda)
- Sugar
- Sour Cream (Grade A Cultured Cream)
- Whole Milk (Pasteurized Milk with Vitamin D)
- Eggs
- Caramel (Glucose Syrup, Sweetened Condensed Nonfat Dry Milk, Sugar, Water, Cocoa Butter, Modified Corn Starch, Caramel Color, Agar Gum, Artificial Flavors, Mono- and Diglycerides, Sunflower Lecithin, Salt, Citric Acid, Potassium Sorbate [Preservative])
- Butter (Cream and/or Milk, Salt)
- Bleached Enriched Flour (Wheat Flour, Malted Barley Flour, Vitamins B3, B1, B2, B9, Iron)
- Vanilla Extract
- Salt
I’m not thrilled by these ingredients. Well, let me clarify: without the whipped topping and caramel, this is pretty impressive. But the topping/caramel is a big part of this dessert, and it’s full of sadness. Sorry-not-sorry.
Nutrition Facts
A serving is 4.5 ounces, and contains 440 calories. You get 32 grams of fat (22 grams saturated fat) and 5 grams protein. There are 35 grams total carbohydrates, of which 26 grams are sugars (23 grams “added sugars”) and 1 gram is fiber (surprise!). There’s 32% your daily value cholesterol, and 19% your daily value sodium per serving. (Nutrition Facts source.)
Price and Servings
My cheesecake weighed close to 5 pounds on my kitchen scale, although the label weight is 4.5 pounds. It cost $24. Divided into 16 servings, each slice would be $1.50.
However, I think there are potentially more servings here. I sliced mine at every rosette garnish, and I got 19 slices. Just sayin.’
This is a “Kirkland Signature” (Costco store-brand) product, and the item # is: 1959189.
Shelf life
The “sell by” date on my package was dated for 3 days after purchase. However, it’s been 5 days and I’m still eating it, with no noticeable loss in quality or texture. The whipped topping isn’t melted or deflating.
Freezing slices
I typically freeze slices of Costco cheesecake, separated by pieces of parchment paper, in a plastic tupperware box. And I’ve had very good success thawing them (takes 10 minutes or so on a plate at room temperature) and serving them (very little change in taste or texture, even with the whipped topping). But my freezer is too full to do that right now. Gobble, gobble.
Dramatic Conclusion
This is very good cheesecake. But Costco has many very good cheesecakes. And within this stiff competition, I can’t say I was impressed enough to choose this dessert a second time. In fact, I would absolutely buy the plain cheesecake before I’d pick this one. It just doesn’t have enough flavor or texture contrasts to make it worthwhile, and the whipped topping/caramel is full of icky disappointment.
Is it still worth trying? Of course.
On my super scientific Awesome-o-Meter, this Salted Caramel Cheesecake wobbles between “Maybe” and “Yaaas.”
The End.
More Reviews You Might Like (or Hate)
Check out these other cheesecake reviews I’ve written. Or don’t. No one will make you:
