There is a seemingly endless selection of store-bought pickles waiting for you at your local supermarket. Not only will you find the fresh pickles (including my personal favorite brand, Grillo's), but also an array of shelf-stable varieties and flavors, including classic dills, half-sours, kosher dills, sweets, and perhaps the most unique and complex of them all: bread and butter pickles. Although the name is a bit ambiguous, just know that a proper bread and butter pickle is all about the balance between sweet and sour. Typically, the pickles are brined in a mixture of vinegar and sugar and can be seasoned with an array of different ingredients, including mustard seeds, spices, and garlic.

Since there is no "right" — and no inherently "wrong" — way to make bread and butter pickles, it's no surprise that several different brands have developed their own version. In order to decide which bread and butter pickle brands are worth buying, I, a self-proclaimed pickle connoisseur, made a trip to a few local grocery stores and picked up as many different jars of bread and butter pickles as I could find to try. Then, I ranked them from worst to best. The cornerstone of bread and butter pickles is their meshing of sweet and vinegar flavor, so I kept this top of mind during this review. I also looked at other factors, including the balance of seasonings, texture of the cucumbers, and whether or not I would buy a jar of them again.