Best Brands of Ghee To Buy

Jump to:

• What is it?
• Brands of ghee chosen
• Criteria for rating ghee
• Availability of different brands
• Production practices of ghee brands
• Price comparison of brands
• Visual, smell, and taste test of ghee
• Overall Recommendations
• Overall tips for buying ghee
• Recipes that use ghee
• Related articles about ghee

This blog post examines ghee varieties both from Indian and American brands and recommends different varieties based on needs. If you don't want to read all the nitty gritty details of how this experiment process was conducted, simply jump down to my final recommendations section.

What is it?

Ghee is a type of clarified butter where the milk solids are filtered out from the butter, leaving just the fat behind. Ghee is a fat extensively used in Indian cooking; it is great for high heat cooking, is lactose-free, and has a rich buttery taste. If you are looking for more in-depth knowledge about ghee, read this blog post that dives deeper into ghee.

Brands of ghee chosen

For this experiment, all of the ghee varieties chosen are unsalted ghee varieties made from cow dairy products. However, I chose a variety of ghees based on country of origin (Indian brands available in America vs. North American brands) and further classified North American brands into chain grocery store brands vs. specialty brands. Here is the breakdown of brands:

Brand Name	Brand Origin
Deep	Indian Brand
Laxmi	Indian Brand
Amul	Indian Brand
Simple Truth Organic (Kroger Brand)	North American Chain
365 (Whole Foods Brand)	North American Chain
O Organics (Albertsons)	North American Chain
Organic Valley	North American
Ancient Organics	North American
4th & Heart	North American
Nanak (Desi Ghee)	North American - South Asian Owned
Pure Indian Foods (Cultured Ghee)	North American - South Asian Owned

Criteria for rating ghee

All of these eleven brands of ghee were analyzed using these categories:

1. Availability - Where one can find/buy the brand (how easy is it for folks to get).
2. Production Quality - This helps categorize the ghee based on how it was produced (for example, grass fed cows, organic, pasture raised, cultured, etc.).
3. Price - How much does the ghee cost.
4. Visual - How the ghee looks. This category doesn't care about the branding/packaging.
5. Taste - How the ghee actually tastes.

Availability of different brands

The availability chart gives you a look at where these different brands of ghee can be found in the United States. The data for this was collected by looking at the websites of these brands and research online.

Overall, every brand was given points based on its availability in different physical stores and online, with the points given out as follows:

• 0 - 1 point for availability in Indian stores
• 0 - 3 points for availability in American stores
• 0 - 1 points for sold by an online retailer

American grocery stores have the biggest range from 0-3 because there are MANY more American grocery stores than Indian stores in the United States so I wanted to give a broader range for brands that may be in multiple types of American stores/chains.

The overall insights from the research are:

1. Brands sold in Indian grocery stores tend to also be sold online on Amazon, which make them more available that I once thought.
2. 4th & Heart Brand is the most available brand, with its ghee available in major chain American stores and online.

Production practices of ghee brands

This category is to compare the way the ghees are produced. It looks at the type of cows that produced the milk that resulted in the ghee and covers any standout facts related to each company that produces the ghee.

Overall, the takeaway, which we will see support for later via the other charts, is that when there are higher quality products with a higher production quality, the price of the good and the taste generally increases.

Price comparison of brands

The price comparison chart below covers both the price of the smallest quantity I was able to buy of each of these brands and the price per ounce of each ghee. Note that these are prices from March 2024 in Seattle, Washington, USA. If you are looking for a price comparison on homemade ghee vs. store-bought ghee, you can check it out right here. The gist of it is that you can make high quality ghee at home cheaper than buying it at the store. Overall, here are the takeaways for the store-bought varieties:

• Amul is the cheapest ghee per ounce ($.53/ounce) but you need to buy a lot (1L) which ends up costing 17.99!
• Deep sells the cheapest unit of ghee sitting at $7.99; however, the price per ounce is costly sitting at $1.00/ounce.
• Simple Truth Organic (Kroger) and Nanak Desi Ghee sell a reasonable amount of ghee at a reasonable price aka (14oz) for 10.99 which sit at $.79/ounce.
• The most expensive ghee brands are 4th & Heart, Ancient Organics, and Pure Indian Foods all having a high price per ounce.

Visual, smell, and taste test of ghee

The following qualitative criteria are entirely subjective. However, here is what I did when coming up with my observations:

1. Visual: Took a look at the ghee when in bottle, mixed, and when left out at room temperature. However, some may be more "creamy in texture" due to how it was processed or whipped.
2. Smell: Smelled each jar at room temperature.
3. Taste: Took ¼ teaspoon of each ghee brand and melted them so they were the same texture to taste.

I also include a quantitative measure of months until expiration that was listed on the bottle. I thought this was important to note because the it gives an rough estimate of how fresh the ghee bottle is and a rough guide to see how long the ghee brand was sitting on shelves. I think a better number here would have been the date that it was packaged but most brands did not have that information listed.

Overall, the takeaways on taste/smell were:

• Cultured butter is amazing in taste! I only had one cultured butter in the lineup, which was from Pure Indian Foods brand, and it had the most complex and deliciously nutty flavor.
• The texture of the ghee at room temperature when you purchase it does not have a bearing on taste. This is because ghee can come in all sorts of textures as the fats can solidify and melt and reform due to how the ghee was transported. If you want to transform your grainy ghee into a uniform and creamy texture, it is best to melt it completely and let it cool evenly at room temperature.
• The expiration date of the ghee is helpful to guide if a ghee may be rancid. I do wish that ghee companies would put the packaging date that expiration date because I think this would be a better indicator of freshness. This information is also important because Amul butter for example may taste better in India compared to when it is shipped overseas and sits on shelves for a long time.

Overall Recommendations

With all of the data from above, here are my recommendations for which ghee to buy.

• Best Tasting Overall Ghee: Pure Indian Foods (Cultured Ghee)
• Best Easily Obtainable Ghee: 4th & Heart
• Best Tasting Indian Brand: Deep
• Best Tasting Ghee on a Budget: Nanak Ghee

Pure Indian Foods Cultured Ghee

Buy Now →

4th & Heart Original Grass-Fed Ghee

Buy Now →

Nanak Desi Ghee

Buy Now →

Deep Ghee

Buy Now →

Summary Chart of Ghee Varieties

One caveat in my testing is that I didn't test any ghee made with buffalo milk, which is higher in fat and is said to be very tasty compared to cow milk ghee. Unfortunately, buffalo milk ghee isn't as available in the United States where I live, but if you do get the chance, try that variety for yourself.

Overall tips for buying ghee

Here are high level tips for buying ghee at the grocery store:

• Look at the best by date on the ghee. Ghee has a really long shelf life but sometimes ghee has also been sitting on the grocery store shelves for a long time! Check the best by date to make sure you aren't getting ghee that is super old and rancid like some of the brands I tested out.
• Buy ghee that is made with grass-fed cows. Cows that are fed grass create ghee/butter that are richer in taste. Some brands will also have pasture-raised, but that tells you more where they are than what they eat. To see if they have eaten grass, it is important to check the individual brand's website. Typically, most ghee manufactures are grass-fed but not 100% grass-fed.
• Buy ghee that is produced in small batches. If the ghee is made in small batches, it likely means that they took time to slowly caramelize the milk solids in the ghee to yeild a deep complex flavor. None of the ghee varieties besides the Pure Indian Foods brand had that complexity. So when in doubt, buy a local small batch brand.Larger manufacturers of ghee either tend to cut corners by using Anhydrous Milk Fats (or butter oils) and repackaging it as ghee because it technically counts as clarified butter OR they don’t take the time to toast the milk solids enough to imbue the nutty taste that makes ghee special from  other clarified butters.
• Look at the back of the label to verify the ingredient list is short! Ideally the back of the bottle should only say butter OR clarified butter. You don't want or need anything else.
• Buy unsalted ghee to use for sweet/savory applications. I tend to buy unsalted ghee for its versatility and for controlling how much salt I want in my ghee! However, if you know you are going to use ghee primarily for savory applications, you can opt for salted ghee.

Recipes that use ghee

Once you have bought your ghee, you probably want to use it in various recipes! Here are some of my favorites that allow the delicious and high-cooking-temperature qualities of ghee to shine!

Related articles about ghee

• What is ghee?
• Homemade ghee recipe

I hope you enjoyed this article about the best ghee brands to buy. Please leave a comment below letting me know what you thought of this article and if it was helpful to you! I always love hearing your questions and your comments 🙂