Maple Grove Farms of Vermont Fat Free Greek

“Greek” dressing? That’s a new one to me so I knew immediately I had to try it. First. I looked around on the internet to see what Greek salad dressing was made from. The concensus appears to be that it is made from olive oil and lemon juice. Additional ingredients most often appear to be oregano and black pepper. However, none of these seem to be contained in this dressing unless they are contained in the list called “spices”. Olive oil is not listed but the normal cider vinegar is as well as high fructose corn syrup. In other words, there are no surprises in the list of ingredients.

Armed with this knowledge I tried the dressing. “Tangy” is how I would describe it. It does cause one to pucker after tasting it. This dressing doesn’t hide its taste but puts it out there so that you know that it is there and you don’t really get used to the taste. It stays with you until you reach the end of your salad and even then you keep tasting it. It also has some ingredient or spice that you feel in your lips when you are finished. Your lips tingle a little bit for a few minutes after eating.

It is hard to categorize this dressing as good or bad. It is not entirely pleasant but also I would not describe it as bad. It does have a vinegary taste with a tang. Since this is the first Greek dressing I have tried (are there any more commercial ones out there?) I can’t compare this to other dressing. It is not a “shrinking violet” in taste but bold. I’m going to have to use it more to get a better idea of it but I would not really say I look forward to trying it more.

Taste Rating = 6
Overall Rating = 6
Style Category = Greek
Fat Category = fat free
Calorie Category = low calorie
Nutritional Category = none
Sodium Category = med

Kraft Light Three Cheese Ranch

Using the word “light” seems almost stretching the point with this dressing – in more ways than one. It is thick and creamy. In fact it is thicker than most other full Ranch dressings. It also seems to contain almost as much fat calories (70) and even calories (80) and sodium as other full dressings. Even with all of that going against it (in my opinion) I have to say I like this dressing. It does say “50% less fat and 33% fewer calories than regular dressing”. I probably need to add to my to-do list to check this out. Does it mean against their (Kraft) regular dressing or against the one on the market with the highest fat and calories?

It reminds me a lot of mayonnaise with a little of something else added to give it taste. I guess this is where the cheese comes in to play. If you study the list of ingredients you find that it contains Parmesan, Romano cheese and then further down it lists cheddar cheese. The taste is not very strong and it is not objectionable. In fact, after putting it on my finger to taste it I feel like I would like to just eat more of it by itself. Most dressings would be too much without being offset by the taste of other food with them but this one is not overpowering but also not too weak. It really doesn’t have the tangy taste that I usually look for in a dressing but I find it has pleasant taste that I could eat over and over again – except for the fat calories I might be inclined to do so.



Taste Rating = 7
Overall Rating = 6
Style Category = Ranch
Fat Category = high
Calorie Category = high
Nutritional Category = none
Sodium Category = high