Specially Selected Small Batch Sourdough Loaf
Rachael also contributed to this review.
Sourdough is a fun bread. It has a decidedly different flavor than a traditional white or wheat bread, with — as the name suggests — just a bit of sour flavor. It’s also a versatile bread, as it can be used for any meal, whether it’s toasted for breakfast, made as part of a lunch sandwich or used to sop up the remains of a broccoli cheddar soup.
Most big grocers carry sourdough. The good news is Aldi does, too.
In 2020, we reviewed Aldi sourdough … and got an earful from customers about the ingredients. Five years later, we bought another loaf to find out if anything had changed.
The Specially Selected Small Batch Sourdough Loaf is a Regular Buy, meaning you can get it in stores all times of the year. You can find it in the bakery section of the store alongside other breads and rolls.
In 2025, this sourdough loaf comes in a plastic bag and costs $3.29 for 24 ounces. That comes out to around 14 cents per ounce. That’s up a little from the 12 cents an ounce we paid back in 2020.
We bought this loaf — both in 2020 and again in 2025 — with our own funds to try it out.
What Is Sourdough?
Whether something is “real sourdough” can be a polarizing subject. True sourdough — either what you make at home or buy at a local bakery — is made with a fermented sourdough starter culture of good bacteria and natural yeast in a flour and water mixture. That fermentation comes with some potential benefits, including antioxidants to fight disease, a lower glycemic index to reduce blood sugar spikes, and possible improved digestion because sourdough functions like a prebiotic that feeds good gut bacteria.
A Look Back at Aldi Sourdough in 2020
When we reviewed Aldi’s sourdough in 2020, many readers argued that the sourdough loaf we reviewed at the time wasn’t true sourdough based on its ingredients. At the time, the loaf contained enriched flour, water, wheat gluten, salt, calcium propionate, yeast, calcium sulfate, enzymes, and ascorbic acid.
There was nothing fermented in the ingredients list. Instead, it used yeast and ascorbic acid. In other words, it was more like sourdough-flavored bread, which also means consumers probably weren’t getting the potential health benefits one would find in a loaf of traditional sourdough.
To be fair, Aldi isn’t the only one who has done this, as a lot of commercial sourdough sold at many grocery stores is not true sourdough.
A Look at Aldi Sourdough in 2025
The Aldi sourdough loaf we tried in 2025 contains fermented wheat flour. It also contains enriched wheat flour, water, salt, wheat gluten, fermented wheat flour, and yeast. The label boasts “3 main ingredients: flour, water and salt.”
What does that mean? Well, while it still contains yeast, it does contain fermented wheat flour. That perhaps makes it closer to a traditional sourdough … although, again, readers may have opinions on that subject.
For what it’s worth, the package states:
Our breads are baked for you using authentic artisan methods in small batches, including extended natural fermentation. With non-GMO ingredients and 100% traceable seeds from grain to loaf, the result is a premium quality bread that is both delicious and nutritious.
Nutritionally, the current Aldi sourdough loaf has about 15 one-slice servings per package. One slice has 100 calories, no fat, 240 mg of sodium (10% DV), 21 grams of total carbohydrates (8% DV), 1 gram of dietary fiber (4% DV), no sugars, and 3 grams of protein. On the allergen front, the loaf contains wheat and may contain milk or soy.
In our view, it’s a tasty bread. It’s easy to handle, holds together very well, and tastes great no matter how it’s prepared. I’ve eaten it toasted with jam, as part of a ham and cheese sandwich, as part of a tuna sandwich, and served it with butter alongside a dinner entree. It passed with flying colors each time. One small drawback is that each piece of bread is wide and large, but it’s easy to chop a slice of bread in half for, say, sandwich purposes.
The Verdict:
We think Aldi’s Specially Selected Small Batch Sourdough Loaf is a good-tasting sourdough, with the taste and texture we’d expect. The bread holds together well and works for a number of different meals. In terms of ingredients, this Aldi loaf is more like true sourdough than it was five years ago. Whether it’s true enough is up to shoppers to decide.
All the sourdough breads I’ve ever seen had a crispy crust. This ain’t it.
I bake sourdough bread. There are ways to get a soft crust when you bake bread. The crust of any bread will soften once it’s stored in a plastic bag.
Thanks for posting this. The last time I bought Aldi’s sourdough bread (because I didn’t have a fresh sourdough starter to make my own) I was disappointed to see that there was no sourdough starter (fermented flour) and that yeast was added to make it rise, along with ascorbic acid to create a sour flavor. This new recipe is better because it does have sourdough starter, but it’s the next to last ingredient, which makes me wonder how much sourdough starter is actually in there. Apparently there’s enough to flavor the bread, but I wonder if there’s enough to give this bread the nutritional benefit of “real” sourdough bread made with sourdough starter and no yeast.
It’s good to hear from someone who bakes sourdough. Thanks for the input.
You’re welcome, Rachael. I forgot to mention that I will buy this bread in a pinch because it’s improved over the last recipe.
My family has been enjoying the sourdough bread from Aldi for years, whether it is the new and improved or the former one. It has a great flavor and texture with a good chew, supports a hefty sandwich, and a nice change to the usual white or wheat sandwich slice. It works well for sandwiches in the panini maker, grilled/toasted in a pan on the stovetop, or open-faced broiled in the oven. The uncut loaf works well as a spinach dip bread bowl. Overall a very well priced and yummy bread.
Try the Aldi Specially Selected Sourdough Round. Ingredients listed are: wheat flour (wheat flour, malted barley flour), water, sea salt, sourdough culture, (wheat flour, water), enzymes. Front of bag lists it is made in small batches. The label is in blue, as opposed to the orange. I love it! Less issues with digestion than with the Publix sourdough.
This one is okay.(the orange label) But the blue is outstanding. A hundred times better. You won’t regret trying it. Plus remember Aldi has their twice as nice guarantee. If you don’t care for it. Return the item & get another item for equal the value for free.