It is pumpkin season and since so many people use canned pumpkin this time of year, we tested and reviewed nine popular canned pumpkin brands to determine the best canned pumpkin.

Canned pumpkin puree is one of those ingredients you might assume is pretty much the same from brand to brand. After all, most cans contain just one ingredient: pumpkin. But crack open a few brands side by side and the differences are surprisingly obvious. Some are thick and velvety, while others are loose, watery, grainy, or even fibrous. Colors range from bright orange to dull, brownish shades, and the flavor can be naturally sweet and distinctly pumpkin-y or surprisingly bland and vegetal.

Those differences matter even more once you start baking. Pumpkin puree contributes both flavor and moisture to baked goods, so the can you choose can affect the taste, color, and texture of pumpkin pie, bread, muffins, cookies, and more.

To find the best canned pumpkin puree, we put nine popular options to the test: Libby’s 100% Pure Pumpkin, Farmer’s Market Organic Pumpkin, 365 by Whole Foods Market Pumpkin Puree, Good & Gather 100% Pure Pumpkin from Target, Kroger 100% Pure Pumpkin, Great Value 100% Pure Pumpkin from Walmart, Amazon Grocery Organic Pumpkin, Organic Green Valley Pumpkin and Trader Joe’s Organic Pumpkin.

And while a few cans quickly separated themselves from the pack, our baking test also delivered a surprise: The puree with the most impressive texture wasn’t necessarily the one we liked best overall.

How We Tested


We started by evaluating every pumpkin puree straight from the can so sugar, spices, and other ingredients couldn’t mask the differences between brands. We compared each one based on color, aroma, texture, consistency, sweetness, and pumpkin flavor.

For texture, we looked at how thick or thin each puree was, whether it was smooth, grainy, chunky, or fibrous, and whether there was any visible liquid or separation. We also smelled and tasted each puree, noting the strength of its pumpkin aroma and flavor, its natural sweetness, and any earthy, vegetal, acidic, metallic, or overly cooked notes.

But tasting pumpkin straight from the can only tells you so much. Most of us are buying canned pumpkin to bake with it, so we put every brand through a second—and arguably more important—test: pumpkin pie.

We prepared each pie using the same recipe so we could see how the differences we noticed straight from the can translated after the pumpkin was mixed with sugar and spices and baked.

And one thing became very clear: What came out of the can was a remarkably good indication of what ended up in the pie.

The smoother purees generally produced smoother, silkier fillings, while grainy or fibrous purees retained some of that texture after baking. The same thing happened with flavor. Vegetal and squash-like notes didn’t simply disappear beneath the sugar and spices—they were still noticeable in the finished pies.

That made the flavor and texture of the pumpkin straight from the can much more important than we initially expected—and ultimately played a major role in which can came out on top.

Review of Canned Pumpkins

Libby’s 100% Pure Pumpkin

Price: About $1.97 to $2.39 for a 15-ounce can
Organic: No
Ingredients: Pumpkin

Straight from the can, Libby’s had the classic orange color we associate with pumpkin puree. It was thick enough to hold its shape on a spoon without being overly dense, with no visible water or separation. There was a slight graininess, but overall the puree was smooth and pleasant.

The aroma was mild but distinctly pumpkin-y with a hint of natural sweetness. The flavor followed suit: slightly sweet with a recognizable pumpkin flavor that wasn’t overpowering. Most importantly, there weren’t any distracting vegetal, metallic, acidic, or overly cooked notes.

That balance translated beautifully to baking. The finished pie was smooth and creamy with the classic pumpkin flavor we were looking for. While another puree in the test managed to produce an even silkier filling, Libby’s impressed us with how well it performed across every category.

It’s also incredibly easy to find, making it a practical option whether you’re baking pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving or throwing a can into pumpkin bread or muffins.

Best for: Pumpkin pie, bread, muffins, cookies, and other pumpkin desserts.

Good & Gather 100% Pure Pumpkin

Price: $1.99 for a 15-ounce can
Organic: No
Ingredients: Pumpkin

Good & Gather looked promising as soon as we opened the can. It had a beautiful bright-orange color, no visible water or separation, and one of the better pumpkin aromas in the test.

It was also extremely thick—but that came with a downside. The puree was noticeably chunky and fibrous compared with some of the smoother cans in the lineup. Visually, the texture wasn’t especially appealing.

Flavor was a strength. It had a mild but recognizable pumpkin taste with subtle sweetness and a fresh quality.

But our pie test reinforced just how important the texture of canned pumpkin can be. That fibrous quality didn’t magically disappear in the oven and affected the texture of the finished pie. We liked its pumpkin flavor and bright color, but wished its texture were smoother.

Best for: Pumpkin bread, muffins, and baked goods where an ultra-silky texture isn’t essential.

Farmer’s Market Organic Pumpkin
Price: About $3.19 to $3.99 for a 15-ounce can
Organic: Yes
Ingredients: Organic pumpkin puree

Farmer’s Market was one of the more surprising cans in the test. There was visible water sitting on top of the puree as soon as we opened it. Underneath, the pumpkin was fairly smooth and had a lighter orange color.

What really separated it from some of the other cans was the flavor. There wasn’t much sweetness or classic pumpkin aroma. Instead, the smell leaned more vegetal and squash-like, and the puree itself didn’t deliver much of the familiar pumpkin flavor we were looking for.

Those vegetal qualities remained noticeable after baking. This was another example of why tasting the puree before you bake with it can tell you more than you might expect. Sugar and spices can complement the pumpkin, but they don’t necessarily erase its underlying flavor.

Best for: Savory recipes or dishes where a more vegetal, squash-forward flavor would be welcome.

365 by Whole Foods Market Pumpkin Puree (Not the Organic Version)
Price: $2.49 for a 15-ounce can
Organic: No
Ingredients: Pumpkin

If we were handing out an award based solely on texture, this can would have been difficult to beat. The 365 pumpkin was the smoothest puree of all eight brands we tested. It was thick and creamy without the chunkiness, grittiness, or fibrous texture we noticed in several of the other cans. It also had an appealing, bright orange color.

Its weakness was flavor. There wasn’t much aroma or natural sweetness, and the pumpkin itself tasted mild and squash-like rather than intensely pumpkin-y.

Then we baked with it—and this is where 365 really shined. The exceptionally smooth puree produced an incredibly silky pumpkin pie filling. In fact, it produced our favorite pie of the entire group from a purely textural standpoint.

Best for: Pumpkin pie and other desserts where an exceptionally smooth texture matters.

Amazon Grocery Organic Pumpkin

Price: Varies by availability; $4.31 when purchased for this test
Organic: Yes
Ingredients: Organic pumpkin

Amazon Grocery’s organic pumpkin was one of the darker purees in the test, with a deep orange color and an extremely thick consistency. There was no visible water or separation, and the puree almost looked as though the pumpkin had been cooked down and concentrated.

It had a slight grittiness, although it wasn’t unpleasant, and its aroma was one of its strongest attributes. We got a noticeably sweet, pumpkin-forward smell as soon as we opened the can.

Its dense, cooked-down consistency also distinguished it from the lighter, smoother purees in the lineup. And once again, baking showed us that the consistency you see in the can matters: those textural characteristics remained noticeable in the finished pie.

Best for: Pumpkin cookies, brownies, bars, and other baked goods where excess moisture can affect the texture.

Green Valley Organic Pumpkin

Price: $3.99 for a 15-ounce can
Organic: Yes
Ingredients: Organic pumpkin

Green Valley’s organic pumpkin was bright orange and had a thinner consistency compared to other brands, but there was no visible water or separation. It also had a pleasant pumpkin aroma.

The texture was fairly smooth, but the pumpkin flavor was quite mild.

Kroger 100% Pure Pumpkin

Price: $2.19 for a 15-ounce can
Organic: No
Ingredients: Pumpkin

Kroger started strong. Its bright orange color was appealing, the consistency was thick without being overly dense, and it had a pleasant pumpkin aroma.

Unfortunately, the flavor didn’t live up to the smell. When tasted plain, we picked up a noticeable metallic quality, while the actual pumpkin flavor was surprisingly mild. Overall, it tasted relatively flat compared with some of the other cans.

And because our baking test showed that undesirable flavors weren’t necessarily masked by sugar and spices, that metallic note made it difficult for Kroger to compete with the cleaner-tasting options.

Trader Joe’s Organic Pumpkin

Price: $2.79 for a 15-ounce can
Organic: Yes
Ingredients: Organic pumpkin

Trader Joe’s was unlike almost every other canned pumpkin we tested.

When we opened the can, there was visible water sitting on top. The light-orange puree underneath was extremely smooth but also very loose, with a consistency that reminded us more of baby food than the thick canned pumpkin we were accustomed to.

The flavor was mild, lightly sweet, and distinctly squash-like, with a noticeable acidic quality. That made it less appealing for the classic pumpkin-pie flavor profile we were after.

But that doesn’t necessarily make it a bad product. In fact, the qualities that worked against Trader Joe’s in pumpkin pie could make it particularly useful elsewhere. Its ultra-smooth, loose consistency and more savory, squash-forward flavor seem tailor-made for creamy pumpkin soup, pasta sauce, curry, or other savory dishes.

Best for: Pumpkin soup and other savory recipes.

Great Value 100% Pure Pumpkin

Price: $1.96 for a 15-ounce can
Organic: No
Ingredients: Pumpkin

Great Value stood out immediately, but unfortunately not for the reasons we hoped.

It was thick but slightly gritty, and the aroma reminded us of pumpkin that had been cooked down for too long, with an almost burnt quality.

That same characteristic came through in the flavor. Rather than fresh or naturally sweet pumpkin, we tasted a heavily cooked, slightly burnt note.

And baking didn’t rescue it. One of the biggest lessons from this test was that undesirable characteristics in the puree tended to carry through to the pie. In this case, the cooked-down flavor and grittier texture remained noticeable after baking.

Final Ranking

Our Final Verdict: The Best Canned Pumpkin Puree Is…

After tasting nine canned pumpkin purees straight from the can and then baking each one into pumpkin pie, Libby’s 100% Pure Pumpkin was our clear favorite.

Interestingly, Libby’s wasn’t necessarily the sweetest, smoothest, or most intensely pumpkin-flavored puree in any single category. Instead, it was the most well-rounded. It had the classic orange color we wanted, a thick but smooth consistency, mild natural sweetness, recognizable pumpkin flavor, and none of the distracting off-flavors we detected in some of the other brands. It’s also widely available and reasonably priced, making it the canned pumpkin we’d reach for again and again.

365 by Whole Foods Market was our runner-up—and the clear winner for texture. It was the smoothest puree we tested and produced an exceptionally silky pumpkin pie. Its mild, squash-like flavor and lack of natural sweetness kept it from overtaking Libby’s, but for bakers who prioritize an ultra-smooth pie filling, it’s a fantastic option. (Please note, 365 Whole Foods also sells an organic version, which is not the same. While it has a deeper orange color, the texture is thicker and slightly chunkier and the flavor is less sweet.)

Perhaps the biggest surprise from the entire test was how closely the qualities of the uncooked puree predicted the finished pie. Smooth pumpkin made smoother pie. Fibrous or grainy pumpkin produced a less-silky filling. And vegetal, acidic, metallic, or heavily cooked flavors didn’t simply disappear after adding sugar and spices.

So before you dump that can into your next pumpkin pie, take a look—and maybe even a taste. The pumpkin puree you start with can make a bigger difference in the finished dessert than you might think.