Primal Kitchen Caesar Dressing Review

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Welcome to our Primal Kitchen Caesar Dressing review!

Considering that creamy and savory dressings are the bread and butter of the keto diet (oh no, bread!), and accounting for Primal Kitchen’s reputation, we maintained very high expectations throughout our review of this dressing.

A rich and familiar flavor and an undeniably clean ingredient list testified favorably for Primal Kitchen Caesar, but fair warning—you’re definitely paying a little extra.

As with most Primal Kitchen products we’ve reviewed, we’re filing this one under “very much worth it to the nutritionally committed shopper, but perhaps too much for the casual dieter.” 

Still, after judging this Primal Kitchen Caesar Dressing on all points as harshly as the original Caesar was judged—well, maybe not that harshly—we have placed it in the top tier of keto-friendly dressings, awarding the product an overall grade of A.

Primal Kitchen Caesar Dressing

• Description:

  Lush with organic, nutrient-dense ingredients that play well with keto, Primal Kitchen Caesar Dressing is an easy swap for those committed to the diet.

• Ingredients:

  Avocado Oil, Water, Organic Coconut Aminos, Organic Apple Cider Vinegar, Organic Distilled Vinegar, Mushroom Extract, Organic Gum Acacia, Organic Guar Gum, Organic Roasted Garlic, Sea Salt, Organic Black Pepper, Organic Eggs, Nutritional Yeast, Organic Lemon Juice Concentrate, Organic Garlic Powder, Organic Rosemary Extract.

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Pros and Cons

Who Is This For?

Everyone can benefit from a nutritionally superior alternative (especially to a historically mistreated category like salad dressing), but Primal Kitchen Caesar may be more valuable for Whole30, paleo, and keto dieters among others.

Ingredients and Nutritional Quality

Here is the complete ingredient list for Primal Kitchen Caesar Dressing:

Avocado Oil, Water, Organic Coconut Aminos, Organic Apple Cider Vinegar, Organic Distilled Vinegar, Mushroom Extract, Organic Gum Acacia, Organic Guar Gum, Organic Roasted Garlic, Sea Salt, Organic Black Pepper, Organic Eggs, Nutritional Yeast, Organic Lemon Juice Concentrate, Organic Garlic Powder, Organic Rosemary Extract. 

Let’s first make an assessment of the less commonly understood ingredients: 

Making a repeat appearance after our Primal Kitchen Teriyaki sauce review are coconut aminos, which, while delivering a savory umami flavor with much less sodium than soy sauce, contain little to no protein.

Nutritional yeast is an inactivated form of the same yeast commonly used in bread and beer (Saccharomyces cerevisiae), and though it doesn’t make for very good bread or beer, it is fairly rich in protein, antioxidants, and several micronutrients.

Organic gum acacia is an indigestible, fiber-rich polysaccharide (usually used as a thickener/emulsifier) that has been associated with weight loss and other health benefits; the USDA has recognized acacia as safe for human consumption since the 1970s.

Finally, the last less commonly understood ingredient in Primal Kitchen Caesar Dressing is organic guar gum, another fiber-rich thickener with potential health benefits like cholesterol and blood sugar control. 

Accounting for the rest of the ingredient list—which is composed exclusively of organic and/or natural ingredients—leaves absolutely zero room to make any deductions on the basis of added sugar, artificial ingredients, unsafe preservatives, and so on. 

In addition to their inherent keto friendliness, the avocado, mushroom extract, garlic extract, apple cider vinegar (admittedly a little over-hyped), lemon juice, and more deliver a slew of essential vitamins and minerals that can facilitate brain health, heart health, cholesterol management, Alzheimer’s and cancer prevention, blood pressure, and dozens of other applications. 

As for the nutrition facts, here are some quick highlights reported in single-serving quantities (8 servings per bottle, FYI):

• Calories: 130
• Total Fat: 14g
• Saturated Fat: 1.5g
• Monounsaturated Fat: 10g
• Cholesterol: 0mg
• Sodium: 210mg
• Total Carbohydrates: 1g
• Added Sugars: 0g

While 130 calories and 14 grams of fat per serving certainly isn’t doing the conventional calorie cutter any favors, it’s a welcome addition to the keto dieter’s arsenal.

The fact that 10 of the 14 grams of fat consist of healthier monounsaturated fat lends a helpful nod, and no other nutrients approach questionable levels—as long as you don’t dump half the bottle out for one meal.

Considering the nutrient density of the largely organic ingredient list, the lack of harmful additives, and the keto-approved macronutrient breakdown, we have no room but to award this ingredient list an _____

User Experience

Of the several members of our Primal Kitchen Caesar Dressing review team who sampled Primal Kitchen Caesar dressing, nobody had issues with late or damaged packages.

There are no surprises as far as the container is concerned—glass bottle with a label slapped around it and a plastic, threaded lid.

The product didn’t seem separated on arrival, though it’s a bit difficult to discern this with Caesar dressing, and we of course shook before using anyway.

The texture was a bit thinner than most Caesar dressings we’ve had, but not to the point that it affected our experience (didn’t have to use extra). 

The taste was a little less cheesy and a little more salty than average, and was missing that characteristic anchovy flavor—yes, good Caesar has anchovies. 

These discrepancies aside, we noticed very little difference in taste or texture between this dressing and most high-end Caesar dressing brands you can find at retail stores.

If you like a really thick and cheesy Caesar dressing and/or if you don’t like your Caesar on the saltier side, this iteration may be a bit of a turnoff, but we find these flavor and texture differences are still not significant enough for us to count them as a non-subjective issue. 

Overall, it may not have cemented itself as the absolute best-tasting Caesar dressing we’ve ever had, but Primal Kitchen’s Caesar Dressing was certainly tasty, and far better than keto-friendly dressings we’ve tried from other brands.

Brand Experience

This one’s a bit of a wide net, but in general, we approach brand experience as how well a brand optimizes every point of direct and indirect contact with their consumers, which includes the following:

• Quantity and quality of website content
• Online shopping experience
• Customer service
• Shipping/return policies
• And more

As we first covered in our Primal Kitchen review, you can cobble together a decent introduction to the brand’s story and the keto philosophy on their website, but there isn’t any singular, catch-all info resource to really welcome newbies.

However, the many blog posts, podcast episodes, and even the product pages themselves do help form a decent understanding and impression over time.

The online shopping experience is impeccably simple and informative, aided by simple drop-down menus that quickly give you access to their 80-strong (and counting) catalog.

The product and category pages are all well-designed and free of bugs, and the unobtrusive “this much more to free shipping” meter parked in the sidebar was a feature we appreciated.

Testing Primal Kitchen’s customer service, we were able to reach a human being via the phone service with very little hold time, and she dedicated a well-above-average amount of time to answering our questions thoroughly.

Combined with the added availability of email and live messenger support as well as the free shipping cutoff ($50 for non-subscribers, $25 for subscribers), we had to give an A in the brand review for customer service.

Summing up, our two biggest gripes in the brand experience department included Primal’s policy of not paying return shipping and not having a well-consolidated information base on their website for newbies.

Otherwise, Primal Kitchen makes a strong case for brand experience, earning a grade of A for this category.

Value

Like most of their dressings and marinades, Primal Kitchen charges $7.99 for their Caesar Dressing, which reduces to $1 per ounce.

We don’t love making linear comparisons across brands, considering the ingredient lists are usually far too variable to make it a fair comparison, but to at least outline the context, most high-end brands charge between $0.80 and $1.25 per ounce for Caesar dressing.

More expensive brands like Chosen Foods (closer to $1.25/oz) sport a similarly well-tended nutrition facts label, but they still don’t measure up on the number and quality of organic, nutrient-dense ingredients.

In other words,  Primal Kitchen Caesar Dressing is expensive, but it’s very fairly priced for the quality level when you consider how the competition is positioning themselves on price. 

The premium is probably enough to send casual shoppers and dieters shimmying further down the dressing aisle, but we can see the keto purist honing in on Primal Kitchen Caesar and sticking with it for a long period of time.

All considered, we give Primal Kitchen Caesar an A- for value.

FAQs for Primal Kitchen Caesar Dressing

Our Verdict

Primal Kitchen Caesar Dressing sticks to the highest standards of ingredient quality for keto-friendly dressing or otherwise, incorporating a wealth of organic ingredients and the healthy fat of avocado oil while steering clear of artificial ingredients, added sugar, and other grocery shelf woes.

Our Primal Kitchen Caesar Dressing review team noticed some minor discrepancies in flavor and texture from most conventional Caesar dressings; whether or not these are a positive or negative for each consumer depends on personal preference.

Primal Kitchen quickly and professionally addressed our questions relating to this product and others, and their shipping/return policies, free shipping cutoff, site content, and shopping experience collectively represent a pro-consumer mentality.

 You’re paying a few bucks extra for Primal Kitchen Caesar dressing, but several high-end competitors still charge more for a slightly less impressive ingredient list.

This dressing puts on a well-rounded performance, earning an overall grade of A, and we will recommend it to anyone looking for a clean and/or keto alternative to the norm.

Primal Kitchen Caesar Dressing

• Description:

  Lush with organic, nutrient-dense ingredients that play well with keto, Primal Kitchen Caesar Dressing is an easy swap for those committed to the diet.

• Ingredients:

  Avocado Oil, Water, Organic Coconut Aminos, Organic Apple Cider Vinegar, Organic Distilled Vinegar, Mushroom Extract, Organic Gum Acacia, Organic Guar Gum, Organic Roasted Garlic, Sea Salt, Organic Black Pepper, Organic Eggs, Nutritional Yeast, Organic Lemon Juice Concentrate, Organic Garlic Powder, Organic Rosemary Extract.

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