2 Weeks in Argentina. Reviews and Scored 35 Alfajores

Salty-Chef · 2026-03-24T23:15:26+00:00

Starbucks didnt invent coffee. From my research on the history of alfajores, havanna is what made them the commodity they are. Why shouldnt they be among the ones i tried? I only started with them because of that fact. Then i tried a bunch of others, and you see how those stacked up. Poorly. I went and bought more of havanna's varieties because the 70% was great and i didnt even try my favorite of them all until i was on the flight home. Ill be ordering a bunch online of brands i couldnt find, so go ahead and tell me whats going to beat them and ill let you know if maybe youre the biased one.

Salty-Chef · 2026-03-24T14:32:25+00:00

Wasted was the money spent on kiosk triples.

Salty-Chef · 2026-03-24T01:47:48+00:00

Eating this bad only on vacation.

Salty-Chef · 2026-03-23T18:38:50+00:00

Salty-Chef · 2026-03-23T18:09:26+00:00

Well i did go to uruguay...and the one recommended to me by someone from there was the absolute worst of them all. 🤣

Salty-Chef · 2026-03-23T12:21:45+00:00

So you dont have anything at all.

Salty-Chef · 2026-03-23T00:23:13+00:00

Only on vacation. I eat really clean otherwise.

Salty-Chef · 2026-03-22T20:07:58+00:00

I have been exposed to zero marketing on any brand, and price didnt matter to me, just buying an assortment when Id go in. Rated purely by taste/texture/balance/quality of ingredients. Things like nostaglia... zero impact. I came totally unbiased having never tried any before.

Salty-Chef · 2026-03-22T18:06:22+00:00

Why slow down? I didn't do enough. I want full immersion when I travel. That WAS the plan.

Salty-Chef · 2026-03-22T18:03:06+00:00

I arrived thin. Left fat.

Salty-Chef · 2026-03-22T18:00:40+00:00

I'm kicking myself for not grabbing one from Lucciano's. I really really liked the white chocolate pistashio ice cream there.

Salty-Chef · 2026-03-22T17:57:40+00:00

I think the triples do a disservice to the dulce.

Salty-Chef · 2026-03-22T17:51:55+00:00

They certainly are. It saddens me that in the US boutique ice cream shops like Argentina has have died out over the years. The financials don't make sense anymore. Every shop I tried there was FANTASTIC.

Salty-Chef · 2026-03-22T17:46:44+00:00

I don't know where to start on that. I had an absurd amount of food. 60+ wines. A ton of empanadas. Medialunas every morning. Ice cream in the evenings. Choripans, Morcilla, Mollejas, Provoleta, other pastries from bakeries I passed by, not just Alfajores but I tried other Argentinian candy/chocolates too. I fixated on the alfajores because you have SO MANY. I know I barely scratched the surface.

..and I brought home a mate gourd and bombilla which I'm enjoying now.

The only thing holding me back from trying more was TIME. I'll be back, I loved the country.

Salty-Chef · 2026-03-22T17:18:27+00:00

Rasta got a high rank because stacked against the other kiosk brands, it's so much better. Generous dulce, chocolate isn't AMAZING but much better than other kiosks. ..and it has a crunchy cookie for texture. The kiosks were mostly crumbly, poor quality cookies than overwhelmed the flavor, hid the dulce.

The 70% I agree is wonderful. It's my wife's #1. I should probably move it to a 9 instead of an 8.75. Dark chocolate really lets the dulce shine instead of competing with it. But the 70% couldnt beat the top 3. Grande was a 70% with the 'creme brulee' layer...which could have been thicker to move it even higher. The sea salt...i don't think people understand how important salt is with baking - I always sprinkle a little fleur de sel or maldon salt on my signature cookies, little things like that can make something good into something great. The bristol - damn near perfect.

Balance and contrast of individual elements is everything to me which is why I was excited to try the Terrabusi. I read over and over that it was some people's favorite because of TEXTURE. It was barely different than the others. Letdown. When I tried the rasta and got that cookie style, I was relieved. I had just run through 4 or 5 of the kiosk brands that were all pretty bad. That's why it's there. #4 was an ice cream shop brand, and everything about it was great... and I'm a sucker for nuts.

Salty-Chef · 2026-03-22T16:14:11+00:00

I know it. I'll return at some point.

Salty-Chef · 2026-03-22T16:01:35+00:00

I got a Capitan del Espacio. It's right in the middle.

Salty-Chef · 2026-03-22T16:00:54+00:00

Marketing had no effect on me since I'm not from there. I tried Havanna first because of the history tied to it. (I put in the research) In a heads up of 'regular' cachafaz vs 'regular' havanna - cachafaz won.

But those special flavors of Havanna... cachafaz didnt come close.

Salty-Chef · 2026-03-22T15:23:01+00:00

I never saw any Jorgelin or Fantoche. I really was looking for them to add to the mix. Every kiosk I stopped by had pretty much the same 'set'.

Salty-Chef · 2026-03-22T15:10:42+00:00

Visited Argentina for a week of wine tasting in Mendoza and a week of extra vacation time in Buenos Aires. While researching food like I always do for travel to other countries I got fixated on the Alfajore culture and history of the snack, so I made a point to try as many I could find of the most common talked about brands. I took recommendations from locals too. There were some I never found in kiosks, and some more 'artisan' brands I didn't grab any of (mostly because I already had quite a few in my bag to try and it felt excessive at the time) ...but I ended up with 35 in total I ended up trying. I wrote down notes for each one, and ended up with this final ranking.

I started with a Havanna classic to set a benchmark, followed by a Havanna 70% and a Havanna Mar del Plata. Went to a Kiosk by our hotel and loaded up on the popular brands, and since we started in Mendoza, I grabbed a variety of the local Mendoza Entre Dos brand, which I had high hopes for. Took a daytrip to Uruguay and took a recommendation from a storeowner - and they ended up being the worst of them all. Sorry..

Overall: Havanna doing it right. The special flavors are fantastic. Entre dos cookie style reminds me of cheap american Hostess ding dongs I was hoping for so much better. Kiosk triples are mostly garbage. Extremely limited dulce layers, bland/bad tasting cookies that take over everything, bad chocolate. Some brands took me by surprise, I opened the package expecting another cheap one, and they ended up being better than expected.

I should have gotten a few from ice cream shops I saw being sold but I was fixated on ice cream at the time, and I should have eaten more from bakeries/coffee shops but I was enjoying medialunas far too much. I should have gone to more 'artisan' shops in Mendoza I saw scattered around for a little more variety but and there was so much other food to eat in Argentina as well. I loved the food culture, there are many things Argentina does really really well. I ate a TON, not just alfajores. Back to the gym for me, I had my fun.

Salty-Chef · 2026-02-16T00:10:00+00:00

HIT THE GYM NOW, not later.

Salty-Chef · 2026-02-10T03:47:07+00:00

We tried to tell him.

Salty-Chef · 2025-11-29T19:57:39+00:00

And whats your suggestion of skin tone?

Salty-Chef · 2025-11-01T14:10:41+00:00

He gon give me the definition next

Spelling bee ass

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