We Taste-Tested 12 Buttermilk Pancake Mixes—Here Are Our Favorites

My Sunday mornings are incomplete without a big cup of coffee and a plate piled high with fluffy buttermilk pancakes. Though I’ve long made my pancakes from scratch, there are moments when I, like many other busy humans, simply don’t have the time or energy to measure out every single ingredient needed for a fresh stack. (And with eggs costing $12 a dozen in some grocery stores, it’s hard to justify dropping two bucks worth of eggs into pancake batter.) That’s where buttermilk pancake mix comes in handy. In most cases, all you have to do is add water and oil, and voilà: You’ve got pancake batter ready to go.

Still, not all buttermilk pancake mixes are made the same. To find the very best one, we tasted 12 different blends you’re likely to find online or at your local supermarket, cooked them up, and had our tasters sample them on their own—no butter or maple syrup!—without knowing which brands they were trying. After tasting our way through the 12 buttermilk pancake mixes, we found an overall winner that we’d be happy to whip up at home, and one other worthy contender. 

The Criteria

Buttermilk pancakes should be light, fluffy, and tender. They should be well seasoned with salt, have a nice hint of sweetness, and a pleasant tanginess from buttermilk. When made from scratch, it’s the reaction between alkaline baking soda and acidic buttermilk that helps leaven the pancakes, resulting in an airy bite. In most pancake mixes, buttermilk powder or solids take the place of liquid buttermilk; adding a liquid like water or milk hydrates the dried buttermilk, allowing it to react with the baking soda in the mix. The baking soda also helps pancakes brown, giving them their characteristic golden hue. 

Though baking soda is an essential ingredient in pancake mix, too much of it can give the pancakes a bitter, metallic flavor. A great buttermilk pancake mix should be able to find the right balance of baking soda and dried buttermilk for pancakes that are not only delicious, but also crisp, golden, and fluffy.

Overall Winner: Bowl & Basket Complete Buttermilk Pancake Mix

This was everyone’s favorite. It had a sweet, buttery flavor, and our associate visuals director, Amanda, liked it so much she said she’d happily eat it plain. Like Amanda, our associate editorial director, Megan, thought this was pleasant and nutty, and enjoyed its pillowy texture. Though our senior social media editor, Kelli, thought these pancakes were too sweet, they did remind her of the springy IHOP pancakes she ate as a child. As for our editorial director, Daniel, he vaguely noted that these were “good” and “in the zone.” OK! 

Runner Up: King Arthur Baking Buttermilk Pancake Mix

Daniel was a fan of these pancakes. He noted that they had a good level of fluffiness, were substantial, and had good surface browning. Plus: They tasted good. “They’re trying to give bottled syrup vibes in the pancake itself, but I don’t dislike it here,” he wrote. “It’s balanced and subtle and doesn’t come across as overly artificial.” Similarly to Daniel, Amanda liked the complex, butter-forward flavor of the pancakes and their height.

The Contenders

• Arrowhead Mills Organic Buttermilk Pancake & Waffle Mix
• Birch Benders Organic Buttermilk Pancake and Waffle Mix
• Bisquick Buttermilk Pancake and Waffle Mix
• Bob’s Red Mill Buttermilk Pancake Mix
• Bowl & Basket Complete Buttermilk Pancake & Waffle Mix
• Good & Gather Buttermilk Pancake & Waffle Mix
• King Arthur Baking Buttermilk Pancake Mix
• Krusteaz Buttermilk Complete Pancake Mix
• Mrs. Butterworth’s Buttermilk Complete Pancake and Waffle Mix
• Nature’s Promise Organic Buttermilk Pancake Mix
• Pearl Milling Buttermilk Complete Pancake & Waffle Mix
• Trader Joe's Buttermilk Pancake & Baking Mix
  

In Conclusion

Both of our top picks contained malted barley flour, which is made from barley that’s been soaked, germinated, and dried in a kiln. This process, called malting, gives grains a toasted, earthy, caramel note—a welcome flavor in pancakes. Our favorite mixes were also notably not whole grain ones: Our editors preferred classic pancakes made with all-purpose flour, and found that mixes containing whole wheat flour had a tendency to be dry and grainy.

Our Testing Methodology

All taste tests are conducted with brands completely hidden and without discussion. Tasters taste samples in random order. For example, taster A may taste sample one first, while taster B will taste sample six first. This is to prevent palate fatigue from unfairly giving any one sample an advantage. Tasters are asked to fill out tasting sheets ranking the samples for various criteria. All data is tabulated and results are calculated with no editorial input in order to give us the most impartial representation possible.