Brie has become Australia’s go-to soft cheese for gatherings. The soft-ripening, cow’s milk cheese is a crowd-pleaser, with a mild savoury flavour and lush, creamy texture. But behind that facade of easy likeability is a deeply sensitive product, susceptible to extreme changes depending on factors such as packaging, temperature and ripeness.

Too far from its best-before date? Expect a bland flavour, without any of brie’s oozy, characteristic charm. Too far gone? It’s liable to develop a pungent, acrid aroma, with flavours reminiscent of lemon-scented bathroom cleaner.

But the greatest potential offence, in my opinion? It’s the stomach-churning waves of ammonia that develop in the rind once the brie has turned. Oof.

All of this to say, the following taste-test and ranking may prove helpful next time you’re scouring the supermarket deli for your cheese platter. But there are additional steps you can take to better your odds.

Cheesemonger, former cheesemaker and specialty cheese judge Penny Lawson, of Penny’s Cheese Shop in Sydney’s Potts Point, shares her tips for Australian-made brie.

“People love it, it’s smashable. You could probably eat a whole wheel yourself, without even thinking about it,” Lawson says.

With that in mind, I headed to Aldi, Coles, Woolworths, Costco and IGA to find the best locally made supermarket brie. I set aside any flavoured or ash-coated variants for brevity, and I’m not including the few that smelled so overwhelmingly of ammonia they made me dry retch (taking the charitable assumption it may have been a bad batch).

I discovered Australian brie could be more nuanced than anticipated, big name brands were not as reliable as one might think, freshly sliced wedges are generally better than their pre-packaged counterparts, and it is quite possible to score a dreamy slab of delicious brie for just $5 for 100 grams and under. Here they are in descending order.

The Good Food supermarket brie taste test (from the least pleasant to the perfectly gooey)

10. President Double Cream Brie
$35 per kilogram at Woolworths

This brie wasn’t pleasant, but it was edible and largely inoffensive. So low is the bar. It featured a shiny, soft interior with a mild, tangy flavour and strong, bitter aftertaste (often caused by an excess of moisture in the fermentation process, according to Lawson).

9. Thomas Dux Triple Cream Brie
$36.36 per kilogram at Woolworths

The packaging claims each bite of this brie will start mild and nutty, “before revealing a tangier character and nuttier finish”. Sounds good. But the tang it refers to is ultimately sharp, bitter and deeply unsettling. While the texture was creamy and consistent, it’s a no from me.

8. Australian Gold Creamy Brie
$39.13 per kilogram at Coles

I had low expectations for this brie, which emerged from its rumpled cardboard box with a barely existent rind. But it was surprisingly OK, featuring a curious, gummy texture and a bland, milky flavour. It’s really just string cheese for adults.

7. Jindi Brie
$44 per kilogram at Coles

This is the first brie on the list that didn’t make me reconsider veganism. Sure, the thick white rind required some aggressive mastication, and sure, the interior was closer in texture to hard tofu. But at least the flavour was there: salty, creamy and earthy. You could do (a lot) worse.

6. Emporium Selection Brie
$19.92 per kilogram at Aldi

There’s a lot to like about this brie. It’s really cheap ($2.49 for 125 grams), it’s displayed standing upright, rather than flat, which avoids the aforementioned build-up of moisture and bitterness, and an evenly soft, buttery yellow interior packs a ripe, umami-rich punch. A solid, low-stakes choice.

5. King Island Dairy Three Rivers Triple Cream Brie
$85.14 per kilogram at Woolworths

There is something romantic about King Island, Tasmania, where the cows graze on rolling hills of sea-spritzed grass, producing the milk for pricey, hand-crafted wheels of exceptionally buttery brie. While the rind is uneven, the interior is satiny and supple, with a pleasant, if placid, flavour of salty buttercream.

4. Maggie Beer Triple Cream
$46.50 per kilogram at Woolworths

Australian culinary icon Maggie Beer delivers a triple cream brie with the luscious, oozy centre we’ve been waiting for. It’s the definition of smashable, with more depth of character than one might expect of a triple cream cheese, marred only by the subtle, metallic aftertaste of the thick, snow-white rind.

3. Old Telegraph Road Creamy Brie
$43.48 per kilogram at Woolworths

This particular brie is at its prime two weeks before its best before date, when the paper-thin rind is cut open to reveal a decadent, unctuous interior. It smells fresh and delicious as it’s slathered onto a cracker (a classic water cracker, per the advice of our national food and drink writer Callan Boys), adding a delicate milky, mushroom flavour that’s easy to appreciate. Bonus: it’s just $5 per 115g wheel.

2. Shale Point Triple Cream Brie
$49.35 per kilogram at IGA

Releasing a slab of this brie from its cling-wrapped confines is like unbuttoning a tight pair of pants right after Christmas lunch. It billows out into an amorphous blob of near-molten cheese, so devastatingly delicious you won’t want to share. Expect gentle, creamy flavours balanced with a fruity, earthy aftertaste.

Releasing this brie from its cling-wrapped confines is like unbuttoning a tight pair of pants right after Christmas lunch.

1. Udder Delights Brie
$48.90 per kilogram at Coles

Bury me with this brie. After a long and ammonia-filled journey of questionable cheese wheels, I have a deep appreciation for this slab of dreamy, Adelaide Hills brie. It’s got everything: the perfect, just-gooey-enough texture, the velvety rich mouthfeel, and the balance of salty, fruity and savoury flavours.