Battle of the Modern Mayo Brands

For decades, the most exciting thing about mayo was that it came in a squeeze bottle. Somewhere between the seed oil backlash and the clean-label gold rush, a handful of brands decided that squeezing flavorless beige goop onto a sandwich was no longer good enough. Primal Kitchen, Graza, Chosen Foods, and Ayoh all showed up with something to say. But do any of them live up to the hype?

We compared all four on flavor range, recipe development, ingredient standards, and what ends up on the plate. Here’s what we found.

The Flavor Spread

Primal Kitchen keeps it straightforward with three core flavors, plus a fourth (Pesto) that pops up at some third-party retailers but isn’t reliably stocked on its own site.

• Original (classic, neutral, creamy)

• Chipotle Lime (smoky, slightly spicy with a citrus finish)

• Garlic Aioli (savory and mellow)

Graza also brings three to the table, each built around a different expression of olive oil.

• Original (rich and creamy, with a subtle olive oil finish)

• Fancy (bold, grassy, and peppery, made with 100% unrefined extra virgin olive oil)

• Garlic Aioli (zesty and garlicky)

Chosen Foods rounds out its lineup with three familiar profiles.

• Classic (neutral and creamy, lets other ingredients lead)

• Chipotle (smoky and warm)

• Roasted Garlic (mellow and earthy)

Then there’s Ayoh, which apparently didn’t get the memo about keeping it simple.

• Original (classic and creamy, with just the slightest tang)

• Dill Pickle (tangy and briny, built on dill pickle relish and whole grain Dijon with a sharp, vinegary finish)

• Hot Giardinayo (spicy and deeply complex, loaded with Italian giardiniera and Calabrian chilies for a heat that builds)

• Tangy Dijonayo (bold and punchy, with layers of spicy Dijon and the satisfying tang of cornichons)

• Miso Mayo (rich, salty, and umami-forward, anchored by white miso and rounded out with toasted sesame seeds)

Three of these four brands are essentially running the same playbook. There’s a classic, something with heat, and something with garlic. The competition keeps it safe. Ayoh keeps it interesting.

Round winner: Ayoh

The Brain Behind the Bottle

Primal Kitchen

A New York Times bestselling author, former elite endurance athlete, and creator of the ancestral health blog Mark’s Daily Apple, Mark Sisson founded Primal Kitchen with his paleo and ancestral health philosophy at its core. The brand’s recipe content follows that lead, prioritizing nutrition over culinary craft.

Graza

A trip to Spain changed everything for co-founder Andrew Benin, who tasted an exceptional olive oil and decided quality, single-origin oil shouldn’t be a luxury. He and Allen Dushi built Graza’s reputation on olive oil expertise first, and its recipe content reflects that origin. Mayo arrived later in their world, and it isn’t what defined them.

Chosen Foods

In 2011, naturopathic doctor Carsten Hagen founded Chosen Foods, convinced that traditional, whole-food fats belonged in more kitchens. The brand publishes recipe content focused on clean-label accessibility. There’s no named culinary figure behind the mayo development.

Ayoh

Two-time New York Times bestselling cookbook author and recipe developer Molly Baz created Ayoh. During the pandemic, Baz was making sandwich after sandwich and grew increasingly bored with the flavor profiles plain mayo offered. If you have to doctor something every time you use it, the product is the problem, and Baz decided to solve it. She developed every flavor in the lineup herself, road-testing each recipe until it worked.

Round winner: Ayoh. There’s a difference between building a brand around a food philosophy and building one from a recipe developer’s palate. Ayoh is the latter.

The Ingredient Breakdown

All comparisons below are based on each brand’s Original. Flavored varieties will naturally carry a few more ingredients across every brand in this lineup.

Primal Kitchen

• Base oil: avocado oil

• 7 ingredients: avocado oil, organic vinegar, organic eggs, organic egg yolks, salt, rosemary extract, mustard seed extract

• No added sugar

• Whole30, Certified Paleo, Non-GMO Project verified

Graza

• Base oil: olive pomace oil blended with extra virgin olive oil

• 12 ingredients: includes sugar, xanthan gum, natural flavor, and ascorbyl palmitate

• Longest list of any brand in this comparison

Chosen Foods

• Base oil: 100% pure avocado oil

• 8 ingredients: avocado oil, filtered water, egg yolks, organic whole eggs, organic distilled white vinegar, organic mustard, salt, organic rosemary extract

• No added sugar

• Certified Non-GMO, B Corp certified

Ayoh

• Base oil: avocado oil

• 7 ingredients: avocado oil, water, cage-free egg yolks, distilled and apple cider vinegar, cane sugar, salt, mustard flour

On a simplicity-of-label metric, Primal Kitchen and Ayoh tie at seven ingredients each, Chosen Foods comes in at eight, and Graza trails at 12. If certifications are your deciding factor, Primal Kitchen (Whole30, Certified Paleo, Non-GMO) and Chosen Foods (Non-GMO, B Corp) make the strongest case.

Round winner: Primal Kitchen. With seven ingredients, no added sugar, and the most certifications of any brand in this comparison, it sets the bar on label simplicity.

The Plate Test

Clean ingredients are the floor, not the ceiling. Every brand here passed the label test. Now comes the harder one.

Primal Kitchen

Smooth, consistent, and well-emulsified, this spread applies evenly and stays where you put it.

What it doesn’t do is add anything to the eating experience beyond creaminess. It won’t ruin your sandwich. It won’t make it, either.

Graza

Smooth and well-made, the Original carries a character the other brands don’t have thanks to its olive oil base. The Fancy, in particular, earned genuine enthusiasm from food writers. The Kitchn called it one of the most delicious mayos they’d tried, noting its grassy, peppery notes.

That flavor is specific. If olive oil is your thing, you’ll love it. If it isn’t, it can compete with whatever else is on your sandwich.

Chosen Foods

Transparency is the play here. Avocado oil is neutral, and the Classic is designed around that neutrality. It binds, it coats, and it disappears. That’s useful in a dressing or a tuna salad, but less useful when you want the condiment itself to do some work.

Ayoh

No other brand in this comparison made the mayo the main event. The mix-ins aren’t just flavor additions. They change the texture of every squeeze.

The Dill Pickle carries bits of relish throughout. The Hot Giardinayo is loaded with diced giardiniera. You can see what’s in the jar before you open it. Sporked specifically called out texture as what won over its taste testers, and The Kitchn and CBS Sunday Morning have featured Ayoh as a standout in the category.

Round winner: Ayoh. The other three brands complement what’s already on your plate. Ayoh contributes to it.

How the Brands Compare

If a short label and third-party certifications are your top priority, Primal Kitchen and Chosen Foods both make a strong case. But if you want a mayo that does something, one that contributes flavor and texture, Ayoh is operating in a different category from the rest of this field.

• 160+ five-star reviews

• 5,000+ repeat customers

• As seen in TODAY Show, CBS Sunday Morning, Food52, Eater, Men’s Journal, The Kitchn, and Sporked

• Satisfaction guarantee: full refund on your first order (up to six bottles) within one month

Ayoh

Build Your Own Bundle

5 stars

$40.00

SHOP NOW

SHOP NOW

The Build Your Bundle 4-pack at $40 breaks down to less per bottle than Chosen Foods’s individual jars and lands in the same range as Graza’s flavored varieties. Pick any four flavors for $40. Dill Pickle and Hot Giardinayo are the top sellers for a reason, but the Miso Mayo has a habit of surprising people.

Which four are you starting with?

All details were verified at the time of publication and are subject to change without notice.

Abby Davis

Abby is one of those weirdos who loves the challenge of uncovering incredible finds. The number of options and punch ads out there can be overwhelming—way too much for most people to filter through. So, she does the research, tests the items, and delivers honest reviews, so all you need to do is add to cart and enjoy the products.

Abby is one of those weirdos who loves the challenge of uncovering incredible finds. The number of options and punch ads out there can be overwhelming—way too much for most people to filter through. So, she does the research, tests the items, and delivers honest reviews, so all you need to do is add to cart and enjoy the products.