The Best and Worst Green Curry Paste - A Thai Chef's Review

Green curry is the #1 most popular Thai curry - and while many of us would love to be making the curry paste from scratch, let's face it, most of us are gonna be turning to store bought. No shame though, cuz guess what ... most Thai people buy our curry pastes too, myself included!

So the real important question is: which is the "best" brand of Thai green curry paste? I did a blind taste test for red curry pastes a while back and found huge differences between brands that could make or break your curry, and now we have to answer the same question for green curry!

More of a video person? Watch the Curry Paste Tasting Video here, complete with my live reaction!

How I Chose the Brands for Review

There are a large variety of brands out there, and it’s impossible for me to taste test them all, so I had to narrow it down to five which is a manageable number. To qualify for my test, the criteria was:

• The brand is commonly available outside of Thailand. So nothing obscure, local, or specific to a region.
• The brand has to have been around for a long time and have a good reputation; so they’re all coming in with a certain amount of cred. New brands are popping up all the time, but I wanted ones that have at least passed the test of time.
• The brand has to have all the expected ingredients for a green curry paste. I also checked that they don't have any chemical additives, because a good curry paste should just be a mix of real food ingredients.

Our 5 Green Curry Paste Contestants

With the above criteria, I arrived at these 5:

• Maeploy - my current go-to brand and the winner from our red curry paste test. It does contain shrimp paste, which is traditional, but if you’re vegan, this one is out by default.
• Aroy-D - another brand that I use quite often cuz it’s widely available; and if Mae Ploy isn't available this is the one I get. They also make my go-to coconut milk.
• Maesri - the only brand that comes in a can, and also the only one with sugar in the ingredient list. It also contains "Chinese ginger" aka fingerroot or grachai, and I could definitely smell it upon opening.
• Namjai - another one in our lineup that contains shrimp paste, and it did very well in the red curry paste taste test. It's a brand that's become increasingly popular in Thailand.
• Thai Kitchen - not a brand I see at Asian grocery stores, but by far the most common one available in the “international aisle” at non-Asian grocery stores, so it's safe to say this is marketed to non-Asian customers. It's also probably the one that the largest number of people have access to. (Sidenote: It is a McKormick brand, but is made in Thailand.)

Where to buy these curry pastes in your city? Your local Asian grocer will surely have at least one of these, check out our map of Asian grocery stores to locate one near you!

But what is a Thai curry paste anyway?

Thai curry pastes are basically a mix of ground up fresh herbs and spices. The most common curry paste ingredients are: chiles, garlic, shallots, lemongrass, galangal, cilantro root (coriander root), makrut lime zest (kaffir lime zest), and white peppercorns. Shrimp paste is always added to curry pastes in Thailand, though many exported brands omit this to make it vegan and allergy friendly.

The above ingredients are included in most curry pastes, and then other ingredients are added depending on the type of curry. Green curry paste is uniquely green because it's the only paste that uses fresh green chiles, while most others use dried red chilies.

If you want to learn more about curry pastes in general, I highly suggest watching my curry paste 101 video where I go more in depth into what it is, and how to use, store, etc. Also, to explore other ways to use curry paste here are 5 ways to use curry paste beside making a curry.

Green Curry Paste Tasting Video - Live Reaction!

The results are written out below, but for the full experience watch the video for my live reaction and detailed review!

How I Did the Taste Test - The 2 Tests

Our first test involves making my popular green curry chicken recipe. The process is shown in the video above, but I weighed every single ingredient down to the gram and timed each step of the cooking process to control for any differences.

I first tasted the curry straight up so I can really taste the differences. Then I tasted them all again with rice, which is arguably the most relevant test because Thai curries are not meant to be eaten on their own but are always served with rice.

Then I picked my top 2 (which were very close) and got 4 of my friends and family to taste the top 2 to find out which was preferred by most!

And the best Thai green curry paste is...

Here's the official ranking:

1. Mae Ploy: Though this wasn't my initial pick when I tasted in-studio, when I later blind-tasted it against Aroy-D at home, this was the one I preferred. It has the strongest flavour, good level of spice, and has the most umami due to the shrimp paste. "There's more going on," was the comment from a taster.
2. Aroy-D: By far the best of all 3 vegan options. Also a very close runner up and was my initial favourite before I had a change of mind! *The Aroy-D curry paste I get contains no shrimp paste, however, a viewer has commented that he has seen a version that lists "shrimp powder" on the ingredient list. I don't know if that's an old formula, but it's worth double checking before buying if you don't eat shrimp.
3. Maesri: Maesri green curry paste performed much better than it did as a red curry paste; which is very interesting to me. It had a prominent flavour of grachai (fingerroot) which was nice, but it had a slightly weaker flavour than the top 2. It was also very slightly sweeter, which is not surprising as it's the only brand with added sugar.
4. Namjai: I was very surprised it didn't do better because its red curry paste performed so well! Overall it was weaker in flavour, and looking back it's not surprising because the paste was also on the moister side. And higher moisture content means less concentrated flavours. It also had a flavour that was the most unique compared to other brands (not in a bad way at all). If using this Namjai, I would use more of it than the 3 above.
5. Thai Kitchen: The worst! It was the weakest flavour in the group by a long shot. It is not spicy at all (so kid friendly) and the resulting dish didn't even taste like green curry. If this is all you have to work with, I'd use the whole jar for a 4-serving batch of curry. If serving people who cannot tolerate any heat, such as children, this is the one to use.

My Final Recommendations

For most people, I recommend going with one of the top 2: Mae Ploy and Aroy-D. Maeploy is preferred if it's available, but Aroy-D was also good. You can also add your own shrimp paste to Aroy-D for that extra umami.

If you're vegan or allergic to shrimp, then Aroy-D or Maesri would be 2 great options. But always check the ingredient list because it's common for there to be multiple formulas of the same Thai product on the market.

Important notes on packaging: Over the years I have seen that the same brand would come out with different packaging for the same product. For example, I have seen pictures of Aroy-D in little cans à la Maesri. You should not assume that the product inside is the same if the packaging is different!

Different types of packaging may also require the food inside to be processed differently, and sometimes moisture content, acidity, and other things have to vary due to the different processing requirement. Companies also sometimes have different formulas for different markets, for example domestic vs export markets.

The Bigger Takeaway

The main takeaway is that there is a huge range between brands of store-bought curry paste. When following recipes, unless you are using the brand that was used by the recipe writer, you cannot assume that you will get a result that is even close to what they got. So you have to use your judgment and be prepared to adjust as needed (which is something you should do whenever you cook anything anyway).

For my recipes, I'm either using Mae Ploy or Aroy-D in my tests, both of which are very similar. But it is always safe to be prepared to adjust and add more paste if needed.

How to "taste and adjust" when using a brand of curry paste for the first time

If you're working with a brand of curry paste for the first time, after all the liquid has been added, taste the sauce. At this point it should taste slightly too strong because you have not added the proteins and veggies.

If you feel like it needs to be stronger, you'll need to saute the extra curry paste for a few minutes in some oil, and then stir it into the curry sauce and allow the curry to simmer for 5 minutes so the additional paste has time to infuse into the liquid.

Do not wait until the curry is done before you taste, because if you need to simmer the curry longer to infuse the added paste, you will overcook the veg/protein.

Recipes That Use Green Curry Pastes

Now that you know which curry paste to use, here are some recipes to try!