Chefmaster Navy vs. AmeriColor Midnight Food Coloring Comparison

I'm an equal-opportunity user of both Chefmaster and Americolor gel paste food colorings. I love them both and use them interchangeably. (You will see how well-loved they both are when you see pics of the bottles in a sec!)

This comparison of Chefmaster Navy and AmeriColor Midnight is just to show the difference in tone - I don't feel that one is better than the other. Just different. Hey, there's a life lesson in there somewhere.

Why use gel paste food coloring?

First, let's talk gel paste food coloring in general. These are not your grandmother's liquid food colorings from the grocery store. The consistency is thicker, hence the name gel or paste, and won't thin frostings, icings, or whatever you're coloring.

A little goes a looooooong way with these. The color will also darken as it dries, as you'll see.

Comparing Chefmaster Navy vs. AmeriColor Midnight Food Coloring

I started with my no-fail royal icing recipe. Once made, I scooped out 1/2 cup of the icing in separate bowls, weighing the bowls to ensure the same amount was in each.

I added 1/4 teaspoon of food coloring to each bowl. When I'm actually decorating cookies, I don't measure out icing or food coloring and would have started with less than this. A quarter-teaspoon was the smallest measure I had on hand. I'll have to buy an 1/8 teaspoon for future tests!

Here are the two colors right after mixing. While "wet," the Chefmaster Navy on the left is clearly a lighter and brighter shade, and the AmeriColor Midnight has a dark teal tone.

I thinned the icings with water to a 10-second consistency and popped them into tipless piping bags, not bothering with an outline-and-fill situation like I normally would when decorating cookies. I iced my perfect every time cut-out cookies and let them dry overnight.

How do Chefmaster Navy and AmeriColor Midnight Food Coloring compare once dried?

Once dried, the icing colors looked more similar. I call both of these colors "warm navy" shades as they both contain a bit of green.

The AmeriColor Midnight is darker and deeper and reads more teal to me than the Chefmaster Navy. Chefmaster Navy, on the other hand, is also a warm blue and still leaning towards teal, but less so, with a touch of dustiness. The shade is a tad lighter than Midnight.

[HINT: you can always add a touch of black food coloring to your navy to get a deeper and "cooler" shade of navy. Just remember that the icing will dry darker...don't add too much black!]