5 Best Kitchen Towels for Every Mess
The results are in and these are the most absorbent towels for your kitchen.
Tested by Grace WuTextiles, Paper & Apparel Lab Product Analyst
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Whether you're a professional chef, frequent baker or often tasked with drying the dishes after dinner, kitchen towels are a cleanup necessity. A good kitchen towel is made of an absorbent material that also dries fast post-use and, let's be honest, looks nice hanging on a hook or over your oven door handle. But it's hard to discern the good from the bag when shopping online. That's why our pros tested 13 styles to find the best kitchen towels.
Experts in the Good Housekeeping Institute's Textiles, Paper & Apparel Lab put top-ranking towels from brands like Williams Sonoma and All-Clad to the test in the Textiles Lab and in our Kitchen Appliances & Innovation Lab and Hearst Lifestyle Group Test Kitchen. We drew from previous experience testing bath towels and beach towels and relied on our kitchen pros' experiences to report on absorbency, size and style. When all was said and dried, these kitchen towels came out on top.
Williams Sonoma Super Absorbent Multi-Pack Towels, Set of 4
Our contributing kitchen analyst was a fan of these towels before we even tested them in the Lab. The multi-pack lived up to its name of "super absorbent," ranking second best in our absorbency tests. We ranked them number five out of 13 for drying speed. Testers across the board highlighted the pretty stripes and plaid although some wished the pattern was on the inside as well. The same tester who owns a set found they wash well and said the towels are on the larger side. While they may not fit in a small apron pocket, the large size is ideal for hanging over your oven's door handle and tackling big dishes like a lasagna pan.
Threshold Cotton Striped Terry Kitchen Towels
It's the best of both worlds when performance and affordability align in testing. These cotton terry towels are just $6 for a set of two and received the best overall absorbency score. While the towels didn't rank as high in our drying tests, our kitchen Lab pros loved the striped design and found the towels still dried dishes well. Other highlights include a super soft feel and waffle-like underside but note that these kitchen towels are on the smaller side. The towels also have a 4.7-star rating across 1,000 Target shopper reviews, so it's safe to say we aren't the only ones who appreciate this two-pack.
As you may have noted from previous picks, experts in the Kitchen Appliances & Innovation Lab and Test Kitchen almost always commented on the design of each towel. The brand Geometry surpassed other patterned picks since you can choose from almost 100 colorful styles! It had the quickest drying time of all 13 towels we tested. Testers also found the towel soft, especially after washing it. One analyst particularly appreciated the "very pretty patterns that remained just as vibrant after washing." She enjoyed using the tea towel for cleaning around her coffee machine while another tester appreciated its large size.
Crate & Barrel Cuisine Stripe Organic Cotton Dish Towels
Even though you most likely won't use your kitchen towel to dry your face, a soft towel is still preferred as it feels more comfortable in the hand. The Cuisine Stripe Organic Cotton Dish Towels were the softest kitchen towels we tested — they also had the second-fastest drying speed. However, they fell somewhere in the middle for absorbency. Still, the overall feel of this dish towel is top-notch. "It had a really nice soft texture and was pleasant to hold and touch," reported one tester. Choose from five neutral-striped colors for a classic appearance that will look nice in your kitchen.
Our textile pros were impressed with Our Place's dish towels because they feature a unique construction that combines a waffle style with a classic terry and a flat weave, explains Textiles, Paper & Apparel Lab Product Analyst Grace Wu. Testers also appreciated the thoughtful design and found it to be absorbent. We still think these towels deserve a shoutout as they have convenient loops for hanging, feel thick and are available in three gorgeous colors (lavender, blue salt and sage). It is worth noting that some testers found the towels to be too bulky and wished they were entirely waffle.
Other kitchen towels to consider
The following towels include tested styles as well as popular online picks. While we didn't find their performance to be as stellar as the above towels, we still think they deserve a mention.
- Williams Sonoma Classic Stripe Towels: This towel set by Williams Sonoma has been around for years due to its classic pattern, soft fabric and absorbent qualities. However, one long-term tester found that the towels tend to warp after a lot of use.
- Room Essentials Cotton Dishcloths: We were only able to test these towels in the Lab and found that they performed okay in absorbency and drying speed tests. While the affordable price point of $5 for a set of six is amazing, the towels feel very thin and we wished the construction was better quality.
- All-Clad Dual Kitchen Towel Set: These kitchen towels reminded us of bath towels thanks to their thick, fluffy terry material. Some testers liked the unique design while others found it less attractive than other styles. The towels were still absorbent in our testing but were better for drying hands rather than dishes.
- Coyuchi Organic Waffle Kitchen Towels: While this set of six did well in our drying speed test (coming in fourth), it didn't perform as well in our absorbency test. Experts liked the color of these kitchen towels but found that they weren't as durable as other options. They became misshapen in the wash and were a bit too large.
- Utopia Kitchen Flour Sack Tea Towels: Our Kitchen Appliances Deputy Director, Nicole Papantoniou, loves these towels so much that she has bought them for her home and the Lab. The towels also have a whopping almost 31,000 Amazon reviews. While Papantoniou appreciates the price point and size of these towels, she found them to be on the thinner side.
How we tested the best kitchen towels
Experts in the Good Housekeeping Institute test almost every style of towel you can put in your home, including bath and kitchen towels. In the Lab, product analysts evaluated the absorbency and drying speed of 13 kitchen towels. We use a special apparatus that lets us dispense water onto a towel at a 60-degree angle and then observe any runoff. To test drying speed, we wet each towel with the same amount of water and then re-weigh it every 30 minutes until the towels return to their original weight.
In addition to these tests, our pros evaluated the fiber content and weave of each towel, including waffle and Turkish towels. We also test washability in the Lab to observe any shrinkage or wear after 20 wash and dry cycles.
For this particular towel test, we collaborated with GH staffers including an assistant food editor and food producer in the Hearst Lifestyle Group Test Kitchen as well as analysts in the Good Housekeeping Kitchen Appliances and Innovation Lab. These pros test appliances, develop recipes and style food all day long. They used their assigned towels to carry out daily tasks. They dried pots and pans, cleaned up spills, took hot dishes out of the oven and more to report on real-world performance.
What to look for when shopping for the best kitchen towels
✔️ Fiber and material type: The most important consideration when shopping is the fabric and construction of the towel. Here's what to keep in mind:
- Flour sack dish towels tend to be thinner and not feel as soft but they dry faster.
- Cotton is a great choice for kitchen towels because it’s soft and absorbent but it may not dry as quickly; look for flatter constructions like waffle weaves which will dry faster than terry cloth.
- Microfiber feels plush and is absorbent but can attract lint in the wash so it's often recommended to wash these separately.
✔️ Absorbency: Waffle, flat weave (flour sack) and Turkish towels may dry quickly, but they aren't as absorbent as a low pile cotton terry towel or microfiber cloth.
✔️ Size: There isn't a standard size for kitchen towels, so it's best to think about how you plan to use your towels and where you want to store them in your kitchen. Small or medium dishcloths are great for keeping handy in your apron or taking hot dishes out of the oven. Meanwhile, a larger towel may be more convenient for cleaning up spills and drying dishes.
✔️ Usage: If you’ve considered using a small bath hand towel in the kitchen instead of a proper kitchen towel, that may not be the best option, according to Lexie Sachs, Good Housekeeping Institute’s Executive Director. “Kitchen towels are different from other types of towels, with constructions like waffle weave or microfiber making them lightweight and quick-drying,” which is necessary if your kitchen towels are consistently getting wet, explains Sachs.
✔️Care instructions: To keep your towels in the best shape, follow the manufacturer’s care instructions and if possible wash your kitchen towels separately. Certain types of kitchen towels can pick up lint from other items in the wash making them look dingier faster or making them less absorbent.
Why trust Good Housekeeping?
Contributing writer for the Good Housekeeping Institute Jamie Ueda wrote the original copy for this story, pulling from her over 17 years of experience in product development and manufacturing. Updates editor Elizabeth Berry worked on the most recent overhaul of this story, incorporating new top picks and testing notes. Elizabeth may or may not have taken (just few!) Williams Sonoma kitchen towels from her mom when she moved into her first apartment.
To update this story Elizabeth worked closely with Textiles, Paper & Apparel Lab Product Analyst Grace Wu, who most recently tested the category. At the GH Institute, Grace evaluates fabric-based products using specialized equipment and consumer tester data. She holds a master of engineering in materials science and engineering and a bachelor of science in fiber science from Cornell University.
Elizabeth Berry (she/her) is the Updates Editor at the Good Housekeeping Institute where she optimizes lifestyle content across verticals. Prior to this role, she was an Editorial Assistant for Woman’s Day where she covered everything from gift guides to recipes. She also has experience fact checking commerce articles and holds a B.A. in English and Italian Studies from Connecticut College.
Grace Wu (she/her) is a product reviews analyst at the Good Housekeeping Institute's Textiles, Paper and Apparel Lab, where she evaluates fabric-based products using specialized equipment and consumer tester data. Prior to starting at Good Housekeeping in 2022, she earned a master of engineering in materials science and engineering and a bachelor of science in fiber science from Cornell University. While earning her degrees, Grace worked in research laboratories for smart textiles and nanotechnology and held internships at Open Style Lab and Rent the Runway.
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