Arm & Hammer Hardball

A heavyweight performance in a featherweight bag. Arm and Hammer Hardball lands at No. 5 with ninety two, and it does so by solving the one complaint that has always dogged clay: the dead weight of it. Built on a lightweight formula bound with absorbent sorghum grain, it is close to sixty percent lighter than conventional clay, yet it gives nothing away on the bench.

Clumping is the star, a perfect five, the clusters setting genuinely rock hard and lifting without a crumb, the no mess scoop the name promises and delivers. Odour scores five as well, the famous baking soda smothering ammonia for the long haul. Dust is excellent at four and a half, the lightweight grain pouring with almost nothing in the air, and tracking is strong at the same mark, the clumps holding their shape rather than shattering into scatter.

Sustainability sits at four, and here the picture is more generous than the usual clay story, because the sorghum grain in the blend lifts it above the pure strip mined mineral that floors its rivals. It is still a litter you discard rather than compost, but it is a cleverer, lighter, lower impact take on the form than most.

The one reservation owners raise is scent. The fragrance is assertive, a delight to some homes and a headache to others, and a small number of cats balk at it. Choose unscented where you can. Beyond that, Hardball is a near faultless everyday clay for anyone who has ever struggled a heavy jug up a flight of stairs: lighter to carry, immaculate to scoop, and powerful on odour. A genuinely modern reinvention of the supermarket staple, and a thoroughly deserved placing.