There are many ways to do salsa, and it can be made out of damn near anything. We even used squash once, and believe it or not, it was still pretty good. Salsa is best made yourself, and you don’t even have to be all that precious about it. There are almost infinite combinations of the same basic ingredients and many will make a fine salsa. Check out this guy’s Instagram any time you want to get inspired. It’s in Spanish, but you’ll manage.
But I get it, sometimes you don’t have the time, maybe you already spent all day cooking up a Mexican feast, or maybe you’re just too stoned and all you and your buddies want is a little fuel before your next sack-tapping contest. I don’t know, I’m not here to make excuses for you. The point is, enough store-bought salsas exist that at least one must surely be worth buying… right?
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It’s true: store-bought salsa is something of a paradox in terms. The whole point of salsa is to add a fresh-produce punch to your meat or tortilla, yet selling such a thing in stores requires the ability to last for weeks, months, or even longer in the refrigerator section or even on the shelves. Which does seem to call the whole “fresh” part into question (home-made ones only last about 5-7 days in the fridge). The question for store-bought salsas is whether they can alter that basic equation and still taste like something approximating salsa.
For this test, we figured that the salsas from the fridge section — which require refrigeration and usually have sell-by dates of a month or two — must taste fresher than the shelf-stable non-refrigerated varieties in jars that last who knows how long. So this particular ranking focuses only on what I could find in the refrigerated sections of my local Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, Sprouts, and Save Mart.
I tasted them blind (that is, not being able to see the labels, not literally blindfolded), and ranked them according to looks, smell, and taste. Tasting salsa on chips seemed to be the fairest, even though I do distinguish between a chips-and-dip salsa (I generally make a fresh pico de gallo for that situation) and a taco condiment (I tend to go spicier here, like a simple jalapeño/avocado salsa). Plenty of brands were available in mild, medium, and hot. For the sake of simplicity, and for not blowing out my palate, I just went with medium whenever there was a heat-level option.
15. Trader Joe’s Homestyle Salsa Especial (Medium)
Price: $2.99
Look:
Sort of like marinara with onion chunks and occasional cilantro flecks.
Nose:
I didn’t even have to get my face close to this one to smell the oregano. You could smell this oregano bomb from across the room. It smells like bad pizza sauce.
Taste:
Like bad marinara, only saltier. This belongs in the garbage — the outside one. I don’t want to smell this every time I throw something away.
Bottom Line:
It’s actually kind of impressive to stand out as the worst salsa in a tasting of salsas that mostly weren’t very good. This one reeked of dry oregano from five or six feet away and managed to taste even more like bad pizza sauce than it smelled. Absolutely not.
Rating: 3/10
14. La Mexicana Mild Salsa
Price: $2.99 (Save Mart)
Look:
Chunky, like restaurant pico but with a little smaller pieces.
Nose:
Pure citric acid.
Taste:
This is basically what I imagined all pre-made salsa would taste like. There’s a lot of citrus but it’s just bland and canned tasting.
Bottom Line:
See above. This is a citric acid bomb that just tasted bland and canned. I can’t really imagine a situation in which you’d need to add those flavors.
Rating: 4/10
13. Rojo’s Homestyle Salsa (Mild)
Price: $3.99 (Save Mart)
Look:
Another chunky, light-bodied pico de gallo. Looks very tomato-heavy and onion-light. There’s an isolated cilantro speck here and there.
Nose:
Mostly lime.
Taste:
It’s sort of a dry-spice muddle with lots of citrus and salt.
Bottom Line:
My hunch is that if you’re buying these deli salsas, never get anything below medium. It takes a baseline level of spice to mask the citric acid it takes to keep these from spoiling. Anyway, this one just tasted like salt and dry spices, I can’t really recommend it for anything.
Rating: 4/10
Notes: The seal was broken on this one, I think it was one of the ones I dropped on the way inside.
12. Del Real Foods Fire Roasted Red Salsa (Hot)
Price: $4.19 (Save Mart)
Look:
Watery and brownish-red. Has a more taqueria taco sauce consistency, which is a little more watery.
Nose:
There’s a ton of jalapeño skin, almost blowing out my nostrils.
Taste:
This one is a jalapeño bomb, and not in a good way. You can tell just by looking at it that there are almost more jalapeños than tomatoes, so “red salsa” feels like a bit of a misnomer. More crucially, the spice/acid/tomato balance feels way off.
Bottom Line:
This salsa boasted “only four ingredients” on the packaging, but I’m surprised it was that many. It tasted and smelled like charred jalapeños and little else. Jalapeños are great, but this tasted somehow charred and undercooked at the same time, like they just burnt the skins while the rest of the pepper was still mostly raw.
The spice and ingredient balance just felt way off.
Ranking: 4/10
11. Trader Joe’s Roasted Tomatillo Salsa
Price: $2.99
Look:
It’s green (duh) with seeds and black flecks and pretty watery. It gets chunkier when you mix it. There are the occasional onion pieces.
Nose:
I think I smell some kind of green chile? More so than tomatillo anyway.
Taste:
Very salty! I’m still getting green chile, like roasted pasilla or Anaheim chile. It tastes more like fresh chile than canned, at least, but I get that more than the tart tomatillo.
Bottom Line:
In my head, it seemed easier to make a store-bought tomatillo salsa taste like homemade than a tomato one, seeing as how tomatillos tend towards tart already. In reality, this one just wasn’t very good. Too salty, and I thought it tasted much more of roasted green chiles than it does of tomatillo. Indeed, the ingredients list “green chile pepper puree” as the second ingredient.
This is more like a roasted pasilla salsa than what it’s advertising.
Rating: 5/10
10. Trader Joe’s Organic Salsa (Medium)
Price: $3.29
Look:
Very bright red. Maybe there’s some roasted pepper in there? It’s more of a purée than chunky.
Nose:
Muddled pepperiness? I’m not sure what I’m getting there.
Taste:
It smells and tastes a little ketchup-y, but the spices are decently balanced. It’s not really great on chips, but I could see using it as an ingredient in something. Maybe to spice up some eggs or chili?
Bottom Line:
This is muddled and ketchup-y, but not terrible. It’s not worthy of chips and dip but as an ingredient for a breakfast burrito or something you could do worse.
Rating: 5/10
9. 365 Fire Roasted Cantina Style Salsa (Mild)
Price: $2.99 (Whole Foods)
Look:
Like a blender purée salsa with occasional cilantro flecks.
Nose:
Cumin on cumin.
Taste:
This salsa is essentially a cumin delivery vehicle. I guess that’s not bad if you really like cumin.
Bottom Line:
Cumin bomb! Not exactly what I’d call a great salsa, but if your only goal is to add maximum cumin flavor on a minimum budget, this is the one.
Rating: 5/10
8. Trader Joe’s Pico De Gallo (mild)
Price: $2.99
Looks:
This actually looks like restaurant pico with small chunks of fresh tomato and onion. The onions do look a touch wilted.
Nose:
All tomato and lime.
Taste:
Kind of bland, but mostly okay. This mostly tastes like fresh tomatoes, if not exactly vibrant.
Bottom Line:
Pico de gallo is traditionally made using all raw ingredients, which would seem the hardest to turn into something refrigerator stable. In that sense, it’s pretty impressive that Trader Joe’s deli pico de gallo is only slightly worse than the homemade version from Whole Foods.
Without grading on a curve, it’s mediocre at best.
Rating: 6/10
7. Pacific Coast Selections Medium Salsa
Price: $3.49
Look:
Dark red purée with black specks.
Nose:
Not sure what I’m getting. Black pepper?
Taste:
Surprisingly bright with good sweetness and a nice acid balance, though it is a touch ketchup-y.
Bottom Line:
I would never have guessed that this salsa had avocado in it if I hadn’t looked at the package. I don’t really understand the point of using avocado, but not enough that the salsa isn’t still red. Not that I’m entirely against it, it’s just … weird. Anyway, maybe the avocado gave this salsa a slightly more velvety texture?
This mostly just tasted like a replacement-level deli salsa to me.
Rating: 6/10
6. Casa Sanchez Salsa Roja (Medium)
Price: $5.99 (Whole Foods)
Look:
A vibrant red, watery purée.
Nose:
Actually smells like tomatoes. For a while there, I was convinced tomatoes didn’t have a smell.
Taste:
This is tomato-y fresh but otherwise kind of bland.
Bottom Line:
Not as good as its organic counterpart, but reasonably salsa-like.
Rating: 6/10
5. Trader Joe’s Habanero Ghost Pepper Salsa
Price: $3.29
Look:
Bright red chunky purée, with the odd seed.
Nose:
All habanero meat.
Taste:
Nice habanero flavor, which I do like. Habanero is sort of fruity and tropical, probably a little more vibrant than your standard green or dried chiles. The difficulty there is, obviously, the heat. I don’t know how much of this I could realistically eat.
Bottom Line:
This is not great as a salsa, mostly because it has more heat than flavor, but it’s pretty decent as a hot sauce or a taco condiment. Heat isn’t everything in and of itself, but it’s better than nothing. Easily the best of the Trader Joe’s salsas I tried.
Rating: 6/10
4. Unlabelled Whole Foods Pico De Gallo
Price: $5.99 per pound
Look:
Actually like restaurant salsa! Pretty impressive, honestly. It seems they used red onions rather than white, which is a choice. Greater onion-to-tomato ratio than others, but still not super onion heavy.
Nose:
I’m getting more lime than vinegar here with mostly a fresh tomato smell.
Taste:
This is very much not restaurant quality, the balance and spices are off, but at least it’s fresh. I’m getting more salt than fresh veg, and the flavors don’t quite “pop.”
Bottom Line:
This was a fresh food item made in-house at my local Whole Foods with only a few days’ shelf life, which should’ve given it a natural advantage over the other ones designed to last for weeks or months. It was fresh enough, but the spice balance wasn’t quite there. I imagine this will vary from store to store and from season to season, and probably even from employee to employee based on who’s making it and tasting it that day.
Rating: 7/10
3. Salsa Queen Red Chili Salsa
Price: $5.99 (Sprouts)
Look:
A very seedy, thickish blender purée that’s more paste-like than the others. Darker red/brownish with some tomato or pepper skins.
Nose:
Something smoky in here. Maybe chipotle?
Taste:
This is mostly a smoky cumin-chipotle bomb, but with a nice kick. Quite spicy. My scalp is sweating.
Bottom Line:
I like the name “salsa queen” because it makes me think of “size queen.” The label is also probably the coolest on this list. This one was chipotle-heavy and quite spicy, so probably not great for chips but solid on tacos and as a condiment. It certainly adds spice.
Rating: 6/10 as a chip dipper. 7/10 as a taco condiment.
2. Casa Sanchez Organica
Price: $7.29 (Whole Foods)
Look:
Red, blended purée, on the watery side. There are cilantro and onion flecks.
Nose:
It smells fresh-ish and not too dry spice heavy.
Taste:
Sort of bland, but the spice and acid levels are nicely balanced. I would eat this on chips if it was in front of me, though I wouldn’t seek it out.
Bottom Line:
This one was more “passable” than something to get excited about, but passable is pretty hard to come by with these. This one gets the spice and acid balance right, at least. Maybe that’s the “improved taste” the package describes.
Rating: 7/10
1. Tacupeto Molka Fire Roasted Salsa (Medium)
Price: $5.99 (Sprouts)
Look:
Very smooth and watery, more like taqueria taco sauce than salsa. Darker red with black flecks — either from roasted stuff or dried peppers.
Nose:
Vaguely smoky; not much going on otherwise.
Taste:
This is heavy on the chipotle, but that isn’t a bad thing. There’s a medium heat, nice balance, and moderate smokiness. Actually this one is pretty decent. Yes, I would put this on stuff. Kind of gets better the more you eat it.
Bottom Line:
This one was simply head and shoulders above the rest — probably the only one of these I would consider good, and not just “good, for store-bought salsa.” The heat, it turns out, comes from habanero and Arbol chiles. The latter of which are dried and smoky in flavor, which probably accounts for the chipotle I thought I was tasting. Arbols make a great salsa chile, it’s just hard to get a ton of Arbol flavor in something without taking a flamethrower to your palate.
