Store Bought Salsa Taste Test

We did a salsa taste test to find the best store-bought jarred salsa that could be found easily.  We bought the salsas at Safeway, Walmart and Whole Foods.  We tested 11 different salsas costing between $2.44 and $5.99.  2 were organic, all were labeled as medium heat and were all red salsas in 15.5-16 oz jars. 

Four testers blind tested in groups of 3 or 4 salsas at a time.  We all did a 1-10 rating then averaged the four ratings to get each salsas rating.  3 of us were blind testing and the other tester set the salsas up so they knew which salsa was which.  For our first test we randomly picked 4 salsas. Then we refrigerated them, and our designated prepper assigned a letter to each A-D and put each one in a sample cup for each tester.  Then we got out some Tostitos scoops chips, tested and took notes.  We did this three times (substituting the assigned letters with E-H and I-K) with two sets of four and one set of three salsas.

              

Frontera Cilantro Jalapeno Salsa 16 oz.    Rating 6.4

This was our winner!  2 of us thought it was really good, the others thought it was alright.  Most of us noticed a smoky flavor. this salsa was lighter red, and the Consistency was slightly runny.  None of us noticed much heat.  The tester comments were it was unique and another wanted more of it this was the best salsa and it’s $3.99 price was right in the middle.

                                            

Green Mountain Gringo Salsa 16 oz.    Rating 5.8             

This was our most expensive salsa at $5.99.This was one of the testers favorite and everyone else thought it was good.  I thought it had lots of flavor and had a bit of chili powder flavor.  This didn’t really have much heat. The consistency was in middle of runny and chunky and it was a good-looking salsa.

 

Tostitos Chunky Salsa 15.5 oz.    Rating 5.5

This was a good tasting basic jarred salsa.  All of us thought this was a good tasting salsa.  It was chunky with peppers, onions, and tomatoes but still slightly runny.  It had a bright red color.   There was quite a bit of heat and was hotter than what I would call medium.  The price was right as well at $3.29  

 

On the Border Salsa 16 oz.    Rating 5.3

This salsa was nice and thick and chunky.  2 of us liked this and 2 not so much.  It had a noticeable chili powder flavor some liked others didn’t. Some thought it had average heat and the others thought it was slightly above average heat.  The price was average at $3.49               

 

 Newman’s Own 16 oz.    Rating 4.9

This salsa was super chunky, the canned tomato taste was noticeable as well as being a little sweet.  The heat on this one was just average.  The price was great at only $2.44 making it a great deal.  The jar also said 100 percent of their proceeds go to charity.

 

Pace Chunky 16 oz.    Rating 4.8

This was a regular old average what you would expect from a jarred salsa.  It was pretty thick and chunky with pretty average to slightly above average heat. The price was also very good at $2.99              

 

365 Thick and Chunky Salsa 16 oz.    Rating 4.5

This was one of the 2 organic ones.  This was another basic jarred salsa that was a little sweet.  The consistency was a little runny and had small chunks. The heat was pretty average.  The price was alright at $3.29.

 

Taco Bell 16 oz.    Rating 4.3

Another similar salsa. This one was pretty thick one tester said it looked like marinara.  This was probably the salsa with the most heat and had a good amount of afterheat. One tester thought it was a little too hot.  I bought this from Walmart.com as a two pack for $3.68 which I thought was a very good deal.

 

Late July Salsa 15.5 oz.    Rating 4.3

This was the other organic salsa. This had a tomato taste, was chunky but still slightly runny, one tester thought it looked plain.   There was average to just above average heat to it but one tester did think it was   a little too hot.  The price was a little higher than average at $3.99    

 

Herdez Salsa Casera 16 oz.    Rating 2.1

This was a salsa that no one liked at all.  This tasted kind of like a canned version of pico de gallo.  It had chunks with a lot of liquid.  There was just average heat to it.  The price was very low at $2.49 but the product wasn’t very good.       

 

Blake’s Ugly Dawg Salsa 16 oz.    Rating 2

This salsa was not so good.  This was brownish in color and was very thick.  with roasted peppers and seeds.  It had a weird and strange flavor and was bland with not much heat.  This was our worst salsa and happened to be the 2^nd most expensive at $4.99.