The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
What’s the best jarred salsa for your next party?
As game day approaches, tortilla chips need a good pairing.
Open a jar of salsa and you’ve just completed most of the work needed to get a crowd-pleasing party snack on the table. (You also have to tear into a bag of chips, sigh, but that’s usually an even easier task.) Such convenience might explain the popularity of salsa, which famously dethroned ketchup as America’s reigning condiment back in the 1990s.
Since then, our jars have runneth over with dipping options: You can find versions of the tomato-based sauce laced with everything from peaches to pickles to Thai spices, and a range of spice levels all the way up to facemelting for the truly masochistic among your party squad.
So which of the options you’ll find on your grocery aisle deserves a spot amid your game-day spread? We assembled a group of nationally available brands, including the top five sellers in the United States, according to Statista, and some of the most common store brands, along with a few bags of tortilla chips. To get as close to apples-to-apples as possible, we kept it simple and stuck to the “medium” spice level where it was available and the chunky style that is standard among the bestselling brands. Testers were asked to grade each salsa on a scale of 1 to 10, factoring in consistency and overall flavor. With 10 testers, the maximum possible score was 100.
The verdict? There are some decent options out there. But overall, we were left with a notso-burning question: WHERE’S THE HEAT? This assemblage was about as timid as a meeting of Introverts Anonymous, which made us wonder that if these were “medium,” what were the “mild” varieties like? In other words, if you like your salsa with even a bit of kick, you might want to pick up a bottle of hot sauce, also, to wake up whatever jar you take home. But spice is only part of the equation —here’s the top 5:
5. Chi-Chi’s Score: 36
A touch too sweet, but several tasters praised the look of the visible vegetable chunks. “But they don’t add flavor,” complained one. “Not offensive” and “meh-plus” were the kinds of compliments the committee could muster.
4. Pace Score: 40
The onions in this number jumped out at some tasters. “Clearly distributed by the Leftover Onion Producers of America,” joked one. “At least they put onions in there,” said another. “Good job, guys.”
3. Tostitos Score: 43
The market-dominating brand proved why it’s the top seller by being a consensus pick, even if what we agreed on was that it wasn’t too bad. That might not be the kind of ringing endorsement that, say, a presidential candidate might want, but it was enough to make this a top pick. “Bright and salty in a good way,” said one. “Just fine,” was a typical sum-up.
2. Frontera Score: 59
Smoky and spicy, this one elicited a lot of exclamation points — of the positive variety. “Nice smoky profile!” said one taster. “I taste chipotles and what a welcome change this is!” said another. “Actually tastes like salsa.”
1. Green Mountain Gringo Score: 61
This one was the looker of the bunch (“ooh, pretty veg”; “the beauty!”), but it didn’t have to rely on its photogenic qualities — this salsa delivered on flavor, too. Tasters seemed to appreciate the more assertive pepperiness, which distinguished it from some of its zestless brethren. One praised its “tingle of spice,” and another seemed surprised, given all the salsagrazing we had done, that he “wanted to keep eating.” Another tester gave it a full endorsement: “I’d buy this one — nice heat.”