Pro Chefs Blind Taste Test Every Salsa

[Narrator] We've gathered three professional chefs

to blind taste test every supermarket salsa brand

we could get our hands on.

To see which ones meet their standards.

[upbeat music]

[jar sliding]

[lid opening] [salsa pouring]

Tostitos Chunky Salsa.

This looks like the salsa that I grew up eating.

Classic Sunday football game salsa.

This is a salsa roja, very chunky salsa.

It's got some tomato puree or concentrate.

What I'm looking for in a jarred red salsa

is something bright, something nice and acidic

that still tastes fresh even though it's jarred.

You don't want a salsa

that tastes like just preservatives.

Can't be too dry and it can't be too runny.

What I'm looking for in a salsa, it's scoopability.

It stays on the chip and you don't make a mess

on your friend's couch.

I want the salsa to be the appropriate texture

for what I'm gonna use it for.

Eggs, chips, tacos, enchiladas.

In a good salsa, you need a good balance of flavor.

A little spice, have a little acidity.

You wanna have a tiny bit of sweetness, savoriness,

something that's really gonna excite all of those senses

and all of those taste buds.

[mouth crunching]

Has like a marinara flavor.

It tastes really like canned tomatoes.

You wouldn't normally see a tomato concentrator,

a tomato paste in a fresh salsa.

They would use it in a jarred salsa

because it's like a natural thickening agent

and it's a little more shelf stable.

As far as textures goes,

I think it could be slightly thicker.

But I wouldn't say that this necessarily tastes fresh

like a concentrated tomato punch

instead of like a fresh salsa,

you get to smell all the different elements a little more.

This one I think is pretty balanced

for store-bought tomato salsa.

Where it does work is when you get a chili,

you can taste that you got a chili.

Mild heat makes you wanna go back to it

and eat more and more.

This salsa is not bad, like I would [beep] up

the whole jar of this watching TV, sorry.

This is a Tostitos one.

[jar sliding]

Ooh.

[Luis laughing]

It's basically tomato, onions and jalapeno peppers.

A lot of tomato sauce.

Tomato puree, diced tomatoes in tomato juice,

that's why there's so much like tomato flavor.

The only preservative I guess is potassium salt.

Super generic. I don't want to eat this.

This would be one of those like necessity bites.

Maybe I like it because of nostalgia.

[jar sliding] [salsa pouring]

[Narrator] Herdez Salsa Casera.

At first light I'd say this looks a little more natural.

The Tostitos looked a little thicker,

like it had something in there to thicken.

This one looks a little thinner.

[mouth crunching]

I would really anticipate that this would taste

like so much better than it does.

I can't get away from the tomato.

Like it looks less canned but it tastes more canned.

It's got a little more salinity.

It's got a heat at the end.

See some herbs in there,

so it's probably some cilantro in there,

but I don't get the taste at all.

The shelf life of herbs is not really long.

Sitting there on the jar just completely lost of flavor.

It's a little watery to me for this type of chunky salsa.

I don't like it.

[jar sliding]

Herdez Salsa Casera medium.

Man! They don't make it like they used to.

This one has calcium chloride.

A mineral salt used to keep tomatoes or vegetables firm

when they're being heat processed.

Citric acid to acidified,

which also you can taste.

And the tomatoes is just tomatoes

but they don't taste as fresh.

So that tells me that maybe it's better

to use canned tomatoes for salsa than fresh tomatoes.

[jar sliding] [lid opening]

[salsa pouring]

[Narrator] Cholula Original Salsa.

A much more blended salsa.

More watery than the previous two for sure.

See how it's dripping?

It looks like the tomatoes were probably roasted first.

Roasting, it's gonna help deepen and concentrate the flavor

but it also helps remove some of the water content

so it creates a thicker product.

[mouth crunching]

Oh, I don't like this one.

It just feel too spiced.

It's really heavy on cumin.

It's not generally used in like a table salsa.

It is very, very, very salty, I need a beer.

Texture wise, it's pretty good.

This is almost getting to a level of like ranchero sauce,

like a tomato based sauce that is used for breakfast.

Still chunky but it's more homogenous

and all around smoother.

This is a roasted salsa,

so you're expecting a more cooked flavor, more smokiness.

Surprisingly the roasted tomato flavor

is not coming through as much

because I'm getting so much cumin.

It's a Cholula one.

[jar sliding]

Cholula Original Medium Salsa.

I am tasting a Cholula-ness to it now that I know

and I don't know if it's like sort of like placebo effect

but Cholula has vinegar so I'm feeling that.

This one's got tomato and tomato paste.

It does say it has cumin, jalapeno peppers

and arbol peppers.

Arbol is a very spicy chili.

They probably have a tiny amount

'cause you can really feel it.

Very cuminy and it's weird 'cause I love cumin.

It's not coming through as fresh in this salsa.

I'm sorry Cholula, you've disappointed me.

[jar sliding] [lid opening]

[salsa pouring]

[Narrator] Jalapa Jar Fresh Salsa.

This one's got everything going on.

Super busy but it's kind of exciting.

[mouth crunching]

Right off the bat, it's spicy.

Got a little more heat than all of the rest of the ones

that we've tried so far.

It's actually, I think this is nice again,

this is a good chip salsa,

it tastes relatively fresh.

To me freshness is that you can taste the ingredient.

That they haven't been processed to the point

of losing their identity.

It is a balanced sauce, I do a love the roasted salsa.

I think it's also a good way to preserve flavor

and freshness.

Get like a maillard reaction so it becomes more umami.

You're also evaporating water content

automatically get it thicker.

The acidity is pretty strong.

I feel like it tastes a little bit more like lime

than just citric acid.

You don't see lime juice as often as a preservative

or acidifier in jarred salsas

because the lime juice breaks down

during the heat processing

and it becomes a little bit more bitter.

To me it's like the excitement in your mouth

like are you having a fiesta or are you not having a fiesta?

This is the first salsa that I have

that is actually like a little fiesta.

[jar sliding]

Jalapa Jar. Real lime juice.

This comes from a refrigerated section.

So you don't need all the chemicals

that you need to maintain

texture and flavor.

I like this salsa, it's good.

It definitely has the balance

and it definitely hits all the criteria.

[jar sliding] [lid opening]

[salsa pouring]

[Narrator] Green Mountain Gringo, medium salsa.

This one looks very processed.

It doesn't look very fresh.

[mouth crunching]

Sweet, very sweet.

Feels like a pasta sauce.

I don't feel like we're hitting the balance of flavors here.

The texture is nice because it's a blend of puree

and diced tomatoes, so it's a little bit thicker.

Salsas range from very chunky

to something completely puree and smooth.

Smooth salsas is more for like tacos, quesadillas.

Once you start moving towards chunkiness,

it's more for like scooping.

Like the scoopability is down to probably

a two or a three, out of 10.

It's too watery for the purpose.

This probably my least favorite so far.

[jar sliding]

Green Mountain Gringo.

This has pasilla peppers in it.

I'm not really tasting them

but pasilla peppers are the dried red version

of a chilaca pepper.

You have your fresh peppers.

When you dry them out, you basically change the name.

Pasilla peppers have a little bit of a sweetness

as a chili pepper.

I don't taste it and I don't see it like,

you know, pasilla pepper is like particularly dark.

So this is where we talk about a salsa

like being a dip with chips, right?

Which is not Mexican.

If you have salsa de mesa, you're not gonna dip.

It goes on your food.

[jar sliding] [lid opening]

[salsa pouring]

[Narrator] Mateo's Gourmet Salsa.

It smells heavily garlic.

Those smell like minced chicken pieces,

I think it's dehydrated garlic.

There is like a smell and a taste

like garlic salt or garlic powder

that is not the same as having garlic.

[mouth crunching]

Strong cumin flavor again.

Even more overpowering than that last one

that had a cumin in.

[Barbara] I'm not really excited to have another chip.

Texture wise it's fine.

It's not too far removed from the last one that we tried.

Looks like it's gonna separate a lot as it sits in this bowl

and you're not gonna get a lot of really good chips.

Low acidity, it's not really tangy,

kind of like boring and underwhelming.

[jar sliding]

Mateo's Gourmet Salsa, I've never heard of this one.

And it says medium heat which is a complete lie,

it's like no heat at all.

They've added water

and they've added all this dehydrated garlic.

I guess like you need the yield so the more water,

the more you get.

Definitely not the more flavor.

[jar sliding] [lid opening]

[salsa pouring]

[Narrator] Late July Medium Salsa.

This to me is like ranchero sauce.

Consistency, still chunky but it's more homogenous

and like all around smoother.

[mouth crunching]

This is pretty balanced.

The spice is up front, the salt is perfect.

Nice sweetness from the tomatoes

but it's not like in your face.

It's got a brightness and acidity that I enjoy.

I like this for chips.

It tastes like fake lime juice.

I don't think the freshness is there.

Some ingredient that they're using

that has a flavor that I'm not really sure what it is.

[jar sliding]

Late July Snacks.

This one has organic diced tomatoes.

I don't think that you can detect

what an organic product tastes like.

They just paid the right amount of money for this stamp.

Organic potato flour,

which I guess they use as a thickener.

And it also has water.

So they added water and then they added a thickener.

See lime just concentrate.

The more sauces I try the more convinced I am

that you shouldn't use lime juice in salsas

that are gonna stay for long periods of time.

They say they have like natural flavorings.

For all we know they're using like an apple flavoring.

It has like a fruity flavoring in it, that is not specified.

[container sliding] [lid opening]

[salsa pouring]

[Narrator] Ithaca Medium Salsa.

This one looks so different, it's very bright.

In a jarred product, the color of all the ingredients

starts to dull over time.

So when you're able to retain this much color,

there's the likeliness of something being a little fresher.

This is the first one I see with red peppers.

[mouth crunching]

It is not really spicy.

The greener the pepper, usually the spicier.

The texture of it's really good.

The perfect example of chunky and watery at the same time,

look at all that water.

The liquid part of the salsa still has a lot of flavor.

It's actually spicier than the chunky part.

I like this one 'cause there is a freshness to it.

This one's really heavy on the garlic.

I do get a hint of fresh garlic

that I didn't feel with any of the other ones before.

Its tangy, I think the a acid level is good

is what we're looking for.

The balance is good.

I taste the onions, I taste the tomatoes

like I'm getting all the flavors, it's bright.

[Barbara] Cilantro stems in it,

which actually have a lot of flavor.

They look greener than any of the other the sauces

that we tried as well.

I feel pretty good about this one.

Oh. Ithaca.

Ithaca Salsa.

Ithaca is so like not Mexican.

This makes sense for why it's so bright

'cause this looks like it's also a refrigerated product

like the Jalapa Jar one.

So it has jalapeno peppers which are the red ones.

Red jalapenos are not as spicy as the green ones.

I would've used serranos.

It would've been a perfect salsa.

I don't understand why they added water, again.

I think this is one of my favorites so far.

This is the freshest flavor.

[jar sliding] [lid opening]

[salsa pouring]

[Narrator] Pace Chunky Salsa.

Has that same kind of like Tostitos appeal.

I could turn it upside down, it would stay in the bowl.

[mouth crunching]

It tastes definitely processed.

Texture is a little mushy,

even though there are diced tomatoes in here.

That's the thing, if you're making a chunky salsa,

you need to have the texture of the ingredient.

It does taste like it has some kind of like tomato paste.

There's a decent amount of salt in there

but I'm not getting all the vibrancy

of all the other flavors.

I would like it to be spicier and crunchier.

[Producer] Do you know this one?

Pace?

We are tried and true.

Tried and untrue.

Maybe if they would've put the,

what is it, the calcium chloride,

you would've preserved the texture a little more.

Like this is the kind of salsa like you cook with.

I don't think it's the kind of salsa that you eat by itself.

Stew some beans in it,

I will use it as something to braise maybe pork in it.

[jar sliding] [lid opening]

[salsa pouring]

[Narrator] Siete Casera Salsa Roja.

[Barbara speaking in foreign language]

This is a really charred roasted salsa.

It looks like a salsa that I would eat.

It's definitely scoopable.

[mouth crunching]

Spicy, spicy.

A sharp heat at the back, it's got a smokiness on it.

I can taste it, tomatoes, it's got a good garlic,

the acidity is nice.

It's very well seasoned.

A little more complex in flavor.

This one does taste like there's different peppers

in there, 'cause there's almost like a chocolatey ness

at the back of it.

Probably has some kind of like dark dry chili.

Dark dry chilies have more complex flavor

basically 'cause they're been dried.

Dried chilies bring out hints of smoke

or like chocolate or raisins, things like that.

Textually, it's good.

I think that this would be a really versatile salsa.

The flavors are really consistent throughout the salsa.

Pretty solid salsa.

I've heard of this brand.

Siete brand spicy salsa.

That would make sense, they have good chips.

Cassera style, so this is like the homemade style again.

Serrano and habanero peppers in here.

A serrano as they're hybridizing now

is much more like a jalapeno used to be.

Super spicy

and super fruity.

I would've gone with vinegar

instead of lemon juice concentrate

because I think also like the juice

just loses power over time.

[jar sliding] [lid opening]

[salsa pouring]

[Narrator] Mission Chunky Salsa.

Alright, we're back to the boring diced tomato,

canned tomato lookalike.

They all look the same.

[mouth crunching]

Very, very mild.

It's not spicy in the least.

This one doesn't really have any balance for me

'cause all I taste is tomato but it's like tomato juice.

Texture wise, it's fine, it's chunky,

it'll hold up on a chip.

This doesn't give any kind of fresh vibe.

Definitely sweeter.

Tomatoes have different like levels of sweetness

depending on when are they peak,

what time of the season were they canned.

For salsa, I wouldn't necessarily choose the sweetest ones.

I would try to preserve a little bit

of that natural acidity that they have.

Overall like it falls very flat in my opinion.

[jar sliding]

Mission Chunky Salsa, medium.

I mean it said 0% added sugars

but then it says sugar in the ingredients.

Hmm, that's funny you know.

This one also has some water in it,

it's trying to keep cost down.

Be as volume-based as possible.

It's very American, it's very middle of the road.

Super bowl, salsa, salsa, salsa, not a salsa.

They have their place just not very Mexican.

[jar sliding] [lid opening]

[salsa pouring]

[Narrator] Good & Gather Restaurant Style Salsa.

It looks like pizza sauce, very blended.

This one looks like a salsa that's a condiment.

[mouth crunching]

Terrible, it's definitely cumin in there.

No heat, no acidity.

If you puree the Mission, this would be it.

One jalapeno is not as spicy as the next one.

When you're cooking in the restaurant,

you're tasting all the way as you go.

When you're baking something in a big batch,

you can't do that.

So it's very hard to get the consistent spice level.

This one however has no spice at all.

[jar sliding] [Eric laughing]

Good & Gather. Is this a target brand?

Oh my God!

Restaurant style?

Not my restaurant.

Anaheim peppers, pasilla peppers and jalapeno peppers,

which I don't get those layers of flavor in here.

I just get

tomato puree.

[jar sliding] [lid opening]

[salsa pouring]

[Narrator] Chi-Chis Thick & Chunky Salsa.

This looks like the last three.

[Eric chuckles]

Salsa dejavu.

[mouth crunching]

It tastes like the last three.

Very sweet up front.

There's garlic, I tasted garlic.

This one doesn't have any detectable heat on it.

Like no chili flavor at all.

Texturally I guess it's nice

'cause it's holding together, it's something chunky.

And I think the ingredients were probably diced

instead of like crushed.

You feel like the bite into the ingredient,

you feel the bite into the tomato.

It maybe means that they also use

that calcium chloride.

Does not taste fresh.

You're really gonna just dip it mindlessly.

It's not gonna excite you, you're not gonna think about it.

Just the basic salsa.

[jar sliding]

Chi-Chis Thick & Chunky.

Let the fiesta begin.

[Eric chuckles]

There was not a fiesta in my mouth.

It's medium, says mediums not spicy at all.

The medium on the Tostitos is the right medium,

like that's medium.

Let the fiesta end.

[jar thudding] [Eric chuckles]

[jar sliding] [lid opening]

[salsa pouring]

[Narrator] La Fundidora Fuego Salsa.

Finally something a little more interesting, right?

There's obviously tomatillos in this one

'cause there's a lot of little seeds.

Tomatillos come in a husk and they're green

and really bright and firm.

Tomatoes you actually look for the sweetness

and acidity balance.

Whereas tomatillos are gonna be like crunchy

and acidic and bright.

[mouth crunching]

So I think this one is tasty.

It's not as spicy as I thought it was gonna be.

There's like a rich earthiness or a smokiness to it

that's a characteristic of a dried red chili.

The texture is consistent.

It's more like a taco salsa.

I would say scoopability down to a one or a two.

Very balanced but it's very flavorful.

Got a lot of smokiness on the front,

I'm getting a lot of garlic, it got a decent acidity.

To add acidity, another way to do that naturally

is to use tomatillos.

But it's a good balance.

I would say it's hitting all the nodes.

This sort of makes me dream a little bit

and that's a good sign.

I've seen this one before.

Fuego Salsa, yeah, I've seen this before.

Their ingredients are great.

Tomato tomatillo is the second ingredient.

White onion, guajillo, garlic,

arbol chili and salt.

That's it.

I guess the tomatillos are giving them enough acidity.

So they can take the place of like a vinegar

or lime juice or citric acid and a salsa.

It's guajillo and arbol amazing.

So guajillo comes from the mirasol pepper.

Probably the most colorful dried chili,

it's very like bright red.

Then the arbol chili,

it probably is the spiciest dried chili

that you have in Mexican cuisine.

If I see arbol on a salsa, I know it's gonna be spicy.

I do feel like they could have used more arbol for this one.

This is one of those where you, as you get more bites,

you start to enjoy it more

because of the different layers in there.

It's very, very tasty.

[jar sliding] [lid opening]

[salsa pouring]

[Narrator] On The Border Medium Salsa.

Doesn't look very promising.

[Luis] Watery, a little chunky, same color.

[mouth crunching]

Balance of flavor.

Higher marks than the Pace or Tostitos or Mission

'cause it's not as sweet.

But I tasted tomatoes.

There's also something smoky in there.

Right up front you're tasting,

dehydrated onion, dehydrated garlic.

[Eric] There's not enough heat in there.

There is a decent amount of salt.

Actually is not bad like the tomatoes are firm.

A little watery while also being chunky.

They're rustically cut,

so they're not like little tiny cubes.

So they're trying to go for a more fresh look

but it doesn't taste fresh.

[jar sliding]

On the border.

This is one of those southwestern chain restaurants, right?

Once again, so we have a salsa that's letting you know

that it's an American salsa.

Natural flavors.

Natural flavors could be anything

from like vanilla or a lime zest.

Something that could be adding the smoky flavor

or I've just had too many salsas.

Not the worst one but not a fan.

[jar sliding] [lid opening]

[salsa pouring]

[Narrator] Cholula Salsa Verde.

Time for green.

Criteria for salsa verdes is very different.

So you're looking for a tangy profile,

something sharp and bright,

not so fruity and sweet like with a tomato.

But definitely still something kind of earthy

and with some heat.

Green salsas tend to be more of a pureed salsa.

The tomatillos are blended in with the chilis

because it can incorporate into all the flavors

and add this wonderful roundedness,

when everything gets mixed together.

Usually made with tomatillo.

It naturally imparts a balance of acidity to the salsa.

[mouth crunching]

It's tart, you get the tomatillo flavor for sure.

Doesn't have much spice.

I feel like there's a little thickener in it.

The mouth feel is a little thicker

than I would anticipate a regular salsa verde.

You can taste the herbs, you can taste the tomatillo,

but it's not spicy at all and I think it's missing salt.

It's a little bland.

This one's pretty vinegary.

It reminds me of that Cholula that we had a while ago.

Cholula green.

Oh I like this.

Cholula Salsa Verde mild.

Now that I know that it was mild, my expectations change

because it's doing what it says on the label.

And then it's very simple like tomatillo, jalapeno, onion.

It has dehydrated cilantro.

They're getting the green out of poblano peppers as well.

And then they put xantham gum, which is a thickener.

Which you can see, it's almost like marmalade right?

And a tomatillo salsa, salsa, would be very liquid.

I've had a lot of better green salsas.

[jar sliding] [lid opening]

[salsa pouring]

[Narrator] Herdez Roasted Salsa Verde.

Roasted, you can see the dark specs.

It has some red specs that I'm assuming

is from some kind of pepper.

[mouth crunching]

It tastes pretty fresh, it's quite acidic.

The tomatillos are bringing a really nice brightness to it

from the tanginess.

There's a very mild lingering heat

that builds up from the chilies.

Texturally I like this.

I don't mind the chunkiness of it

but like you can tell the tomatillos have been cooked down

or roasted 'cause they're soft, right?

You know there's not really texture to it

but I don't mind it.

This one is a little better seasoned than the previous one,

is the Herdez one.

There we go.

So tomatillos and roasted tomatillo puree,

poblano pepper puree, roasted jalapeno pepper puree.

Poblano peppers tend to give bright vegetable flavor,

something kind of green and grassy.

Mild enough so you can eat it whole

that's why they use it for like Chile relleno

and it tastes great roasted.

Like when you roast it, it really comes.

2% or less of the of chile arbol,

which is probably the red specs that you see.

They definitely do better salsa,

better than roja, I gotta say.

[jar sliding] [lid opening]

[salsa pouring]

[Narrator] Desert Pepper Salsa Del Rio.

This looks like a lot of Chili.

Uniform you know it's just all green.

[mouths crunching]

This salsa tastes more like the chilies

that are in it,

than the tomatillos.

I would eat this, I would keep dipping in this.

I would pour this on something.

It's not a bad balance, little spicy,

still wish it was spicier.

Good acidity.

I think it's easier to get away with the acidity level

with a salsa vera than with a roja

'cause you don't really need to add anything.

I don't think it gets a lot of points for freshness.

You don't usually see the skin falling off

of a fresh pepper.

None of these cuts look, even.

This looks like it was crushed.

It could have been in a molcajete,

it could have been by a machine

or it could have been by hand.

A molcajete is basically a mortar and pestle,

but it's a round volcanic bowl.

Grinds and tears and pulls everything apart.

So you're gonna get a lot more aromatics

if you do it that way.

Nowadays, to be honest, how busy the restaurant is,

everybody uses a blender.

So you just wanna make, be very, very gentle with it

because you can over blend it in very quickly.

So it'd just be like a one or two pulse.

[jar sliding]

Desert Pepper Trading Company.

I've seen this one at the store before.

Salsa Del Rio, Medium.

As green chilies as the first ingredient,

which makes sense, you list the ingredient

with the highest concentration in the product at the front.

So this and the Herdez are two different products.

The Herdez is more of a traditional salsa verde,

very tomatillo forward.

Whereas this is more Chile forward.

This would be like a really great enchilada sauce.

[jar sliding] [lid opening]

[salsa pouring]

[Narrator] Trader Joe's Hatch Valley Salsa.

This almost looks like a straight Chile product.

[Barbara] It's chunky.

[mouths crunching]

It tastes like it's just Chile.

It's not spicy but you can immediately taste

like the hot Chile.

Most people know Hatch Chile's,

that's not actually a Chile pepper.

It's a growing region in southern New Mexico,

known for its really rich soil.

And the amount of sun that it gets

creates a brighter hotter pepper.

Has good acidity, savory.

This does taste fresh.

It tastes like a really great Chile.

The textures are good, it's a little bit chunky.

The Chile's firm enough, it's not too watery.

This is like such a deep, wonderful Chile flavor.

This seems like this is meant to like showcase this Chile

[jar sliding]

Trader Joe's Hatch Valley Salsa.

It just tastes like that.

It does have some tomatillos in here

and some lime juice concentrate.

But first ingredient is hatch chili peppers.

It's a pretty straightforward salsa

and it's also very traditional of the southwest.

I love it. This one is good.

[jar sliding] [lid opening]

[salsa pouring]

[Narrator] Xochitl Chipotle Salsa.

Oh it's smoky.

Probably Chipotle, so it's very smoky flavored.

[mouths crunching]

Yeah, this is a Chipotle one.

Chipotle is jalapeno,

that's ripened and dried and smoked.

And then it depends on how far you take them

in the smoking stage.

We need to add another criteria for Chipotle sauces,

which is the level of smokiness to it.

The Chile is the main ingredient

or the main flavor driver.

It should be spicy, hot Chile picante.

This one to me falls a little flat.

It's very mild on the smokiness

[jar sliding]

Xochitl.

It says medium chipotle, authentic flavor,

sun dried chipotle peppers and olive oil, interesting.

Maybe they like slightly fried them in the olive oil

or something.

You don't rehydrate peppers with oil

but you toast them in it to bring out more of the flavor

and to caramelize the Chile.

Dehydrated Chipotle peppers at the end of this

probably 'cause you don't need to use a lot.

It carries a lot of flavor in a small amount.

You could definitely cook like 10 dishes

with this in a second.

[jar sliding] [lid opening]

[salsa pouring]

[Narrator] Stonewall Kitchen Pineapple Chipotle Salsa.

Oh my God, back to the chunky.

Now that I'm scooping the chip in there,

I get a waft of smoke off of it.

So there's probably Chipotle pepper in here.

[mouth crunching]

Oh my God.

[mouth chewing] This is terrible.

Sauce is like sweet as hell.

This has pineapple in it too.

[Eric chuckles]

I'm not a huge fruit salsa fan.

Having a fruit in a salsa is very natural.

Tomatoes are fruits,

avocados are fruits, they're all fruits.

Chiles are fruits.

This pineapple tastes grilled or smoked,

which reminds me of being at a barbecue and I love that.

This one's not balanced, it's not very acidic.

It needs more salt, it's very sweet.

It has unexpected texture.

I can't even feel the crunch of the onions,

but it's also watery so if you pour it onto something

it's gonna just kind of fall off

and just leave you with the chunks at the top.

[jar sliding]

Stonewall Kitchen.

Oh Pineapple Chipotle Sauce, it's so sweet.

And this says mild on the side of it.

I would prefer if this had some heat

to counteract the sweetness.

They've got pure cane sugar in here.

Pineapple's got enough sweetness already

so I don't think it needed sugar.

[jar sliding] [lid opening]

[salsa pouring]

[Narrator] Whole Foods Chipotle Garlic Salsa

Looks like a ragu.

It's a very thick sauce.

I do smell the garlic and I do smell

the Chipotle on this one.

[mouth crunching]

I get the tomato flavor, it's sweet

but it feels like a natural sweetness.

The texture is like a very, very pureed.

It stays on the chip but it's not like those tomatillo ones

that were like marmalade.

Yeah, this is falling very flat as well.

What saves the salsa is the Chipotle.

You definitely tastes the Chipotle.

Other than that it's very boring.

Whole Foods.

[jar sliding]

Whole Foods Chipotle Garlic Salsa.

Smoky and savory, not as savory as this label says.

You had to hatch green chilis,

which I can taste at all in this one.

And smoked paprika, I can't really taste that at all either.

I'm not really sure what that's doing

to the flavor profile here 'cause I'm not really tasting it.

It's unusual to see like things like paprika.

Probably since they're trying to do a mild version

of this Chipotle salsa,

they wanna add the smoke without adding the heat.

For all of the beautiful packaging and the great copy.

I find the salsa itself really underwhelming.

[jar sliding] [lid opening]

[salsa pouring]

[Narrator] Frontera Gourmet Mexican Chipotle Salsa.

It looks like a tomatillo Chipotle sauce.

I can smell the chipotle from here.

So this one is probably more intense than the other ones.

[mouths crunching]

You know, I'm ready for my taco.

Definitely the smokiest one we've tried,

which I appreciate.

Chipotle is just so delicious

because it has so many elements.

The smokiness just will add almost to any dish.

It's got the tanginess,

you do taste the tomatillos right up front.

This one doesn't have as much spice as I would like.

Chipotle peppers tend to be a little spicier.

It's a jalapeno pepper

that gets to spend more time on the plant

so it gets to build up more time to build that capsaicin

and get to be a spicier pepper.

I only wish it was a little spicier

and a little saltier.

Texture wise, it's bordering on watery,

but I think if you stir it up, it's nice.

Definitely has the freshness, really enough going on

so that like you feel like you wanna keep eating it.

The most interesting Chipotle one, we tried for sure.

[jar sliding]

Frontera Chipotle Salsa.

Oh my God, it's crazy, this says hot.

It's not hot at all.

[jar sliding] [lid opening]

[salsa pouring]

[Narrator] Stonewall Kitchen Black Bean Salsa.

This looks like dog food.

[Luis laughing]

This is like a bean and corn salsa.

These are probably my least favorite kinds of salsa.

Not so traditionally Mexican, really.

As a salsa, just wanna make sure

that I taste every ingredient

that they're there, that they're present

and that they're relevant to the salsa.

I would want something very specific texturally

that it's not gonna be mushy.

That these beans are cooked properly,

that the corn still has some crunch.

Still gonna want some kind of heat from the Chile,

but an earthiness from the beans.

And then a good crunchy sweet from the corn.

This is crazy.

It's almost like a version of a chili.

[mouth crunching]

I don't like this one, it's too sweet.

The corn is clearly being frozen, it's like frozen corn.

I don't think the salsa really tastes

like what it looks like.

It's so vinegary,

to the point that if you're eating pickles,

at least the beans are well cooked.

The beans are okay.

It's sweet and then tangy

and then you get crunched from the corn.

Like I don't even really taste the beans.

It's a little spicy, so it has some chills in it.

I don't think that there's a balance here.

I don't think it's good.

I don't know what it is for.

[Eric chuckles] [jar sliding]

Stonewall Kitchen Black Bean Salsa.

Oh, it's the same brown of the pineapple one, right?

Stonewall Kitchen?

Also it says black beans, salsa.

Those are no black beans.

[Barbara] Are these black beans or are they pinto beans?

They're definitely alluding to the hardiness

of it being from the beans

because you're gonna have some protein,

you're gonna have some fiber.

It's gonna have body.

But at what cost?

Thank you for letting me know this exist, I guess.

[Luis laughing]

[jar sliding] [lid opening]

[salsa pouring]

[Narrator] Desert Pepper Corn

Black Bean & Red Pepper Salsa.

I can't believe like different brands said like,

Yeah, let's make this.

I mean these beans look darker.

It might be actual black beans.

This is giving that cowboy caviar vibe.

Corn, beans and roasted peppers.

[mouth crunching]

This one tastes like beans,

but honestly what I really taste is vinegar.

I imagine this also has some kind of apple cider vinegar,

'cause there's a tartness of vinegar

but with a sweetness at the front of it.

I don't know where this belongs.

Like the flavor profile is so over the place,

like it has no balance.

This one reads more of a salsa,

the other one was so like hearty,

just like it said on the label.

The corn is like niblets.

The beans hard and have no flavor.

The puree is, I don't know,

like they took the worst jar of salsa they could find

and just like threw it all together.

I mean I think if you're lazy and you're at home

and you wanna make a chili,

you add some like ground meat to this

and cook it down a little bit

and you probably have some like decent thing

to put over rice or something.

But other than that, I think this is like

completely useless.

[jar sliding]

Desert Pepper Trading Company.

Corn, Black Bean, Red Pepper Salsa.

Corn, black beans, these are actually black beans, okay.

I'll take that.

I wasn't a fan of their other salsa either.

Is there more brands of like,

have you seen more

like corn bean salsa?

[Producer] Yep. That's wild.

[jar sliding] [lid opening]

[salsa pouring]

[Narrator] Somos Salsa Macha Mexican Chili Crisp.

Textbook salsa macha, I love salsa machas in general.

Salsa macha is an oil based salsa from Veracruz.

Usually starting with a really good oil garlic

and then different kinds of nuts.

For the salsa macha, I'm looking for a good quality oil.

But it also shouldn't leave a film on your tongue.

And then you're looking for the texture

and the crunchiness of either the nuts or the seeds or both.

To taste the nuts and the seeds toasted and cooked.

It should be soggy.

This is gonna have a completely

different balance of flavor.

'Cause you're not looking for the acidity,

you're looking for something kind of smoky, toasty earthy.

And then a nutty flavor from it as well.

[mouth crunching]

Delicious and messy, it's really crunchy.

There's a lot of sesame seed that flavor's very strong.

The pepitas are toasted, you taste a lot of toasted pepita.

[Barbara] The oil has flavor.

This is using a good quality oil,

'cause it's not sitting on my tongue,

it's not saturating my tongue.

[Barbara] Pumpkin seeds are puffed up,

which means that they're not burned,

they're nice and crunchy.

There's a heat that starts to build up at the back

of your mouth from the the chiles,

but it does have like an earthiness to it.

Maybe it's a Guajillo chili that they're using.

Oh, in all, delicious.

[jar sliding]

Somos. So it actually says,

Mexican chili crisp bigger than salsa macha.

Oh, that's unfortunate

that they went and did that.

Made with avocado oil.

It's a good healthy oil

and it's pretty neutral.

So it has guajillo and arbol.

They were adding the arbol for the spice

and the guajillo for the earthiness.

I would've done it with some kind of Chipotle

or something like that, like a morita pepper.

I associate salsa macha with having like a hint of smoke.

With that being said, I think it's a good salsa macha.

[jar sliding] [lid opening]

[salsa pouring]

[Narrator] Xilli Salsa Macha Con Cacahuate.

Peanut, macha, which is one of my favorites.

The oil has picked up a lot of the color from the Chile.

[mouths crunching]

Definitely the oil is very tasty.

It has all the chilles in there,

it's spicier than the other one.

It's got a nice lingering heat that's building up.

This is a charred Chile.

They're chopped up, they're small.

The balance is good and actually the more you have

of the actual Chile, the more fruit you're getting.

So you're getting a little bit of sweetness there.

It's hitting all the marks for me

for what I want for a salsa macha.

This is probably gonna stick out

as one of my favorites today.

[jar sliding]

Oh yeah, I've seen this one.

Xilli Salsa Macha Con Cacahuate

salsa macha with peanuts.

It is Chipotle, so they're very charred.

I'm surprised that they're as fruity as they are.

Chipotle, morita, peanuts and Cecil, that's it.

No garlic, no onion, nothing.

Yeah, very basic macha.

Could eat this whole jar.

[soft music]

[Narrator] Now let's see what salsa our chefs

like the most and the least.

I don't think I'll ever tasted as many salsa

at once again in my life.

My favorite one was a Trader Joe's Hatch Valley Salsa.

It had a very particular flavor

and it just came up a very unique.

My honorable mention is definitely

the Trader Joe's Hatch Green Chili Salsa,

'cause it's reping my home state.

My other favorite salsa would have to be

the Salsa Roja, the Siete.

It definitely brought some heat

that I feel the other one were lacking.

The Siete was my favorite red salsa.

It was smoky, it was balanced, it was spicy.

It had a lot of different layers

from the different chilies that they used.

Second favorite was the Xilli Con Cacahuate Salsa Macha.

I loved the smokiness of it,

I love the sweetness of it, I love the heat.

My favorite salsa today was the Fundidora Fuego,

because I love the interplay of the two chiles

with the tomatillos.

It was so balanced, it was so great.

And then really for fresh, really the Jalapa jar

was the most fresh flavored one that we had by far.

My least favorite salsa by far,

Stonewall Kitchen Corn & Black Beans Salsa.

Just hated the whole category

of the bean and corn salsa's, like, what is it?

The Mission, Tostitos, Chi-chis,

target brand family.

They all tasted like the same thing

and they all tasted like marinara.

There's definitely some good quality salsas out there

that are gonna stand up to something homemade

or restaurant quality.

You just gotta find 'em.

[soft music]