Green Mountain Gringo Salsa

We found the best review for Green Mountain Gringo salsa in Cook's Illustrated magazine, which kitchen-tests everything it reviews. However, you'll need a subscription to read their report. Likewise, you'll need a subscription to read Consumer Reports' salsa ratings. There are free reviews available online from Prevention and Real Simple magazines, but they are a bit skimpy on details of their salsa taste testing.

Green Mountain Gringo originally was made by hand in a Vermont house but now comes from a "production facility" in Winston-Salem, N.C. However, it retains its "natural" designation and is ConsumerSearch.com's Fast Answer for a no-preservatives salsa. Reviews either love various Green Mountain Gringo varieties or pan them. Cook's Illustrated, which rated salsas in 2003 and 2008, said in the latter report that its tasters gave the hot version of the salsa either very high scores or very low ones, and it placed eighth out of nine products. Testers at Prevention, however, said it tested 88 salsas and Green Mountain Gringo won the "mild" division. Some reviews say the tomatoes taste fresh, while others say it tastes "cooked" or like "tomato paste," and the hot version was said to be "fierce." Cook's Illustrated noted that tasters were perhaps "polarized" by the inclusion of tomatillos -- a sour cousin to tomatoes that are traditional in some parts of Mexico. For more money, taste tests also favor Desert Pepper Trading Co. salsa (*est. $5 for a 16-ounce jar) while Pace (*est. $3 for a 16-ounce jar) tops other mass-market brands. Green Mountain Gringo is between the two in price.