Salsa Reviews

One of the challenges of analyzing reviews of salsa is that there are so many of them -- salsa brands, that is, not reviews. According to marketing data, every year sees the introduction of anywhere from 50 to 100 jarred salsas, ranging from small regional brands to brand-new supermarket brands to new variants of established national brands. For this reason, it's a major logistical undertaking for a publication to conduct a thorough salsa taste test.

Fortunately, we did find some sources that were willing to go the extra mile, salsa-wise. At the top of our All Reviews list is Every Day with Rachael Ray magazine, whose tasters recently plowed through 71 salsa brands before assigning winners in various categories (mild, corn, green, etc.). A taste test by Prevention is even more ambitious, albeit a bit more dated, as a panel narrows down the field from 88 salsa brands, choosing the best hot, mild, medium, green and black bean varieties. In an undated report, EatingWell evaluates a field of 40 salsa brands, but chooses winners in fewer categories than Every Day or Prevention. Unfortunately, none of these three reviewers is willing to identify the loser salsa brands.

Although not as many salsa varieties are tested, some other reviewers are more willing to identify losers as well as winning salsa. Consumer Reports, Cook's Illustrated and Slate each try out about a dozen salsa brands, the last in a fun-to-read "NCAA bracket" format involving finals and semifinals. All of these reviewers actually rank salsa according to preference -- including both winners and losers. Smaller roundups of a half-dozen salsas or less are conducted by Men's Fitness, Boston.com, Health.com and food blogger Ed Levine. Finally, we supplemented these taste tests with an informative thread at Chowhound.com in which participants weigh in on their favorite bottled salsa.

Perhaps there's something about day-long salsa tastings that brings out the worst in reviewers, but some of the cranky comments we found about lesser salsa brands can barely be reprinted here. Slate magazine is especially tough on "celebrity" salsa, describing Emeril's Original Recipe (*est. $4) as containing "wads of squashed tomato that should be appetizing but are instead repulsive," and Newman's Own salsa (*est. $4) as "inedible" and "the haggis of salsa." Perhaps this is why the top two reviewers in our chart -- Every Day with Rachael Ray and Prevention -- have nothing to say about salsas that don't make the cut.  ... Continued

Our Consensus Report shows how many times products are top-ranked by reviewers included in our
All The Reviews Reviewed chart.

Because the major salsa brands have so many different varieties, we've chosen to count brand mentions, rather than the top picks of individual formulations. By this measure, Desert Pepper Trading Co. leads the pack, followed by Green Mountain Gringo and Pace. All three of these brands are included in ConsumerSearch Fast Answers.