PPG Review: New line of Pace Salsas

Pace has a new line of salsas on the grocery shelves.

We all know the big players in the salsa game: Tostitos, Ortega, Old El Paso, and Pace, the lone ranger who claims to be one of the freshest tasting picante sauces in the land. Trying to stand out once more, Pace released a group of specialty salsas. Our mission: to see how these new flavors stand up against the competition. Whether you like it hot or mild, chunky or soupy, we will tell you which, if any, are left standing at high noon.

Salsa Verde

Jon: Taste like a really good authentic mexican style salsa. Hint of smoky flavor and fresh tasting peppers, not to hot though. Overall it’s my third favorite out of the group.

Christina: This has a thin consistency and grainy texture. This one tastes the most as if it was made from fresh tomatillos. There was a good balance of salts and spices. Over all this was one of my favorites.


Pineapple Mango

Jon: I had high expectations for this one. Sweet at first, and was almost disappointed in it, but after a second the spice kicks in and is well balanced and refreshing in its approach. Overall This unconventional sweet and spicy salsa earned the top spot not only is this group, but overall in any brand of salsa.

Christina: This was by far my favorite and also one of the more natural tasting salsas. Each flavor hit me one at a time, pineapple, mango, pepper, and I love the chunky texture. This was on the spicier side, which was a good compliment to the fruit.

Tequila Lime

Jon: Another flavor out of the group I had high expectations for. While it is a tequila flavored salsa, the tequila flavor is way to dominant. There is barely a lime taste to it, light kick to it, but overall it lacks in balance between the two flavors.

Christina: This was shocking how badly it tasted. I could not taste tequila or lime and any flavor that did come through tasted very fake, specifically like a mealy pickle.

Triple Pepper

Jon: Not the biggest fan of super spicy salsas, but the overall flavor in this one was okay. Super spicy, way too much pepper spice taste. I felt like I was eating cayenne and/or chili pepper straight from the spice race, mixed in with liquid. Overall my least favorite.

Christina: The taste did nothing for me. I couldn’t identify any of the taste sensations, if any. There was a mild hint of pepper and it was spicy, but that’s all I got.

Black Bean and Roasted Corn Salsa

Jon: The black bean flavored salsa was the biggest surprise in overall flavor and like-ability. Chock full of flavor, it was easy to eat, and didn’t have an over powering bean flavor. A little salty, but provided a balanced bean and corn flavor to it. This salsa earned second place amongst the others.

Christina: Nice try. Why would you eat this when you can just put actual pieces of corn and black bean in a regular salsa? This salsa had neither ingredient and instead tried to fool us with a fake processed taste.


Pico de Gallo

Jon: The most watery of the bunch, and maybe the most natural tasting. Heavy cilantro flavor, maybe too much though. Too salty for my taste. Not hotness factor at all, but had a fresh taste to it.

Christina: Interesting. I wish I had tried other Pico de Gallos before this because it is such a traditional Mexican salsa. I just hope that others taste better and are more impressive. This had a hint of onion and nothing else to write home about. I once again would have liked to see some actual solid ingredients instead of some processed taste.

Mexican Four cheese

Jon: The worse, by far, of the bunch. I don’t even know how this made it to the production line. It was straight up awful. Very artificial tasting...so much salt that I felt like I was licking a “salt lick”. Way over processed and full of chemical taste, I’d be embarrassed to serve this even to my dog. Clearance made me try it warmed up, while it was marginally better, I still felt like it was absolutely the worse queso dip ever made.

Christina: It tasted like rubber at first or as if someone had melted a kraft single in the microwave. Once heated it tasted slightly better, however, I can think of many cheese salsas that taste significantly better. I think they went with the wrong combination of cheeses on this and it tasted too processed.

Overall

Jon: As I said above, the Pinapple Mango salsa might be my new favorite "go to" salsa. As for the others there were a few that were better than just your plain old salsa, namely the Black Bean Roasted Corn, but nothing to get too excited about.

Christina: Overall I was not impressed with this group. I will probably continue to buy Tostitos Salsa. If anything, you should buy the Salsa Verde or the Pineapple Mango.

Did you like this post? Leave your comments below!

Found this Post interesting? Receive new posts via RSS (What is RSS?) or Subscribe to PPG by Email

[+/-] EXPAND TO READ FULL POST...

[+/-] Summary only...