Even though it’s hundreds and hundreds of miles away from Mexico, Ohio is home to lots of salsa makers. If CaJohn’s is the local king, there’s plenty of market space for other nearby operations such as JB’s and Montezuma.
Enter Ridiculously Good Salsa (RGS), made in Westerville. RGS is a refrigerator salsa, so that means a couple of things: 1) It has super fresh flavors and 2) A short shelf life. You don’t just stock up on the RGS stuff, because you have about a week between buying and the magic date on its best-by sticker.
But who keeps salsa around for a week, anyway? Once opened, it goes as fast as tortilla chips. RGS is sold in little plastic 16 ounce vats. Open the seal, and it’s a super pulpy slurry. That’s a good start, this version isn’t a runny, watery salsa; it’s one continuous landscape of micro-clots with optimized sticking power for chips.
While the texture is magical, the flavor is pretty nice too. The salsa has a defined saltiness, which gives it some body, the requisite tomato-ey base, and some heat to finish it off. It’s the sort of salsa one might be inclined to consume with a spoon. It can stand on its own.
There’s not a whole lot of marketing claims (other than the “Ridiculously Good” bit) promised on the package. It is gluten-free, but that seems normal for salsa. The ingredient list is pretty straightforward: Tomatoes take the number-one position, followed by onions, habanero and jalapeño peppers, cilantro, garlic and salt. There’s also a reference to “spices” and a fancy chemical: calcium chloride — that’s a salt that’s sometime found in tomato products.
Anyway, it’s good; maybe even “ridiculously good”. It’s also on the upscale end: $7.99 is the price tag, but the money buys a whole pound of the salsa at gourmet grocers.
For more information, visit www.rgoodsalsa.com.