The Problem Aldi Shoppers Have With This Organic Salsa
Certain words come to mind when one thinks of salsa. Spicy, probably. Fresh, perhaps. But sweet is rarely the flavor you want at the forefront. However, that was all one Aldi fan experienced when they dropped a chip laden with the Simply Nature salsa. "Why is this so sweet?" they asked the Aldi subreddit. "It reminds me of Spaghettios."
This was met with sympathy. "I hate that salsa too," one wrote. "Does it have sugar in it? I prefer salsas without sugar, so I always check the ingredients," another commented in an attempt to be productive. This seems to be the case. Fooducate includes organic sugar as the fifth ingredient in the salsa. So, it's sweet because it does have sugar.
For those who still want to buy salsa from Aldi but do not want Spaghettios masquerading as a Mexican sauce, a third suggested Mateo's salsa, which sometimes appears in the Aisle of Shame.
Why dump sugar in salsa?
Here one might wonder why sugar would appear in salsa. Is it like sodium which, as NPR covered, is in everything because companies have noticed our addiction? Perhaps.
A counterproposal could be that the sugar dilutes the heat. Pepper Scale explains that a dash of sugar could take the bite off a salsa that is too spicy. However, they also advise against adding a lot of sugar because it will make the salsa sweet. As the sweet salsa in question is mild, one could imagine that sugar was originally added for this purpose, but the company got carried away.
This idea gains further credibility thanks to a 2016 review Bo Williams did of Simply Nature's hot salsa. That salsa included evaporated cane sugar, but "The balance of tomato, onion, pepper, and spice is good, with the only real dominance being the short-lived chipotle punch." There is still the question whether it's worth including the sugar at all, as it doesn't add to the salsa's appeal. Still, it isn't sweet salsa like the mild variant.