Taste test: Supermarket guacamole rated, from ‘spumy’ to delicious
What do you need to make guacamole? Not a lot, according to Santiago Lastra, the chef and owner of London’s Kol, the Mexican restaurant firmly ensconced in the World’s 50 Best list. “A great avocado, a good squeeze of lime, fresh coriander seeds or stems – I’m not a big fan of the leaves – spring onions and chopped tomatoes.” Salt, a dash of chilli, that’s it. A creamy, tangy mix, with the flavour of avocado, brightened with the bite of onion and some savoury tomato.
Yet reading the labels of the readymade guacamole in the supermarket, it’s a different story. Almost all of them include the “acidity regulator” citric acid (cheaper than lime juice) as well as ascorbic acid, an antioxidant that helps stop the guac turning an unappetising khaki colour. Several also include preservatives such as potassium metabisulphite or potassium sorbate. Stabilisers including xanthan gum, rice starch and modified starch also figured, often to hold in the manufacturer’s friend, added water. And with the extra colouring and flavouring, who’s to know they are selling you H2O not avocado?
None of this makes me want to rush out and buy readymade guacamole, or the “smashed avocado” that appeared in supermarket chiller cabinets about five years ago, on the back of the avocado toast craze. While guacamoles can be as low as 14 per cent avocado, the smashed avocados have a higher avocado content at around 95 per cent. But as some premium guacamoles have high avocado levels, and the smashed avo packs often contain guacamole-style ingredients such as tomato, herbs or onion, the difference can be moot.
Tasting my way through 16 of both kinds, those added bits and bobs didn’t always fair well. Tomato cubes went mushy or oddly polystyrene textured, probably because they had been frozen; lime juice came from concentrate, giving it a cooked flavour; and herb leaves went dark, slimy and lost their verve. And Lastra has a point about leaving the coriander leaves out of the guac. Sometimes less really is more.
The test
Curdled looking and a cheap salad cream flavour so that blindfolded I would not know this was guac. What is rice starch doing in a guacamole anyway? Never mind the preservative and antioxidant.
Looks like a smooth blended guacamole that has had large bits of avo stirred in. The tomato pieces are watery, like they have been frozen. There’s a spumy texture and it tastes very acidic, but not in a zingy lime juice way. Contains cornflour.
Sweet flavour like cheap mayo. The jar doesn’t need to go in the fridge until it is opened, but it’s a poor trade-off. Horrible ingredients list includes colouring, preservative, stabiliser and modified maize starch – and only 14 per cent avocado.
The flavour is like cooked lime cordial and the tomato is really hard with tough skin. Good that there are a few chunks of avo but they taste terrible and soapy.
A chunky, good-coloured dip made with 80 per cent avocado with fresh-tasting tomatoes. It’s got a decent ingredients list, hence the rating, but it’s bland and the sourness doesn’t taste natural, perhaps down to the ascorbic acid.
Looks spumy, curdled and split. Another one that doesn’t taste like guacamole with an odd sweetness and intense garlic flavour. It’s only 49 per cent avocado but the ingredients list is pretty good bar a bit of ascorbic acid, which is why I’ve bumped up the score.
Despite a good, fresh flavour and great ingredients list, this looks terrible. There’s a thick brown layer on top. It tastes very avocado-y and there’s not a lot of acid, which may partly account for its appearance but I think this is a faulty batch.
Smooth with even green colour and cubes of tomato and herbs. Tastes tart and a bit oily with a fruity note but nothing unpleasant. Odd that it contains rice starch as otherwise the ingredients are fine.
There’s a nice, slightly rough texture to this, but I can’t say much else positive. It’s got a very zingy, lime juice flavour which overwhelms any avocado and makes it very one-dimensional. Lots of UPFs including xanthan gum and preservatives.
A smooth dip with a mayonnaise-like texture, rubbery avocado chunks and lumps of mushy tomato that have perhaps been frozen. Oddly spicy, with a big after-kick. Overall, this is artificial, canteen guac laden with UPFs.
Bright, pea-green colour and another one with a strong, artificial lime taste. No tomatoes, just a depressing list of additives.
Nice and spicy with a clean, chilli hit and big, well-flavoured chunks of avocado as if it’s been blended and the avo added afterwards. The ingredients aren’t great: preservatives and firming agent, plus Greek yoghurt, which has no place in guacamole.
Looks fine but it’s quite fibrous with only flecks of tomato and tiny crunches of onion. There’s a weird, sour aftertaste too.
The colour is slightly muted, but it’s lovely and chunky yet melt-in-the-mouth creamy. As hot and spicy as the name suggests, but nothing on the ingredients list that shouldn’t be there.
Smashed avocado by name, but with onion and chilli so more of a guacamole. It tastes honest, reasonably balanced with an after-kick of spice. The ingredients include flavouring and preservative, but it’s a shorter list than many, plus it’s 95 per cent avocado. Good value.
Smooth apart from some cubes of tomato. Lovely bright green colour, with a true avocado flavour, and so rich you might want to add a squeeze of lime juice. No weird ingredients at all.