For The Best Store-Bought Cocktail Sauce, Head To Whole Foods

Seafood cocktail, the popular chilled seafood appetizer, is admired in part for its simplicity; you only need your choice of seafood and cocktail sauce. And it's very easy to make at home, so you don't have to be at an expensive waterfront restaurant to enjoy it. To satisfy your craving anytime it hits, make sure to have some shrimp in your freezer and pick up a bottle of the sweet, tangy, and spicy sauce at the store. There are many brands available on the shelves, but Tasting Table is taking the guesswork out of it. Our own Samantha Maxwell tested seven popular grocery store cocktail sauces and Whole Foods' 365 Organic Cocktail Sauce came out on top as the cocktail sauce to make all your seafood dreams come true.

There are a few important elements in a good cocktail sauce: a tomato base, spice from horseradish, a sweetener of some sort, a salty element, and a good tang. Each brand uses different ingredients and ratios to satisfy these requirements, often adding other spices to make them unique. With 4.3 stars from over 2,000 reviews on Amazon, many customers agree that the 365 cocktail sauce contains a near-perfect balance of all of the above elements and is just different enough to stand out.

The Whole Foods brand sauce is made with certified organic ingredients: tomato puree, horseradish, apple cider vinegar, cane sugar, white vinegar, Worcestershire, and spices. Those ingredients in and of themselves are appreciated, as fans say it's hard to find a jarred cocktail sauce ingredient list that doesn't contain high fructose corn syrup. It's how they come together, though, that makes this one a winner. It's mild while still allowing all of the notes of flavor to come through. You'll pick up the spice, the sweetness, the tang, the tomato, and the savory Worcestershire in every taste.

Texture is another make-or-break factor in cocktail sauce. Too thin and it'll slide off your seafood vessel, too thick and it will be unpleasant and overpowering when eaten. This brand is thick enough to scoop with shrimp, but not at all syrupy (likely thanks to the lack of corn syrup). If you don't want to take it from us, take it from an Amazon reviewer who said this product is all one can hoe for from a jarred cocktail sauce.