The Worst Store-Bought Queso Sauce Is By A Beloved Fast Food Brand

When foodies want a taste of restaurant-worthy queso at home, they might turn to the credibility of a jarred store-bought version branded by a fast-food restaurant chain. However, in the case of Taco Bell's medium salsa con queso, the beloved brand's cheese dip ranked the lowest in Tasting Table's definitive roundup of grocery store quesos. 

Frankly, the melted nacho cheese sauce T-Bell serves to customers dining in isn't very good, either. So, by this standard, the lackluster jarred queso cheese sauce is reflective of the restaurant's quality of product (points for consistency, we guess?). Another pro: At least it's affordable. Taco Bell's medium salsa con queso goes for $3.47 for a 15-ounce jar at a Walmart in New York, which is on par if not slightly below the average market price for jarred queso offerings stocked in supermarket aisles. This, however, is where the list of the queso's redeeming qualities ends.

The biggest sin committed by T-Bell's jarred queso isn't even on flavor (which is one note at best). It's about the texture, which is thick and gooey in a bad way. This can be remedied slightly by warming the queso, but the off-putting textural issue only worsens as the sauce cools back down to room temperature. One Walmart reviewer said they even had to double-check the expiration date because the weirdly thick consistency made them think the queso had spoiled (it hadn't). This unsentimental sentiment is also noted in the majority of Amazon reviews, which describe the thick texture as "coagulated."

One particular Amazon reviewer named Taco Bell's salsa con queso as the worst jarred cheese they'd ever had and noted that it
didn't even taste like food. Meanwhile, someone else compared it to cheese whiz and added that it was far from an aged port cheddar. It certainly is not (the top three ingredients are skim milk, canola oil, and cheddar, so...).

Regarding heat, the "medium" label on this queso is somewhat misleading; the spiciness quotient here clocks in closer to "mild and a half." It's also heavily salted, and pretty much just tastes like you might expect processed cheese sauce to taste. If you love arcade snack bar nachos or the hot melted cheese served in ballparks, you might not hate it. Overall, as we noted in our review, "Maybe if it was sandwiched into a Crunchwrap or a burrito, you wouldn't notice it." But on its own, Taco Bell's jarred queso does not belong in your shopping cart.

Taco Bell has brought a kaleidoscope of branded items to the grocery store sphere, like boxed meal kits, bottles of its mild, hot, fire, and Diablo restaurant sauces, and more. While many of these offerings are solid dupes for the restaurant versions, foodies are better off skipping T-Bell's medium salsa con queso and whipping up some quick homemade queso yourself.