Camellia Grove Meadow Kombucha If you can get your hands on this North Portland company’s product, it’s the best kombucha out there. (We found it at Wellspent Market and some New Seasons locations.) It’s made with Smith Tea rooibos tea leaves and herbs, which lands a complicated flavor somewhere between an old-fashioned root beer and Mexican Coke. There’s no added sugar, but its light sweetening is pleasant, with just a hint of funk on the nose.

Check out our best kombucha taste test here.

Tillamook Maker’s Reserve 2018 Extra Sharp White Cheddar Yes, this pick from the Oregon-founded brand is worth the extra $3: aged three years to deliver a complex, cravable flavor, with a notable funk and a sophisticated texture. “It has a lot of salty crystals, like Parmesan cheese. It’s simultaneously creamy and nutty,” said one tester. We’d happily eat it on its own, though we wouldn’t mind it on a sandwich or burger. 

Read about all the cheddars we tested here.

JCoco Single Varietal Contamana Cacao 85% By far the sweetest of the dozen bars we tasted, this Seattle-based brand was our hands-down favorite. Its velvety taste and texture is the stuff of dark-chocolate-lovers’ dreams. Even our tester who doesn’t enjoy dark chocolate said, “I would eat this.” 

Check out all the dark chocolate bars in contention here.

Heinz Ketchup There’s a reason Heinz dominates the market. It’s tangy and not too sweet, with a thick-but-not-too-thick consistency and spot-on flavoring that lends far more dimension and body than you would expect from bargain-priced tomatoes and sugar. Heinz tastes just like one expects ketchup to taste. Is that due to habituation? Maybe. Portland Ketchup was a close second.

Catch up on our other ketchup reviews here.

Sakari Farms Fire Roasted Hot Sauce The Indigenous-owned farm in Tumalo, near Bend, makes a sleeper-hit hot sauce. The flavor is more unusual than its run-of-the-mill name implies: surprisingly smoky from wood-smoked jalapeño, moderately spicy, and full of tang from roasted tomatillos. Our testers unanimously liked it.

Get the heat on other hot sauces here.

Heidi’s House Mustard from Edelweiss Delicatessen It’s worth the extra shopping trip to the Southeast Portland German market. Its deli-made mustard is complex: a little sweet, very vinegary, and moderately spicy, with beer for a little maltiness. You can see the herbs in it, with flecks like a Cool Ranch Dorito. “It’s just delicious; I would lick that off my plate,” said one tester. Though it’s pricier than other mustards ($7 for eight ounces), it’s more than sufficient as a standalone condiment on hot dogs or burgers.

Find out which other mustards passed muster here.

Tillamook Old-Fashioned Vanilla The clear crowd favorite. A bright, snowy-white color with a fluffy texture that melts in your mouth, which our testers described as “crisp,” “pure,” and “clean.” While we’d gladly eat this on its own, it also plays nicely with other desserts. “It’s the perfect ice cream to go with birthday cake,” commented a tester. A few testers even came back for second and third scoops. 

Get the scoop on the other vanilla ice creams here.

Jalapeño Potato Chips This Northwest-founded brand may now be owned by Utz, but its “Cascade style” chips still feel close to home. The jalapeño flavor is hot enough to make you sweat and gulp down water (or beer), but not enough to cause any pain. Opening a bag “smacks you in the face with the smell of a jalapeño—just like cutting into a jalapeño,” said one tester. Another recalls that when his Portland middle school cafeteria would run out of these, “all hell would break loose.”

Find out how the other flavors did here.