8 Items You Should Always Buy At A Mexican Supermarket

A trip to a well-stocked Mexican supermarket can feel like a day trip to Mexico. Chains such as Fiesta Mart and Vallarta operate stores the size of mainstream supermarkets, with everything a homesick immigrant could want, from cowboy hats to tropical fruit drinks to freshly made tacos and other treats. Indeed, Vallarta's corporate slogan translates as, "If it's from back home, we have it here."

If you're not from Mexico, however, you're still in for a treat, not to mention an eye-opening experience. Along with the familiar staples you'll find in your regular supermarket, you'll find a huge array of Mexican products and prepared foods, along with specialty meat cuts and fresh produce. Not only will you find all the less-common ingredients you need to prepare traditional Mexican dishes, but you may also be able to sample them on site — many Mexican supermarkets offer meals to eat at the store or to take out. And packaged Mexican snacks and drinks are a sure-fire way to liven up your next party. Here are some of the not-to-miss items you will find at a Mexican supermarket.

If you're exploring the produce section of a Mexican supermarket, chances are it's because you want to expand your Mexican cooking repertoire beyond quick plates of nachos and Taco Bell dinner kits. And you've come to the right place — this is where you'll find Mexican herbs such as epazote and yerba santa, essential ingredients in many traditional Mexican dishes but impossible to find in mainstream American supermarkets. If you've never cooked with them, you might find they're the missing piece that elevates your Mexican dishes from pretty good to Mexican-grandmother good.

Epazote is such a distinctive part of staple Mexican dishes, such as cooked black beans and frijoles de olla (stewed beans), that it's puzzling that it's not better known stateside. The fresh herb comes in bunches and has long, jagged leaves that resemble elongated mint leaves. Its aroma is deeply savory and pungent — if you've ever had black beans in a traditional Oaxacan restaurant, you'll recognize it immediately. 

Fresh yerba santa has large, dramatic heart-shaped leaves and an aroma reminiscent of eucalyptus, mint, or root beer (which makes sense; it's related to sassafras, the main flavoring in root beer). Bigger supermarkets may offer these herbs fresh, in bunches. But even modest Mexican markets should have packets of dried herbs available, and they'll still add something special to your cooking.

Serious fans of Mexican food know there's way more to Mexican cheese than that thick, stretchy layer covering your combination plate. Mexico's traditional cheeses tend to be fresh and delicately flavored, and can range from crumbly, salty queso añejo to stretchy, bouncy quesillo, a type of string cheese that comes in a ball.

And the dairy section of a Mexican supermarket is the perfect place to familiarize yourself with them, since they all play specific roles in the Mexican kitchen. Just as the better-known cheeses of France and Italy aren't interchangeable, neither are Mexican cheeses. Get a ball of quessillo, unroll it (it's weirdly satisfying to do), and tuck the shreds into a tortilla for a supremely melty, creamy quesadilla filling. Or sprinkle your homemade Mexican street corn with a handful of crumbled cotija, which lends a sharp, salty bite. The dairy section is also where you'll find other specialty dairy products such as crema, a thickened, cultured cream comparable to crème fraiche.

Sure, you can find plastic bags of flour and corn tortillas in any regular supermarket. But for freshly made tortillas, head to a Mexican supermarket — some markets even make tortillas onsite for you to grab straight off the griddle. Even if your local Mexican supermarket outsources its tortilla production, you'll still have a much wider variety of tortilla types to choose from, in differing sizes and thicknesses. This isn't just for show – tortilla styles vary across the regions of Mexico, and stores know their patrons could come from anywhere in the country.

You may be able to find uncommon but tasty specialty tortillas as well. Among these are tortillas flavored with chile and half-cooked flour tortillas, which you can quickly cook up at home to get that just-off-the-griddle taste without all the work of making tortillas from scratch. The tortilla section is also where you can find bags of freshly fried tortilla chips and tostadas. No one will be mad to see these when you get home.

If you're feeling ambitious and want to try making your own corn tortillas (or even more ambitiously, your own tamales), you're going to need good-quality masa — the lye-treated cornmeal that gives corn tortillas, tamales, and even Doritos their distinctive flavor. Dried masa harina (aka masa flour) is easy to find in mainstream supermarkets (it's sometimes right next to the regular wheat flour), but for even better tamales, serious Mexican cooks seek out fresh masa dough at Mexican supermarkets.

Fresh masa dough not only gives you tastier tamales, but it can also save you time and work. While you have to add ingredients such as water, fat, and seasonings to masa harina to make tamale dough, some markets offer pre-flavored, prepared masa dough – such as pre-salted dough and sweet varieties flavored with pineapple and strawberry — ready to be folded around your filling of choice. Yes, fruit tamales are a thing, and make fun snacks, breakfasts, or desserts.

Most of us have a friend who argues that Mexican Coke is superior because it's made with cane sugar, rather than the corn syrup found in U.S.-made Coke (and the feel of those old-school glass bottles adds something special to the drinking experience, too.) But treating your friend to a six-pack of Coke isn't the only reason to visit the soft drink aisle at a Mexican supermarket. Less known to soda geeks is the fact that most Mexican sodas are still made with cane sugar, and other brands, such as Jarritos, also come in those cute retro glass bottles.

Even better, Mexican sodas come in a range of flavors that American consumers may find surprising, such as tamarind, lime and chile, and (nonalcoholic) sangria. Besides sodas, you can find other novel and refreshing drinks, such as coconut water with chunks of young coconut. All seem designed to be refreshing counterparts to spicy Mexican food and sweltering Mexican weather. And this means no trip to a Mexican supermarket would be complete without a few new flavors in your cart.

Mexican fruits and veggies are anything but boring — a quick glance at the produce section of a Mexican supermarket will make it clear you're somewhere special. At a well-stocked Mexican supermarket, you may encounter tricky-to-find tropical fruits such as guavas and mamey, along with less-common varieties of fresh and dried chiles, squash, and regional specialties such as cactus paddles, maguey leaves, and root vegetables like jicama and ñames. (And if you're lucky, a staffer may be on hand to slice the needles off your cactus paddles before you buy them.)

But while you should definitely focus on the fruits and veggies you can't find elsewhere, don't sleep on the more common items that will certainly be there. Mexican food lovers on social media have noted that cross-border favorites, such as limes and pineapples, are not only significantly cheaper at Mexican supermarkets than at mainstream markets, but also sweeter-tasting.

For those who can't walk past a bowl of chips or a plate of cookies without grabbing some, a trip down the snack aisle of a Mexican supermarket will require serious self-discipline. With their colorful, creative packaging and punchy flavors, Mexican packaged snacks seem specifically engineered to lure in impulse buyers.

And whether sweet or salty snacks are your weakness, you'll almost certainly find your next obsession here. Favorite savory snacks include Takis (which may be available in less-common flavors such as the cucumber, lime, and habanero Zombie flavor) and duritos (crunchy, wagon-wheel-shaped wheat puffs traditionally served with hot sauce and lime). 

Favorite sweets include mazapan, a traditional candy that tastes like the filling of a peanut butter cup; Gansitos, snack cakes filled with strawberry jam and cream and coated with chocolate; and Duvalin, tiny cups featuring two or more flavors of pudding served side by side. And if you can't decide whether you're in the mood for a sweet, salty, or spicy bite, split the difference with a mango lollipop coated in chile powder or a chamoy (fruity hot sauce) lollipop with a powdered chile dip.

If you're new to Mexican cooking, a trip to a Mexican supermarket can be a bit overwhelming. It can feel daunting to see so many intriguing new ingredients but not have any idea how to work with them. But if it's any consolation, even experienced cooks appreciate a shortcut, and Mexican supermarkets offer a wealth of options for delivering fresh, authentic flavors with little or no work. If you're really in a hurry, head to the hot food counter and pick up a meal to go. But if you want a gentle onramp to authentic Mexican cooking at home, head to the meat counter.

There, a curious cook can get a crash course in Mexican meat cookery. Besides popular American cuts such as porterhouse and t-bone steaks, some offer traditional Mexican cuts such as diezmillo (thin-cut chuck roast) and thin-cut flank steak ready for grilling. But a beginner-friendly option not to miss is one of the pre-seasoned, marinated cuts of meat that you'll almost certainly encounter. They require nothing more than a few minutes on the grill and make fantastic tacos or standalone entrees. Consider them your secret weapon if you're hungry and in a hurry.