Saltiness: Is it light, medium, or heavy on the salt? Does the saltiness balance or overpower? Does it feel prickly on the tongue?
Fishiness: Can you taste the fish in the patis / fish sauce? Does it taste clean or malansa?
Complexity: Can you taste additional notes besides saltiness and fishiness (ex. sweetness, umami)? Is it balanced, or do some flavors take the forefront?
Fine Print
The Lineup: We tested 15 patis and fish sauce brands from the grocery. We bought Filipino patis and Thai fish sauce, both locally and internationally produced.
Why We’re Doing This: Do you buy patis or fish sauce? Most of us don’t think about this at the grocery, but the two tend to be different! While Filipino patis is a workhorse in daily cooking, it can be too strong for Thai and Vietnamese cooking, or for using straight up as a dip—that’s where fish sauce comes in. We did this test to find out which brands of patis and fish sauce are good, and which ones best straddle the line between cooking staple and dipping sauce.
How We Tasted: Each brand was diluted in a 2:1 ratio of patis and water to tone down the salt, revealing more flavor notes.
Blind Taste Test: All products were removed from their packaging, labeled, and tasted blind to prevent brand bias.
How We Scored: Each product was evaluated across 3 criteria. Final placements reflect the Pepper team’s averaged impressions.
Multiple Tests: This taste test has been updated over time. Current placements reflect both recent tastings and results from previous tests to keep comparisons consistent.
Transparency: No brand paid for inclusion in this taste test.
