Best Store-Bought Mole: Paste, Jar, Powder and Dehydrated, Compared

The four kinds of store-bought mole

1. Jarred mole paste

The glass jar in every supermarket's Mexican aisle, and the kind most Americans have tried. It is a thick, oily concentrate that you fry in a little oil or lard, then thin with 3 to 4 parts broth and simmer. It is inexpensive, it keeps for ages, and in a pinch it makes a passable mole. The trade off is the ingredient list, which usually leads with wheat flour, sugar and vegetable oil rather than chiles, and a flavor that most Oaxacans would call sweet and one note.

2. Powdered mole mix

A seasoning packet that you stir into water or broth. The convenient part is real. The flavor usually is not, because a powder that dissolves instantly is built on starch and ground spices rather than on chiles that were toasted, soaked and fried. Treat it like a taco seasoning for mole, and not like mole.

3. Ready made mole sauce

A jar or pouch of finished sauce, sometimes refrigerated, that you heat and pour. The best of these are made by small Mexican producers and can be very good. The weak point is that you are paying to ship water, so the sauce is often thinner and milder than it should be, and it needs to be used within days of opening.

4. Dehydrated mole

A finished, fully cooked mole with the water removed. This is what our family makes: the mole is cooked in Oaxaca the traditional way, then sun dried, so what is in the pouch is the real sauce, not a shortcut to it. You whisk 3 to 4 tablespoons into ½ to 1 cup of warm chicken broth per serving and simmer a few minutes. It keeps in the pantry for over a year, and the ingredients are the ones a Oaxacan cook would use.

Side by side

How to read the label

• Chiles should be in the first few ingredients, and named: ancho, guajillo, pasilla, mulato, chilhuacle. A mole that leads with flour, sugar or oil is a flavored thickener.
• Look for the real supporting cast: sesame, almonds or peanuts, plantain, raisins, cinnamon, clove, and for dark moles, chocolate or cacao.
• A short list is a good sign. A list full of natural flavors, colors and preservatives is not.
• Check where it is made. Mole from Oaxaca or Puebla, made by a named family or producer, tends to taste like it.
• Check the allergens before you buy for a crowd. Most traditional moles contain tree nuts and sesame, and many dark moles contain wheat from the bread used to thicken them, including ours.

How to make a jar of mole paste taste better

If the jar is what you have, you can get a lot more out of it. Fry the paste in a tablespoon of lard or oil over medium heat for 2 minutes before adding liquid. Thin it with warm chicken broth, never water. Add a small square of Mexican chocolate and a pinch of salt, then simmer uncovered for 20 minutes, stirring, until it darkens and loses the raw taste. Finish the plate with toasted sesame seeds and sliced white onion. It will not be Oaxaca, but it will be dinner.

What we would buy

For a first taste of mole, or for a dinner you want to be proud of, a dehydrated mole made in Oaxaca is the closest you will get to a family's pot without a plane ticket. Mole Rojo is the easy first pouch, Mole Negro is the famous one, and the 5-Flavor Bundle is the way to find your favorite. Our full ingredient lists are on every product page and on our ingredients page, which is the test we would ask you to apply to anyone's mole, including ours.

If you are deciding between the two best known moles, read Mole negro vs mole rojo. If you want to know how any of them is cooked, the method is in How to make mole from dehydrated mole.