Salsa is the Spanish term for sauce, it also comes from spanish roots, and in English-speaking countries usually refers to the sauces typical of Mexican cuisine, particularly those used as dips. They are often tomato-based, although many are not, and they are typically piquant, ranging from extremely hot to not hot at all. Mexican salsas were traditionally produced using the mortar and pestle-like molcajete, although blenders are now more commonly used. The Mayans made salsa also, using a mortar and pestle.