We Style-Examined 24 Manufacturers of Tortilla Chips—Most Had been Fantastic. 1 Was Excellent.

This week, I gave my colleagues the very troublesome process of tasting baggage and baggage of tortilla chips. And in return, they left me with the equally difficult job of deciphering their responses. It seems that the majority of my colleagues actually like tortilla chips, whether or not eaten on their very own, dipped into salsa or guacamole, or used to make nachos, taco pizza, and soup. As I parsed by their responses, I got here throughout notes like “I like chips” from our affiliate editorial director Megan and “nice, I assume?” from our editorial director Daniel. Merciless as it could be to pressure my colleagues to choose a favourite tortilla chip, it needed to be finished. 

To seek out the easiest tortilla chip, our editors sampled 24 completely different tortilla chips you’re more likely to discover at your native grocery store or on-line. We positioned every in bowls, then sampled them in random order with out figuring out which chip was which. After tasting our approach by many alternative chips, we tabulated the outcomes and topped an total winner, together with a number of runners-up that we’d be completely satisfied to maintain in our personal pantry.

The Standards

Nice tortilla chips needs to be crispy and flavorful: they need to style like masa—dough made out of nixtamalized corn—which is what’s historically used to arrange corn tortillas. The chips needs to be earthy and nutty. They need to be sturdy sufficient to dip into guacamole or salsa with out disintegrating, however not so thick that they’re troublesome to chew into. And whereas salt is crucial, they shouldn’t be overly salty—simply properly seasoned sufficient so that you simply’d be completely satisfied consuming the chip by itself.

General Winner

Siete Maíz Corn Tortilla Chips With Sea Salt

This chip had a pronounced, deeply earthy corn taste that reminded us of good-quality tortillas made out of freshly floor masa. Megan loved their “good, properly toasty corn taste,” and Daniel known as the chips “very popcorn-y.” and “good.” That they had a pleasant crunch and good thickness, with a deep corn aroma that saved us going again for only one extra chip.

Runners-Up

Kirkland Signature Natural Tortilla Chips

The chips had a outstanding corn taste that jogged my memory of Fritos, Daniel of Doritos (“minus the flavorings”), and Amanda of Tostitos. “It tastes like childhood,” she added. That nostalgia issue positively boosted this chip’s recognition, and everybody loved this chip’s saltiness and crunch. “It is most likely too salty,” Amanda famous. “However that is what I would like.” The chip had a sturdiness we loved, and a “nice crunch” that Megan appreciated. General, we might be completely completely satisfied consuming this chip straight from the bag.

Backyard of Eatin’ Natural Yellow Chips

Not like a few of the chips we tried, these darkish yellow chips from Backyard of Eatin’ really tasted like corn. Our affiliate visuals director, Amanda, praised the chips’ recent corn–like sweetness. We disagreed on the salt degree: Megan discovered them “fairly salty,” whereas Amanda discovered them barely under-salted, and I believed they have been well-seasoned. We did, nonetheless, agree that these chips had a pleasant, stable chew and crunch that will maintain up when dunked into sauces or dips. I loved these chips a lot that I took the remainder of the bag residence.

The Contenders

• 365 by Complete Meals Market Natural White Corn Tortilla Chips
• Bowl & Basket Chunk-Measurement Tortilla Chips
• Calidad Corn Tortilla Chips
• Backyard of Eatin’ Yellow Chips
• Good & Collect Natural White Corn Tortilla Chips
• Good & Collect Natural Yellow Corn Tortilla Chips
• Kirkland Signature Natural Tortilla Chips
• Late July Natural Tortilla Chips With Sea Salt
• Mi Niña Natural Sea Salt Tortilla Chips
• Nature’s Promise Natural White Corn Tortilla Chips
• On the Border Café Model Tortilla Chips
• Que Pasa White Corn Tortilla Chips
• Que Pasa Yellow Corn Tortilla Chips
• Santitas White Corn Tortilla Chips
• Siete Meals Maíz Corn Tortilla Chips
• Merely Tostitos Natural Yellow Corn Tortilla Chips
• TortiYahs! Superior Dipping Chips
• Tostitos Cantina Model Skinny and Crispy
• Tostitos Restaurant-Model Tortilla Chips
• Dealer Joe’s Natural White Corn Tortilla Chips
• Dealer Joe’s Natural Yellow Corn Tortilla Chips
• Dealer Joe’s Really White Corn Tortilla Chips
• Vista Hermosa Totopos Tortilla Chips 
• Xochitl Salted Corn Chips (Mexican Model)

Key Takeaways and Conclusion

Our winner, Siete Meals Maíz Corn Tortilla Chips, is the one model that specifies that it makes use of nixtamalized corn in its substances listing. Nixtamalization is the method of soaking and cooking dried corn kernels with an alkali ingredient like calcium hydroxide (slaked lime); as Daniel touches on in his corn tortilla recipe, this removes the corn’s bran and makes it simpler to grind into masa and, crucially, makes the corn extra flavorful, in addition to extra nutritious. Given how a lot this course of impacts taste, it is sensible that we obtained such a pronounced corn taste in these chips. This model additionally used a mix of yellow and white corn, which can have added to the chips’ complexity.

Most chips are made with yellow corn or white corn. Of all of the tortilla chips we tasted, our winner is the one model that makes use of a mix of yellow corn and white corn for its chips, which possible contributes to its extra advanced taste. Apparently, these chips are additionally made with only one form of oil—avocado—as a substitute of the same old mix of oils used to make tortilla chips, like sunflower, safflower, vegetable oil, and/or canola oil.

Certainly one of our runners-up, Kirkland Signature Natural Tortilla Chips, is made with natural corn, natural sunflower oil, and sea salt. Our tasters actually loved the refined smokiness, saltiness, and crunch of those chips. Our different runner-up, Backyard of Eatin’ Yellow Chips, has simply three substances: natural yellow corn, natural expeller-pressed oil (sunflower, safflower, and/or canola oils), and sea salt. These chips had a pronounced corn taste, good seasoning, sturdy thickness, and satisfying crunch, which made them the favourite of the bunch.

Whereas Siete Meals rose to the highest, our staff of tasters did not actually dislike any of the chips we tried. We would be completely satisfied to eat any of them, particularly with salsa or one other dip.   

Our Testing Methodology

All style exams are carried out with manufacturers utterly hidden and with out dialogue. Tasters style samples in random order. For instance, taster A might style pattern one first, whereas taster B will style pattern six first. That is to forestall palate fatigue from unfairly giving anyone pattern a bonus. Tasters are requested to fill our tasting sheets rating the samples for numerous standards. All information is tabulated and outcomes are calculated with no editorial enter to be able to give us essentially the most neutral illustration of precise outcomes attainable.

April 2025