The Best Tortilla Chips You Can Buy at the Store
Can a tortilla chip be too salty? That was the hot topic of our recent taste test to find the best store-bought tortilla chips—be they yellow or white (but never blue because, listen: no one likes blue tortilla chips). The debate was sparked by one sample that proved to be divisive: some called it bland, others called it over-salted. Upon further inspection we could see that it was both: the problem was uneven seasoning, making one chip taste like it came straight from the depths of the briny sea and the next chip like an unseasoned leaf of cardboard. On the other hand, our top-place winner—Late July Organic Restaurant-Style Tortilla Chips—was thin and crispy and, by all accounts, perfectly salted. For our methodology and the full list of chip brands we tasted, scroll to the bottom of the page. First up, the rankings!
We tasted 11 salsas to find the best one available on grocery store shelves. Did your favorite make the cut?
Our Favorite Tortilla Chips: Late July
These tortilla chips were shatteringly crisp. Becky Hughes called them "almost delicate" but they still had sturdy structure—enough structure that they stayed intact inside the bag, unlike some thinner styles of tortilla chips which were broken into pieces before we'd even ripped open the bag. They were "pleasantly corny," according to Bon Appétit food director Carla Lalli-Music, offering enough flavor to stand up to whatever dip you choose to enjoy it with. I think they also have enough heft to work in a platter of nachos, although some of my colleagues thought they may be a bit too structurally unsound for such architecture. (If you prefer a thicker chip, go with our runner-up, below). But for all salsa, cheese dip, and mindless snacking endeavors, this chip is the ultimate.
BUY IT: Late July Organic Sea Salt Thin & Crispy Restaurant-Style Tortilla Chips, $3.50 for an 11-ounce bag at AmazonFresh or ThriveMarket
The Best Thick Tortilla Chips: Santitas
A much hardier chip than Late July, Santitas is thicker and has a grainier texture. They also have a stronger corn flavor and less of an oily finish. If you like tortilla chips with a stronger presence, these will stand up to anything you throw on them—and they'll taste good doing it.
BUY IT: Santitas White Corn Tortilla Triangles, $2.29 for an 11-ounce bag at AmazonFresh
Tortilla Chips Taste Test INSET
What We Were Looking For
There was a lot of debate in the Epi office about whether we should taste yellow tortilla chips or white tortilla chips. My stance was white, other coworkers argued for yellow, and digital director David Tamarkin asked, "is there really that much difference?" To prove that I was indisputably right, I brought in both kinds. (We stayed away from chips made with blue corn because, as I said before, no one likes blue tortilla chips.) We also excluded multigrain and flavored tortilla chips from the taste test, choosing only standard, salted varieties. Whenever a brand offered more than one style of chip (i.e. scoops versus restaurant-style versus rounds) we opted for restaurant-style.
From the vinegary and spicy, to the sweet and surprising, we crunched our way though 24 flavors of Kettle Brand Chips to find out which one reigns supreme. The winner, shockingly, is one that none of us had ever tried before.
The perfect chip had to be crisp without being stiff. It had to be evenly and boldly—but not overly—salted. It had to have discernible corn flavor without veering too far into earthy, muddy undertones. Some of the samples we tasted had a burned aroma when eaten, as if the corn kernels had been roasted too aggressively before processing them into chips.
Finally (frankly) the best tortilla chips had to be white, because—as I predicted—we far preferred the flavor of chips made with white corn. Yellow tortilla chips were routinely tougher, with mustier flavors than their white counterparts. It wasn't a clean sweep though—there were yellow chips scattered throughout the rankings; however, every time we had a white-corn chip and a yellow-corn chip from the same manufacturer, the chip made with white corn always placed higher in the rankings by several spots.
How We Tested
Samples were tasted blind and in random order by a panel of staff editors. All 19 brands were sampled plain, with no accoutrement and then tasted again with the winner of our mild salsa taste test. No distinction was made between organic and non-organic products during testing.
The Other Tortilla Chip Brands We Tasted
In alphabetical order:
Trader Joe’s Organic White Corn
All products featured on Epicurious are independently selected by our editors. If you buy something through our retail links, we may earn a small affiliate commission.
