You can’t choose the right tortilla chip by the packaging. That’s because their virtuous claims—like Gluten-free, Organic White Corn, and 0g Trans Fat—don’t tell you what you really want to know: which chips are the best. A crispy round that’s too salty can ruin the dipping experience. Too fragile and you’re spending the bulk of your time fishing fragments out of the communal bowl. These are important matters.
To put this problem to rest, we blind-tested nine of the most common tortilla chip brands in 30 minutes. Our candidates were only seasoned with salt (no lime or jalapeño flavors allowed) and came in traditional, flat shapes. Each was evaluated its on crunchiness, salinity, flavor, and durability, which we tested by dipping in mild Green Mountain Gringo salsa. Here are the winners:
Best Overall
Late July
One staffer captured our sentiments perfectly: “These chips are made by angels.” They're not, but you get the idea. Organic whole ground corn gives these chips some flavor of their own, but it’s subtle enough to still be “a blank canvas for beans and guac,” said one staffer. They’re durable, “crunchy without being teeth-breakingly hard,” and “they don’t leave dust on my fingers,” which makes them that much easier to go in for another handful. Even after we spent the afternoon gorging ourselves for this assignment, we couldn’t stop ourselves from returning to snack table for another handful of these guys.
Best for 7-Layer Dips
Calidad
The Texas brand’s name translates to “quality,” which is exactly what you need when you’re plunging into stratified refried beans, guacamole, sour cream, and pico de gallo—maybe even all at once. Even though we crammed the monstrous, Texas-sized rounds into teeny 3 oz. Dixie cups for our taste test, they stood strong and didn’t crack one bit. “These would make formidable nachos,” said one staffer. A word of warning: their crunchiness is guaranteed to “annoy your coworkers, in a good way.”
Best for Salt Fiends
Tostitos Crispy Rounds
We were pretty divided on just how salty a proper tortilla chip should be. But if crunching on a snack with the salinity of the ocean is your thing, this is your brand. At times the experience is “like licking a salt block,” said one staffer, and they “need an accompanying hand towel,” according to another staffer—but you only live once. Some other words to reflect on: “The salt is like all over my lips and I’m into it.”
Best Price
Utz
In New York (where our office is based) paying upwards of $5 for a bag of chips is pretty common—and that’s not even for an organic fancy-pants brand. At $2.99 a pop, these durable rounds with “A+ crunch,” according to one staffer, taste like luxury. Truth be told, we couldn’t tell the difference between this one and some of the pricier options. “They are very well-balanced,” said another staffer, referring to the crunch-to-salt ratio. Real scientific stuff.
So now when you're tasked with the very important duty of showing up to your friends' house with the perfect bag of tortilla chips, you'll be ready. That 36-ounce jar of mango madness salsa, though? We'll deal with that another time.
