We Tasted 11 Portland Store Brand Tortilla Chips To Find the Best

The tortilla chip is an underrated pantry king. Crispy, crunchy, and perfectly salted, it's a simple snack with your favorite dip, or a key ingredient in meals from dinnertime nachos to breakfast chilaquiles. But not all tortilla chips are created equal.

Sure, national brands like Tostitos and Mission dominate the grocery store shelves. But you can often find chips just as good (if not better) for less by opting for a store brand instead. The thing is, as we know from previous Stumptown Savings taste tests, not all store brands are created equal. With options from different corn types (white, yellow, or blue) to different styles (restaurant, round, traditional), quality and flavor vary wildly.

As part of Stumptown Savings' mission to help Portland shop smarter, we decided to put the region's tortilla chip options to the ultimate test. We assembled a panel of four Portland food writers and content creators and purchased bags of tortilla chips from 11 Portland-area stores to figure out which store brands are worth your money and which to skip. The ground rules were simple: a blind taste test judging flavor and texture and dippability first, with a crucial "value score" added only after the brands and prices were revealed.

In the end, a surprising store came out on top, with a previous Stumptown Savings taste test champion delivering the worst option of the bunch.

We selected 11 store brand tortilla chips. The goal was to focus on everyday options, and unseasoned chips (though one wound up slipping through with a subtle seasoning). Two of the stores included featured fried-in-house chips, 

The week of the event, I hit up all 11 stores to grab the chips. For the two stores making them in-house (Fred Meyer and WinCo), I waited until the morning of the test. I also snagged a mild salsa and New Seasons guacamole to see how well each chip could handle dipping.

My wife, Monique (who is also our Stumptown Savings copy editor!), was in charge of prep. She anonymized the chips and set up our tasting table. Each brand was randomly assigned a number and served in a bowl to keep the bags hidden.

We tasted each chip one-by-one, starting plain before moving on to the salsa and guac. Initially, we only judged taste and texture, with a maximum of 5 points for each category.

After the initial scoring, we revealed the source and price, and testers graded them on value. Each chip could earn up to 15 points per judge, meaning a maximum of 60 points total was possible from the panel.

The final scores really varied, but there was one clear champion — and a surprisingly poor performer.

The resounding champion of our doughnut and rotisserie chicken taste tests, WinCo’s made-in-house deli tortilla chips delivered a pitiful performance. In fact, if not for my fairly favorable score, they would have barely scored any points. My 10.5 points carried their overall rating. While I loved the substantialness of these thicker chips, which were delightfully crunchy, the salting was heavy and wildly uneven. They were heavily greasy and struggled to earn praise from any judge other than me.

“This is just one of two [chips] that after taking a bite of my retaste, I just couldn't finish it,” Ricardo said. “It was covered in salt.”

Several members of our panel were surprised to learn that Grocery Outlet has its own house brand — SimplyGO. These were the thinnest chips of all 11 tasted, and broke easily when dipped into hardier dips like guacamole. Also, they were heavily salted: “I thought these were salty AF,” Ashley noted.

While both organic, these two chips were very different yet tied with an overall score of 33 each. Costco's Kirkland Signature brand chips were the second cheapest chip per ounce, despite being one of only three organic options. But a gritty, grainy texture held these chips back in the rankings. 

The Natural Grocers organic chips had great texture — with a slightly puffed chip — but came off to several tasters as being slightly stale. At $0.42/oz. they just aren’t worth it. 

One of the more interesting findings of this taste test? That chips made fresh in house at local grocery stores aren’t better than factory made tortilla chips. One of only two fresh-cooked options in the panel, the Fred Meyer chips (available in their deli section) underwhelmed. They also were more expensive than the average, which combined to bring their score down. 

Made by Salem-based Don Pancho Foods, these were the most uniquely shaped chips of the crop. With rounded corners, they scraped the edges of the guacamole container with less friction, making for a great dipping experience. But these chips’ flavor was a bit off, with Ricardo comparing them to “salty, savory Corn Flakes.”

A highly divisive chip, these Signature Select brand tortilla chips were slightly more affordable than the average, and scored high on Misty’s scorecard. “[This chip is] more like a restaurant chip that you might find in a restaurant,” she noted while giving it perfect marks.

This was the biggest surprise of the taste test. One of the cheapest chips also scored relatively high. A light, crispy, restaurant style chip, it was a perfectly adequate chip. It did get knocked for a unique flavor. “It gave me more of a hominy flavor than a corn flavor,” Ashley noted.

Coming in third with a respectable 43.5 out of 60, Whole Foods was the highest rated organic chip. While it wasn’t an overall winner in any single category, it packed a great mix of taste, texture, and value that helped it rise above most of the field. 

Ashley and Ricardo both noted a subtly less corn forward flavor to these chips, with Ricardo noting “it almost tastes nutty to me,” but this wasn’t a knock for the chip. If organic matters to you, these are the best chips to get.

In the pre-taste test audience poll, Trader Joe’s was the reader’s favorite to win this competition. Reader Eric shared this on TJ’s tortilla chips:  “As a native southwestern individual, I can attest that they have the authentic taste of true Mexican corn chips.”

While I can’t quite agree with that statement, we were all pleasantly surprised by a subtle lime flavor to these crunchy, large chips. These chips were HUGE, offering a wide surface area for scooping up globs of your favorite salsa, guacamole, or queso. 

Ashley, who regularly makes her own tortilla chips at home and was the harshest critic, genuinely liked these chips for their flavor, thickness and dipability. This was her favorite chip of the test, earning 10 out of 15 points. 

Ricardo also scored these better than any other chip, giving them 13.5 out of 15, and was a fan of the price for the quality of the chip you get. “I gave it a five on value because I thought that for being an average price, I liked it more than the other chips," he said.

And the winner: Zupan’s store-brand chips (which are made by local farmers market favorite Hot Mama Salsa). These chips won the taste test by a wide margin, securing a near-perfect 51 out of 60 possible points. Their only real fault? Their prices. At $0.50 an ounce they were double the average price. But wow, were these nearly perfect on every other mark. 

Misty, Ricardo, and I all graded it near perfect — this was my highest scored chip with 14 out of 15 points. The one hold out was Ashley, who gave it 9 out of 15, largely due to the price. We all agreed, the thicker, bubblier texture to the chip made them perfect for dipping. 

“It's the crunchiest of the bunch,” Misty noted. “They'd be perfect for nachos or chilaquiles. I said they would actually hold up to wet concrete. I mean, they're substantial.”

Now I want to hear from you! What’s your favorite way to use tortilla chips? Are you dipping them, covering them in toppings for nachos, or is it something else? Let me know by replying to this email or dropping a comment below.

Happy saving!
Bryan,
Stumptown Savings