Test date: August 2010
Testers: Michele, husband Marc, and sister Catherine
Products for this test purchased at Fred Meyer, Trader Joe's, and Whole Foods.
MICHELE'S OPINION: Surprisingly, none of these products tasted salty at all, as we expected them to. I would recommend that all taco shells are toasted before eating them; these all tasted a bit stale when we tried them untoasted, and they had all been in sealed packages. Both Bearitos and Ortega are a good bet; the others surprisingly had either no taste or a really bad one. Read on for more details:
PRICE COMPARISON FOR 5.5OZ OF TACO SHELLS (store first, then brand):
$2.99 Whole Foods Bearitos
$2.69 Whole Foods 365 Organic Blue Corn
$2.69 Whole Foods 365 Organic Yellow Corn
$2.43 Fred Meyer Taco Bell
$2.31 Fred Meyer Old El Paso
$2 Fred Meyer Ortega
$1.99 Trader Joe's Trader Jose's Taco Shells
$1.83 Fred Meyer Mission Jumbo
MICHELE'S OPINION: Surprisingly, none of these products tasted salty at all, as we expected them to. I would recommend that all taco shells are toasted before eating them; these all tasted a bit stale when we tried them untoasted, and they had all been in sealed packages. Both Bearitos and Ortega are a good bet; the others surprisingly had either no taste or a really bad one. Read on for more details:
PRICE COMPARISON FOR 5.5OZ OF TACO SHELLS (store first, then brand):
$2.99 Whole Foods Bearitos
$2.69 Whole Foods 365 Organic Blue Corn
$2.69 Whole Foods 365 Organic Yellow Corn
$2.43 Fred Meyer Taco Bell
$2.31 Fred Meyer Old El Paso
$2 Fred Meyer Ortega
$1.99 Trader Joe's Trader Jose's Taco Shells
$1.83 Fred Meyer Mission Jumbo
1. Ortega 12 Yellow Corn Taco Shells: This product has a rich corn flavor that tastes a bit processed and a thick consistency. When toasted it has a nice crunch.
2. Taco Bell Home Originals 12 Taco Shells:This product has a medium densness. The flavor is artifical, not that much corn taste. When it is toasted it has the consistency of a chip and still a light corn flavor.
3. Old El Paso 12 Crunchy Taco Shells: This product is frankly terrible! It is chewy and tastes like plastic. When toasted it is still terrible, with a chewy consistency. Yuck!
4. Mission Jumbo Taco Shells: This product has an absence of flavor; it is very bland. It has a chewy consistency that sticks in your teeth. When toasted, the crunch is good but still no flavor.
5. 365 Organic Blue Corn Taco Shells: This product has a very light density and become paper thin tasting when toasted. When raw it tastes like plastic, but develops a light corn flavor when toasted. Marc commented that these shells may be too thin to hold all of the normal taco fixins.
7. Bearitos All Natural Taco Shells: This product has a light, natural corn flavor and a medium density. When toasted, it has quite good corn flavor and is nicely crunchy.
8. Trader Jose's Taco Shells: This is a medium dense product that is very chewy. It also has a plastic taste. When toasted, it gets more dense but still has a bad plastic flavor.
NUTRITIONAL NOTES: All of these products have similar calorie levels, approximately 125 per 2 shells, except for the Mission Jumbo, which has 180 for 2 shells. The Old El Paso and Taco Bell shells are the smallest, with only 100 calories for 2 shells. These smaller shells also have less fat, with about 4g per 2 shells, while the other have 6-8g per 2 shells. The salt content is the funny part about these products. Some have 0-5mg per two shells (Bearitos, 365, Trader Joe's, Taco Bell, and Mission, while the other products (Ortega and Old El Paso) have 80-170 per 2 shells! Only the Old El Paso and Taco Bell products have ingredients I'm not familiar with, namely TBHQ (a preservative and anti-oxidant) and yellow s. annatto (coloring).
TASTE WINNER: Two votes for Bearitos (Catherine and Michele) and one for Ortega (Marc)
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