I didn’t even recall seeing these on Aldi store shelves, until one day they happened to appear in a clearance cart at the front of the store for a mere $.50.  For that price, there aren’t many things I WON’T buy, so we put away the Blue Corn Tortilla Chips we had in our hands (our favorite from Aldi), and grabbed a bag of these instead.  We already had some other chips that we purchased from Trader Joe’s, but my wife was making her delicious guacamole, and the more chips, the better.

We like the chips from TJ’s a lot because they’re only lightly salted, and taste a lot like chips you would get in Mexican restaurants.  They don’t taste like typical tortilla chips, and so they tend to go even better with salsas and other dips.  That’s what we were hoping we were in store for with these–a lighter chip with a big flavor and just a little salt.  That’s not really at all what we got.

All these are, are your typical tortilla chips, only slightly “thinner” for reasons unknown.  I thought they were lightly salted, which is a plus, but after eating a few, it doesn‘t seem like that‘s the case.  They might be a little less salty than some, but it was still too much for my liking.  It also has that same straightforward “corn” taste that can be found in any number of these chips.  It’s all just a matter of personal preference, but I like having the dip (or salsa, guac, etc.) contribute most of the flavor, with the chip merely being an edible device to transfer the dip from bowl to mouth; these, though, have too much flavor on their own.

That’s not to say these are bad chips; they’re just a little more “standard” than what I was hoping for.  I thought the “thin and crispy” part of the title was alluding to a more restaurant-style chip, a hope that was exacerbated by the case that this was a Special Buy during “Mexican week” at Aldi stores.  Instead, it’s just your straightforward, Americanized “corn-heavy” tortilla, with a little too much salt for my liking.  I don’t regret this purchase, if only for the simple reason these were a mere $.50, but I would never buy them at full value, and would even have to hesitate spending two quarters on them again.

Overall: 5/10.  Just an average tortilla chip.  I thought the “thin and crispy” part of the title was alluding to a more “Mexican restaurant”-style chip that would have a more “homemade” flavor, but these taste the same as any number of other inexpensive tortilla chips on the market.  They were definitely thinner than most (yet still able to hold a good amount of guacamole on them without breaking) which was a plus, but the salt level seems to be just as high as others, which detracted from my enjoyment of them quite a bit.  I picked these up on clearance for a mere $.50, so I don’t regret the purchase at all, but I don’t think I would get them again even for that price, and I know I would never pay full price for them.  If you like the standard salt- and corn-heavy tortilla varieties (i.e., the typical “tortilla rounds”) then you’ll like these, but I was rather underwhelmed.