Garden of Eatin' Blue Corn Tortilla Chips Review

Garden of Eatin' makes a wide variety of tortilla chips. I've tried almost all of them over the years. The tortilla chips made with blue corn were the kind that I preferred the most.

I have been enjoying Garden of Eatin' Blue Corn Restaurant Style Tortilla Chips for several years. They've been a staple of my kitchen cupboard. Until recently, that is. The quality and taste of the blue corn tortilla chips is not what it used to be. There seems to be no consistency anymore between one bag and the next. In my experience, it's a toss up whether you'll get a good batch or a bad batch of these tortilla chips.

Like I said, I've been enjoying these tortilla chips for years. I have food allergies and sensitivities, so when I find a product that I can tolerate and that doesn't taste like a cardboard box, I stick with it. But, over the past several months, Garden of Eatin' Restaurant Style Blue Corn Tortilla Chips have been a disappointment. There is no consistency between bags. I've gotten bags that had so much salt you could barely eat them. Then other bags had almost no salt. (I assure you I didn't buy the No Salt version by accident.) Even worse, some of the bags of tortilla chips I've gotten have been stale or the oil has gone rancid. I got severe stomach cramps and bloating after eating them.

I called Garden of Eatin's customer service to ask them if they had changed their formula or their manufacturer. The young lady politely told me that they hadn't changed anything and she had no idea why I was getting so many bad bags of the Blue Corn Restaurant Style Tortilla Chips. She sent me some coupons for future purchases.

I decided to give them another try. The next bag I bought was even worse. After eating only a few chips, I got severe stomach cramps. I then took a whiff in the bag and the chips had a strange, funky odor to them. It's hard to describe. But, something was definitely wrong with them. I called Garden of Eatin's customer service again to tell them about it. The lady was very nice and polite. She explained that it's likely that the summer heat and humidity was to blame. During the distribution, the products are sitting in a truck, traveling across the country to the store in my neighborhood. Since the trucks aren't air-conditioned, the temperatures can soar to over 100 degrees. That can make the oil go rancid and the chips go bad before they even get to the store. This is apparently what caused my stomach cramps. It may be that the foil-lined bag holds in the heat and causes the chips to go bad before they even get to the store. But that doesn't explain the inconsistency of the saltiness between bags.

I'm really disappointed that Garden of Eatin' hasn't been able to maintain the quality and consistency that they once had with their Blue Corn Restaurant Style Tortilla Chips. But, if I can't count on the consistency and freshness of a product anymore, it's time to find a replacement.