I have had many bad tortillas in my life, lifeless disks not even worthy of turning into chilaquiles or throwing as Frisbees. But I've never had anything as vile as the flour tortillas sold under the Trader José's brand at Trader Joe's.
I had high hopes, of course, given Trader Joe's other house brands are usually good-really good. And I'm not one of these purists who retch at the fact that big brands co-opt Mexican food. But I knew there was a problem the moment I opened the pack and put the tortilla on the comal.
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Simply put, the tortilla had no body, with the structural integrity of single-ply toilet paper. Because it was so thin, it cooked incredibly fast on the comal, even though I put the heat on low. And because it cooked so fast, it cooled faster, meaning that by the time I rolled it into a burrito, the tortilla cracked like porcelain. Shards of tortilla were left on my plate, and my burrito was more accurately pseudo-chilaquiles.
And the actual flavor of Trader Jose's flour tortillas. Chalky. Flimsy. Powdery. Vile.
GRADE: F-. Just bad. And that Mission-style packaging? BLECCH.
The crazy thing is that Trader Jose's salsas aren't that bad, which makes the disappointment doubly painful. OC gabas: if you need your flour tortilla fix, go to Stater's and buy Diana's–or, better yet, get thee to Rubalcava's. Just stay away from Trader Jose's, who deserves the migra treatment on their flour torts.
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