Best Flour Tortillas (Updated with a New #1!)

The best flour tortillas are made from scratch in a tortilla press, end of story. Here in Los Angeles, you can pick up packs of incredibly fresh, chewy, handmade flour tortillas at taco spots, local grocery chains, and even some Mexican coffee shops. But extolling the virtues of some tortillas we picked up at a mom-and-pop shop somewhere in Northeast L.A. doesn’t do a reader in Ohio very much good. So what we have here is a list of the best store bought flour tortillas you can actually get your hands on the next time you want a burrito, breakfast taco, or slightly sad tortilla pizza. (Personally, I’ve never made a tortilla pizza that wasn’t at least a little bit sad.)

In two separate taste tests, we set out to find tortillas that have stretch, chew, and a balanced floury flavor, and don’t taste like weird preservatives or the plastic bag they came in. In our second taste test, we added uncooked tortillas (aka fresh flour tortillas) and low carb flour tortillas to the mix. Here are six of the best flour tortilla brands you can buy at the grocery store.

Best Low Carb

Mission Carb Balance Flour Tortillas

Target

In our second taste test, I tried a variety of no carb and low carb flour tortillas, and, frankly, there are a lot of not-great options. We almost ranked a brand of tortillas that boasts zero net carbs because it tasted pretty good at room temp, but I discovered that when they’re toasted, they become inedible—I couldn’t even hack through one with a steak knife. If you can handle some carbs in your diet, buy Mission Carb Balance tortillas. They have four net carbs per tortilla, they have a pretty neutral flavor, and they don’t turn to stone when you heat them in a pan or in the oven. If you’re on a keto diet or just try to avoid carb-loaded foods, these are the best flour tortillas we’ve found.

Credit: Liv Averett / Target

Rating:

6/10

Sporks

Best Soft

Mission Super Soft Flour Tortillas

Instacart

When Mission says “super soft,” Mission means “super soft.” These pillowy flour tortillas don’t necessarily resemble restaurant tortillas in terms of texture, but they have a mild, pleasant flavor we all appreciated. “They don’t taste ‘fakey,’” as one taste tester put it. They also lean savory rather than sweet like some of the others we tried. They’re simultaneously substantial and light, which made me tempted to throw one across the room like a frisbee. But I’d also settle for stuffing one full of fajita fixings.

Credit: Sarah Demonteverde / Instacart

Rating:

6.5/10

Sporks

Best Sturdy

Guerrero Tortillas de Harina Caseras

Target

If you love a stewy taco stuffed with something wet like chicken tinga or ropa vieja, Guerrero makes the sturdiest and best flour tortillas for withstanding a lot of juice or a lot of fixings. As my colleague Jordan Myrick put it, “I’m a toppings freak, and this really holds up.” Truly, you have to give them a tug to tear them apart, but they still taste fresh and have a good, floury chew.

Credit: Sarah Demonteverde / Target

Rating:

7/10

Sporks

Best for a Burrito

Trader Joe’s Flour Tortillas

Trader Joe’s

It was genuinely hard to pick a fave between these and the TJ’s Truly Handmade (#2 on this list, spoiler!), but I honestly think you could buy both of these and find uses for each because they’re so different.. While the Truly Handmade flour tortillas are thick and hearty, these are big, thin, and brilliantly pliable. These are the best flour tortillas to encase your next monster at-home burrito. 

Credit: Sarah Demonteverde

Rating:

7.5/10

Sporks

Best Ready to Eat

Trader Joe’s Truly Handmade Flour Tortillas

Trader Joe’s

Yep, Trader Joe’s makes more than one variety of flour tortilla that was delicious enough to make our list of the best flour tortillas at the grocery store. These Trader Joe’s tortillas may be thicker than the other best store bought flour tortillas on this list—they almost reminded me of huaraches if huaraches were made with wheat flour—but they’re awfully tasty. They’re substantial, have a great chewy texture, and pack a fatty, almost fried flavor. Presumably, part of the reason these taste so good is that they’re not loaded with preservatives like other packaged tortillas, but that also means that they tend to get moldy real quick. (In our second taste test, these were moldy before they even reached their sell-by date.) Luckily, they taste so good you’ll probably go through them fast. In fact, I think you could make a not sad tortilla pizza with one of these fat ol’ flour tortillas. And that’s really saying something!

Credit: Sarah Demonteverde

Rating:

8/10

Sporks

Best of the Best

Guerrero Fresqui-Ricas

Walmart

If you can’t get your hands on homemade flour tortillas, uncooked, fresh flour tortillas from the grocery store are the next best thing. They take a little extra work, but not much. All you do is cook them in a skillet for about 90 seconds (flipping them every 30 seconds or so) while they get all golden and bubbly and puffed up with air. We tried a few varieties of fresh flour tortillas, but Guerrero Fresqui-Ricas tortillas were especially delicious. They brown without immediately burning. They’re a little bit flaky in that homemade tortilla kind of way—not scallion pancake level flaky, but eating one of these is much closer to that experience than the puffy, thick packaged tortillas you’re used to. The soft taco size is pretty big and I made very delicious soft tacos with them at home. If you’re willing to put in an extra 90 seconds per tortilla for really show-stopping quesadillas or tacos, these are the best flour tortillas at the grocery store. (Note: Even though these are fresh, you’ll find them on the shelf with the rest of the tortillas.)

Credit: Liv Averett / Walmart

Rating:

9/10

Sporks

The Rest of What We Tasted: Chi-Chi’s Flour Tortillas, Market Pantry Flour Tortillas, 365 Flour Tortillas, La Tortilla Factory Organic Flour Tortillas, Trader Joe’s Wheat & Corn Tortillas, La Fe Canola Oil Flour Tortillas, Siete Almond Flour Tortillas, La Banderita Flour Tortillas, Food Club Tortillas De Harina, Romero’s Casera Style Flour Tortillas, Tortilla Land Ready to Cook, Mission Zero Net Carbs, La Banderita Carb Counter, Guerro Zero Net Carbs, La Tortilla Factory Zero Net Carbs