Tortilla Land Uncooked Tortillas

 
Shortly after this article appeared in the New York Times a couple weeks ago, I received an email from Tania Haladner at Circle Foods asking if I would be interested in reviewing their Tortilla Land Uncooked Tortillas. 

Being part of a family of four devoted taco-eaters, I said sure!

Now, apart from how very nice Tania is to work with, the first thing I was really impressed by is the packaging and shipping.  I know, what's that got to do with food?  How are the tortillas?  Are they yummy?  Did you fill them with spaghetti?  Hang on a minute and I'll get to that.

First of all, I was just expecting maybe a small package of each type of tortilla (Tortilla Land serves up three - corn, flour, and multi-grain), which I figured would only weigh a few pounds.  So when I saw, on the Fed Ex Express confirmation email, that the package weighed eleven pounds (!!!) I started thinking maybe I should throw a make-your-own taco party or something.  But I didn't.  Not enough time!  The tortillas arrived within a day or so of shipping, and inside the huge box was an equally huge molded styrofoam box that we will probably keep and use as a cooler - it's really well designed and smoothed off so that you don't have little bits of styrofoam breaking off and looking like cottage cheese on the floor. 

What can I say, I'm a sucker for well-packaged, carefully shipped food.

Inside the styrofoam box was roughly a ton of bubble wrap, about four ice packs, and a package of 12 flour uncooked tortillas and a package of 48 - yes, you read that correctly - FORTY EIGHT uncooked corn tortillas.  Wow.  That helps to explain the eleven pounds, doesn't it!  AND, just to get my creative juices flowing, they sent along several yummy-sounding recipes as well! 

 
The package arrived, as promised by the Fed Ex people, by ten in the morning, and I just kept the tortillas nice and coldly cozy in their box because frankly my fridge was overcrowded enough. 

And I planned dinner around the tacos.

I cooked up some chicken, and some shrimp, and a bit of sirloin left over from the pho my husband had made a few days before.  I made a yummy cole slaw with purple cabbage and carrots from the garden. 

And I made a sort of grilled guacamole using sauteed poblanos, onion, and eggplant (our last two tiny ones from the garden) and grilled, sliced avocado. 

We also had salsa and a jalapeno hot sauce I'd made, and shredded cheese (mostly for the kids).

We were ready to go - all I needed to do was heat up the tortillas.

The big selling point with Tortilla Land Uncooked Tortillas is the freshness.  These tortillas are as fresh as if you'd just made the dough and flattened them yourself in a tortilla press.  That fresh.  And all you have to do is heat up a dry griddle or pan until it's, well, hot, place the tortilla on the surface, let it cook a bit, then flip it over and cook on the other side.  What could be easier?  And once you're done, you've got a nice warm stack of fresh, yummy tortillas.

So that's what I did.

 
I cooked about a dozen corn tortillas first.  The instructions for these suggest starting with 10 seconds on one side, then 20 on the other, and then 30, or something like that (no more than 60 seconds total) but once the griddle was hot enough, I just did about 30 and 30.

Much easier for my little brain to handle.  At one point the griddle was so hot the tortillas started puffing up.  Fresh, natural ingredients, AND entertainment!

 

I cooked the flour tortillas next - only 6 of them - and it was time to eat.

It was a bit of a change for my kids, in particular, to have soft corn tortillas.  Usually I'll serve up soft flour tortillas and the hard corn tortillas so they've got contrasting textures to play around with.  And I was thinking that some time I could fry up the corn tortillas and drape them over...something when they come out of the oil so they'd cool in that "V" shape you find packaged in the store.

But that's for another time.

 
This time around, this meal - it didn't matter that there weren't hard, crunchy tacos.  Didn't miss them at all.  We really, really liked the Tortilla Land Uncooked Tortillas (once they were cooked).  They were really flavorful, particularly the corn, and my daughter ate more than she usually does, which is telling.

My son and husband were so impressed that they just...well, embarrassing as it is to share with you, they were competing to see who could eat more, and the only reason they stopped was because they ran out of the cooked tortillas (and I refused to cook more at that point).  Both husband and son weren't feeling too great later that evening or the following morning, and yes, I should blame my spouse and my son for being competetive gluttons, but I have to place some of the blame at the feet of Tortilla Land.  If the tortillas weren't yummy, there would have been leftovers.

Now, that's my review, and just in case I haven't been clear, I really, really enjoyed the Tortilla Land Uncooked Tacos, as did the rest of my little family.  The only problem I have is that the closest store that carries them is a Costco in Connecticut.  I'm in RI, and as far as I can tell, no one here is carrying them.  Yet.  There's always hope.  And for now, there's my stash of the remaining uncooked corn tortillas that I'll dole out carefully and slowly.

Tortilla Land also has a page on Facebook, and they're currently running a fun contest there that you might want to check out.  The winner will receive a year's supply of tortillas.  A year's supply!  Of course, in my house a year's supply would be gone in a month.  But anyway, go check out the contest, and go look in your local stores to see if Tortilla Land Uncooked Tortillas are sold there.  Remember to check in the refrigerator section!  Fresh is so much better than artificially preserved!

Comments

[Erin]

I love their flour tortillas...have been devoted to them for about 8 years (they have them at Costco), but I had no idea they made corn and multigrain tortillas...I've feeling serious tortilla envy. Glad you got to try them. I think they're the best. (Now no one in my family likes the thicker store-bought flour tortillas...they're spoiled.) (Oh and they freeze well so we don't actually eat them all in two weeks!)

[Kat]

Hmmm. I'll have to check these out. I make my own tortillas with masa, and they're so danged easy, quick, and yummy, that I never buy pre-made tortillas anymore.
However, I haven't conquered flour tortillas yet, and I've been craving some...so next time I head to the big city I just might pick up a bag of these to try.
Gah. I'm so hungry now!

[Judith]

I don't know if these are the same brand we get at the Sam's down here, but we love them. Nothing like fresh and so much easier than making them yourself.

[Michelle]

These truely are awesome!! I've traveled to different Costco looking for them. Some stopped carrying thema nd the nearest store was 40 miles away. Well, they just opened a new Costco today near my home and to my surprize they had the flour and the corn!!! :) I haven't tried the corn yet but if the taste is anything like the flour...we will be sooooo happy. Thanks to Tortillaland for such delicious products and thanks for having Costco carry them!!!!