If there’s a baking season, it probably starts now as the temperatures drop. And if you’re baking, you’re gonna need to make a run to the store for some essentials.
If you’re like me, you arrive at the chocolate chips and then begin the process of staring, wondering which brand makes the best chocolate chips. Having ranked countless grocery store finds for Cheapism, I figured it was time to find out which chocolate chips you should be spending your money on. Here are seven popular brands of chocolate chips, ranked from best to worst
Methodology
This is among the most challenging taste tests I’ve ever done. The top four chips were nearly indistinguishable, to be honest. I did my best to shut down all my senses except for taste and focus on the individual flavors, but because I am not Daredevil, I was not very good at it.
These chips are ranked from best to worst, on a scale from sweet, rich, and velvety, to dry, chalky, and bitter.
Best: Nestlé Toll House Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels
I have no notes here, and it’s hard for me to imagine that somebody possibly could. What else are you looking for in a chocolate chip that Nestlé Toll House isn’t providing? These chips are pure, beautiful, chocolatey goodness. Though it’s still semi-sweet like the rest of the competition, there is the slightest extra sweetness here that lifts Nestlé to the top. Any cookie or (swoon) ice cream sandwich will be lucky to be associated with these.
2. Ghirardelli Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
This is good, solid chocolate. The flavor is deep and rich, but there was chocolate bloom (that grey/white film you’ve probably seen on chocolate) all over it, which doesn’t affect the taste, but does show that it hasn’t been stored or kept at the proper temperature. I expect better from one of the biggest chocolate titans in the game.
3. 365 Whole Foods Market Organic Semi-Sweet Chocolate
Whole Foods’ chips, while semi-sweet like the rest, taste a lot more like dark chocolate than anything else. Consider the top three, in order, a scale from milk chocolatey semi-sweet to dark chocolatey semi-sweet.
4. Hershey’s Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
Hershey’s chips are about as middle-of-the-road as you can get. I’ve got nothing bad to say about these suckers, but I’ve also got nothing good to say. They sort of taste like hardened nuggets of Hershey’s syrup, lush and almost pudding-like. If they’re out of the top three, you’ll be absolutely fine with Hershey’s.
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5. Guittard Semi-Sweet Dairy-Free Chocolate Chips
I’ll be honest: I wanted to grab Guittard’s standard chips, but my store was picked dry. Guittard is popular in my neighborhood, I guess. Dairy-free was all that remained, but I have to hand it to Guittard. There’s a slight richness missing here — one gained from actual dairy — but the chips aren’t bad. I’d be surprised if there were a better-tasting dairy-free chip than this.
6. Enjoy Life Dairy-Free Semi-Sweet Mega Chunks
Chunks! Is that allowed? I’m not sure. I think I make the rules, so I say it’s allowed. I’m sure the chocolate chip police will sound off in the comments.
Enjoy Life’s hunks are a great size, texture, and shape (though alas, also coated with chocolate bloom), but you can taste the dairy-free-ness. There’s a lingering depth of chocolate flavor that’s missing from each bite, and even though these are pretty good for what they are, it’s hard not to forget the real thing.
7. Lily’s Semi-Sweet Chocolate Style Baking Chips
Chocolate “style?” “Baking chips?” I don’t know about that one. That gives me the same feeling I get when I see the words “chocolate drink” on a bottle of Yoo-Hoo.
Lily’s fooled me pretty substantially, for a minute. I popped a few of these bad boys into my mouth, chewed them up, and thought, “Wow, for no-sugar-added chocolate, this is pretty good.” It’s almost like Lily was waiting for me to believe that, because then came the Stevia. My mouth was wrecked with Stevia after this. If artificial sweetener is your vibe, mazel tov. It’s my nemesis, and Lily is serving me way too much of it.
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More Taste Tests From Cheapism
- We Tried 9 Canned Biscuits and This Is the Best — Sometimes you need biscuits in a hurry. Here are the best ones to choose when you’re not baking them yourself.
- 18 Pepperidge Farm Cookies, Ranked — Maybe you didn’t have time to bake your own cookies or maybe you just craving a bit of nostalgia. Either way, here’s what to reach for first.
- 9 Popular Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Brands, Ranked — Baking cookies from scratch is admirable, but for those times when you need a quick dessert, here are the brands you can count on.
