As soon as I saw the Perfect Tortilla on late-night television I knew I wanted one but I also knew that my infomercial loving friends would be getting them and I would end up inheriting at set of them. If you haven't seen the commercial for it, it does make it look like a completely appealing product. Take a tortilla shell, press it into the form, put it in the oven, bake, remove, enjoy. That's a great idea but you are going to end up with a lot of ripped, kinked or jacked up shells in the process. In the commercial the tortilla slides perfectly into the form, in reality it doesn't work that well. I have tried it with 100% freshly made shells purchased from a Mexican grocery, v [and store bought ones that I allowed to come to room temperature] and even the mini sized tortillas.

If order to get them into the form without ripping them or having to fight with them you have to heat them up in the microwave or on the stove; that ultimately leads to something that is dried out. Sure, the whole concept is to make a hardened crispy shell but there is a huge difference between something that is crunchy and something that is dried out. If you are doing a pack of ten you might get five that actually come out presentable which means you are going to have about half the pack wasted [or you could just bake the shells on a cookie sheet and break them up for a taco salad]. You have to work the tortilla into the mold, if you aren't careful then you are going to end up with rips in it. That might not be a problem for some people that are only using these for taco salads but if you want to use them to hold salsa or dips for tailgating or a party you are going to have to double the baked shells to prevent leaking.

I do have to admit, the advertising for this is slick. It's one of those "but wait, if you act now" deals. The base price is ten dollars but you can get the bonus set for "just shipping and handling". That's $7.95. No, not total, for each set of two. So the total cost is $25.90 plus tax if you live in one of the states that they ship from or operate from. I was so tempted to order a set but I stuck it out; as expected I got a two pan set from a friend who was "so thrilled" with them. After wasting over a half a pack of tortillas in the two pans I called her to ask her what the deal was. She said, no kidding, "Well, yeah you are going to end up with a couple ripped ones". A couple? Really?

Another downside is that you have to heat up the oven to make these; it's 95 degrees out and turning on the oven seems moronic. While I do love a nice huge taco salad, I can just as easily grab a handful of tortilla chips or tortilla strips and use those. If you have grand ideas of making a ton of these and using them for a party, good luck. They only stay edible for about a day before they get that stale corn taste to them. They don't get soggy but there's almost no taste to them after a day. So let's back this up; what starts off as a $10.00 purchase bumps up to $25.00. That's a lot of money for something that is probably going to get used about ten times when shoved in the back of a closet. While the shells are non-stick and you could use them to serve snacks in when the fad wears off, they aren't dishwasher safe so you have to hand wash them.

I did call the toll free number to see what the total price was when I was considering ordering them and even when I said I didn't want the second "free" set there was a hard-sell tactic and an eventual "we can't ship just one set". I am not sure what call center is taking the calls or if there are different ways of handling the "I only want one set" request but other people have said that they could order just one set [of two metal forms]. Sure, having four of them will make the process quicker but the extra shipping and handling fee is unnecessary. If you look at sites like Amazon, they are selling the 4 piece set for about twenty dollars plus shipping so you aren't getting any kind of a deal ordering through the special. Give it enough time and these will start surfacing at places like Family Dollar for a reasonable price but even then, you have to go in to the purchase knowing that there are some real problems using it.

There are people that absolutely love these, that's awesome but you have to keep in mind that the As-Seen-On-TV version is different from others that are sold online and in stores. If they don't have the little red and white box on it, they aren't the same. This is not a 'new' product; tortilla shells like this have been around for years. They are trying to push a "healthier" way to make the formed shells but to me it's a lot of misinformation. While it is healthier than frying them or trying to form them by hand, you are still heating up the oven and baking them for five to seven minutes. I like the idea of them but what you see in the commercial and the real-world results you get are not the same.

Would I recommend the Perfect Tortilla to someone? Only if they are willing to heat up the tortillas and be prepared for some ripped ones. To some people that might not be a big deal but to me it is, I don't want a shell that is all jacked up or has cracks in it. Hey, at least I didn't have to pay $25.00 to get a set and find out the hard way that these look great but don't perform as advertised.


^V^ ©Freak369 - 2012 ^V^


As-Seen-On-TV Epic Fails:
Shrimp Butler
Slap Chop
Pasta Express
Chef Basket

Recommended: No