If you’re having tortilla chips on Cinco de Mayo, celebrate with a better chip. We received a sample of Cabo Chips, and the toughest part has been restraining ourselves so there are still chips left on May 5th.

Cabo Chips were born during a beach vacation to Cabo San Lucas in Baja, Mexico. Created by a college student who set out to make “the best,” these are artisan chips. The company actually grinds whole corn kernels, makes tortillas, and cuts and batch-fries them into the chips.

The seasonings are top drawer, too: fresh lime juice, sea salt, powdered mango (not “mango flavor”), organic cinnamon and sugar. You’ll taste the difference: fresh and natural.

There are currently four flavors:

If you can’t find Cabo Chips locally, you can buy them online at CaboChips.com, in 1.5-ounce snack packs and 5.5-ounce bags.

WHY BLUE CORN IS BETTER FOR YOU

Long ago, we bought our first bag of blue corn chips because we were attracted to the color, and then the naturally sweeter flavor. Much later, we learned that blue corn was better for you than white or yellow corn.

Blue corn-based foods were originally developed by the Hopi natives of Arizona and New Mexico, who bred the blue corn. Blue corn is actually regular yellow corn that has a high level of anthocyanins, powerful antioxidants that give the corn (and blackberries, blueberries, etc.) its blue hue.

THE HISTORY OF TORTILLA CHIPS

Surprisingly, tortilla chips are not a traditional Mexican food. They were first popularized and mass produced in southwestern Los Angeles in the late 1940s by Rebecca Webb Carranza, who, with her husband, owned a Mexican deli and tortilla factory.

Misshapen tortillas were rejected from the tortilla manufacturing machine, so Ms. Carranza turned them into snack chips. She cut them into triangles, fried them and sold them in snack-size bags.

Needless to say, they sold well and became a popular appetizer in California’s Mexican and Tex-Mex restaurants. They expanded across the U.S. in a big way in the late 1970s, with the growth of Mexican and Tex-Mex restaurants. They replaced corn chips like Fritos as America’s favorite corn chip* snack.

And yes, they made their way to Mexico.

 
*The main difference between the two types of chip is that a tortilla chip is cut from a whole tortilla. A corn chip is corn meal that is processed into a particular shape.

Why is blue corn better for you? See the explanation above. Photo courtesy Cabo Chips.

Some are obvious, some are new:

 
Have we left out your favorite uses? Let us know!
 
†A great use for the broken pieces! Shake ‘n Bake was created to use Kraft’s supply of cereal crumbs.

‡Pulse in a food processor into a flour.