5 Popular Frozen Tater Tots, Ranked Worst To Best

Potatoes are one of the most versatile vegetables in American cuisine. You can transform them into comforting buttery mashed potatoes, or make them feel luxurious by turning them into truffled French fries. You can even go simple and turn them into classic oven-baked potatoes, which can then be topped with pretty much whatever you like. But one of my favorite ways to consume potatoes is tater tots. Perhaps it has to do with nostalgia, or maybe it's because tater tots are so quick and convenient. Either way, these days I rarely go through the effort to make my tots from scratch, opting instead for the extra convenience of frozen tater tots. But not all of my experiences with these frozen products have exactly been awe-inspiring, and most of the time I end up heavily seasoning or upgrading them. I began to wonder which frozen tater tots are my best choice straight out of the bag, without any alterations whatsoever.

Thankfully for both of us, I was given the opportunity to answer this question by tasting five popular frozen tater tots and reporting my findings back here by ranking them from worst to best. I made each product in the oven, based on the instructions printed on the package, and ranked them primarily on taste and texture using my food industry background and other relevant experiences. You can find my full methodology at the end of this article. Ready to discover your new favorite grocery store frozen tater tots? Let's get into it.

Signature Select is Acme Market's private store label, and these Seasoned Tater Puffs don't offer a raving endorsement for the slightly cheaper line of products. In fact, this experience alone would have me rushing to purchase name-brand options, no matter how much more expensive they were.

Although these did crisp up okay on the outside, they remained a bit softer than every other option on this list. But what was even worse was how mushy the interior was. It couldn't even be called similar to mashed potatoes, but more like baby food. And, to be honest, I've had baby food that tasted better. Artificial flavor notes were dominantly framed here against an oddly mild potato profile, which tasted entirely unseasoned.

You could drench these in the best store-bought ketchup or drown them in the best store-bought mustard you can find, and I still wouldn't be tempted to eat them again. I don't even think my standard frozen tater tot seasoning combination of salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, and paprika could make these remotely edible. Long story short — steer clear.

Season's Choice is one of Aldi's private label brands, and although I usually adore Aldi foods, I've suffered a recent string of disappointments that have left me wondering if its product quality has started tanking. From its bland store-brand Caesar Dressing to its overly milky white chocolate bar, the road to this pathetic rendition of tater tots has been paved with dissatisfaction.

These were only vaguely better than the Signature Select option, because there weren't any artificial tastes — but that wasn't necessarily significantly better. Instead of heavy artificial notes, this product graced my palate with the taste of potatoes straight out of the ground without being washed. Truly, the taste of dirt was so strong it left no room for anything else. To top it all off, again, the interior of the potatoes was as mushy as baby food. The only nice thing I could say about these is that the exterior did crisp up really nicely.

I wouldn't purchase these Season's Choice Potato Puffs again because they simply aren't worth my hard-earned money. And I couldn't be tempted to eat them if someone else offered them to me, either, because I'm not in the habit of eating dirt.

These Alexia Crispy Potato Puffs may not have been the lowest-ranked option, but they did turn out to my own biggest personal disappointment. This was simply because they seemed to have the most promise, with a bag boasting garlic and cracked black pepper with "a hint of sour cream and chives in every bite." But that wasn't my experience at all.

The initial flavor profile was okay, albeit a bit bland. There was a moderate potato taste with what might have been the faintest hints of chives and salt. I definitely didn't detect any garlic or black pepper, though, unless one of those was responsible for the heavily artificial, soil-like aftertaste that clung so hard to my tongue I feared they had been permanently fused. These were also a bit crispier than I was looking for, with a faint oiliness, both of which I could have easily overlooked had the flavor been better.

I wouldn't buy or eat these again. In fact, I feel really let down at how few popular frozen tater tots turned out to be good on their own. Even seasoning couldn't get rid of the bad aftertaste here.

McCain is a pretty big potato brand (like our top option), so I had pretty high expectations for its tater tots. I wouldn't say they lived up to those expectations, but they did end up being one of only two options on this list I'd consider eating again, so that's something.

Thankfully, these didn't have the consistency of baby food on the inside of their nicely crisp exterior. Instead, they were actually a bit dry — hands down, I preferred this to the alternative. Although these did have a more robust potato flavor, they weren't very well seasoned. This made them feel very one-dimensional, but my spice cabinet does hold the key to fixing this specific issue, so it's not necessarily a dealbreaker.

Although I wouldn't go out of my way to purchase these, I would definitely eat them again if someone else offered them to me. In the future, however, I would heavily season these, perhaps with some spices bought from Aldi — I think that Stonemill's Butter Garlic Grill Seasoning or Cajun Seasoning would really level up these under-seasoned tater tots.

Sometimes these rankings reveal that my preferred product isn't actually the best available to me. But that wasn't the case here, since Ore-Ida Crispy Tater Tots have been my go-to for years — and now I know they will continue to be so.

These had a nice soft (but not mushy) interior wrapped in a perfectly crisp outside. I really enjoyed the textural complexity created between the two. But the flavor was even better, because an earthy potato taste was paired with subtle seasoning, which easily set these apart from all the bland options that came before. A nice kick of salt, paired with what might have been a hint of black pepper and a mild savoriness that I think came from the oil. My only complaint was that I would have liked even heavier seasoning, but this may be a personal preference.

This rating wasn't even close. Ore-Ida was better than the other brands by a country mile, and I highly suggest grabbing a bag on your next grocery store trip. Once you do, you'll see exactly why they earned the title of best frozen tater tots.

I chose popular frozen tater tots for inclusion in this list, based on their availability to me in the Vineland, New Jersey, area. To be included, products had to be true potato-based tater tots, and be devoid of non-seasoning upgrades — I omitted veggie tots and cheesy tots to ensure this ranking remained fair. For each product, I tasted it by itself, without condiments or additional seasonings, and made my judgments primarily on taste and texture. For taste, I was looking for a naturally well-seasoned potato base with obvious earthy notes. Bonus points were given if there were savory undertones. Texturally, I was looking for something that wasn't too oily or mushy, and crisped up nicely when cooked according to the directions listed on the package.

To make my judgments, I relied primarily on a food industry background of more than 15 years, during which time I regularly made potato-based sides like tater tots. Decades of home cooking experience and prior work for Daily Meal also contributed. This includes similar frozen food articles like my review of Aldi's Beef Birria Bites and my ranking of frozen chicken burritos. Although personal preference played a role in this ranking, I aimed to be as unbiased as possible about product quality.