We tested the recipes from Nestle, Hershey's, and Ghirardelli chocolate chip packages, and the winner was clear

• We tested recipes from Nestle, Hershey's and Ghirardelli chocolate chip packages to see which one makes the best chocolate chip cookies.
• Nestle's recipe had a nice saltiness, while the Hershey's chocolate chips tasted a little bitter to some of us.
• Ghirardelli's chocolate chip recipe was the winner with the perfect balance of sweetness and bitterness.

After comparing different brands of grocery store cookies and pre-made chocolate chip cookie dough as part of INSIDER's taste test series, we decided to try chocolate chip cookies made from scratch.

I enlisted a few brave volunteers to help taste test chocolate chip cookies made with the recipes found on the back of three different brands of chocolate chips: Nestle, Hershey's, and Ghirardelli. 

Keep reading to see which one was our favorite.

We decided to stick to Nestle, Ghirardelli, and Hershey's semi-sweet chips for consistency.

I was able to find all three brands of chocolate chips in the baking aisle of my local supermarket.

In New York City grocery store's baking aisle, a 12-ounce bag of Hershey's chocolate chips cost $4.19 and 12-ounce bag of Ghirardelli chocolate chips cost $5.49. Nestle chocolate chips only came in a large 24-ounce package and cost $7.69. At those prices and sizes, Hershey's chips were 35 cents per ounce and Ghirardelli's were 46 cents per ounce, and Nestle's bigger bag contained the most value at 32 cents per ounce.

Target sells 12-ounce bags of Nestle and Ghirardelli chocolate chips for $2.99, and Hershey's chips for $2.49, making Hershey's the most affordable option there. 

Prices will vary depending on where you purchase these chips.

The recipes on the backs of the packages were virtually identical.

The only difference was that Nestle's Toll House cookie recipe called for a teaspoon of salt while Hershey's and Ghirardelli called for half a teaspoon.

Since the cookie recipes were basically the same, the best cookie would be heavily determined by the differences between the chocolate chips.

We decided to evaluate the cookies based on three factors, ranking them each from one (bad) to five (delicious).

• Overall taste
• Texture of the cookie
• "Meltiness" of the chocolate chips