We here at BoobNewb are big fans of Doritos tortilla chips. Unfortunately, Canada (or should I say Quebec?) is a wasteland when it comes to the distribution of these chips. There have been over 102 different flavors of Doritos chips and the Frito-Lay corporation currently distributes over 20 different varieties of the chips in the USA. In Canada, we’re lucky to maybe get three of these flavors. There’s the always reliable nacho cheese flavored Doritos and two other random varieties that are always changing and never very satisfying which then forces people back to the good old nacho cheese ones. In 2010, we were lucky enough to finally have a ranch version of these chips sold here after having been sold in the USA for well over a decade.

Doritos tortilla chips actually began in 1964 as unused tortillas where a company-owned restaurant cut them up and fried them and added basic seasoning. A bigwig at Frito-lay noticed the popularity of the chips and struck a deal with the company to expand and sell them in other regions of the state. Doritos were released nationwide in 1966, the first tortilla chip to be launched nationally in the United States. The chips are now a 4 billion $ a year operation and are second in sales only behind Frito-lay’s other dominant brand of Lay’s potato chips.

We decided to look back at some of the different varieties of Doritos chips that have been sold just to show how many different combinations the company has come up with over the years in order to satisfy the demand of their loyal tortilla chip eaters.

-Numerous impromptu online support groups have sprung up over the years among devoted fans who miss the original Doritos Taco flavor formula. In late 2010, the taco flavor recipe that was used in the 1980s returned in a limited edition ‘retro’ styled bag incorporating the original Doritos logo, and in early 2011 the company announced that this incarnation would remain in the permanent product line-up. There’s another version that came out called ‘Doritos at Midnight’ that tasted as though you took a chip and put some Old El Paso taco powder on them and they were god awful. Thankfully, they brought back these timeless chips for a little while longer.

-Another great chip that is now only sold in select locations where large populations of Hispanic people live. A great chip that had a bit of a tomato kick to it and were very tasty. The chips might be the hottest or spiciest version that Frito-Lay has ever created thanks to the large injection of Jalapeno peppers that give it a much spicier feeling on your taste buds. If you live in California, please send us your email address and ship some of these chips over to the fine people in Canada.

-In February 2011, Doritos Canada gave consumers the chance to write the end of a commercial surrounding two new flavors (Onion Rings n’ Ketchup, Buffalo Wings n’ Ranch), one of which was taken off shelves when the contest ended. The chosen ending was released on May 5, 2011, with Onion Rings n’ Ketchup being the winner. We actually managed to get a hold of these chips when they came out (although sadly we can’t find them anymore -What gives?) and we did notice a distinct onion taste to the chips. Sadly, we didn’t notice the ketchup taste as much as we’d like and we don’t think putting ketchup on a corn chip would be all that appealing anyways.

-In the 1990s, PepsiCo and Frito-Lay hooked up and introduced two new flavors of Doritos. After PepsiCo spun off its restaurant division in 1997, the flavors were simply renamed ‘taco’ and ‘pizza’. The taco ones tasted nothing like the original taco recipe as the seasoning used more beef flavor to it. The pizza ones were pretty good and they came around the same time as the film ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ which only helped to increase their popularity with the pizza crowd. Sadly, the pizza cravers have been discontinued in almost every market but the Taco Bell ones were brought back in 2007 as part of the Doritos ‘Back by Popular Demand’ lineup of chip flavors.

-Doritos are very popular in the country of Japan where many new varieties of chips are distributed and marketed towards the Asian market. Most of these brands of chips will never even see the light of day in North America and there are quite a few weird varieties that Asian people enjoy but wouldn’t be eaten by anyone here because of the gross out factor. We hear that Japanese Doritos are baked and not fried which would also change the consistency of the taste to any North American eater willing to try some of these chips. One flavor that would probably go well with Americans and most of Eastern Europe is the sausage and beer flavored Doritos. Most people like sausages and enjoy a nice cool beer to chug the meat down their throats so we don’t see why this wouldn’t be a hit with other people. The sausage flavor has been described by some as tasting more like a breakfast food sausage than a more traditional European sausage but we’ll give the Japanese the benefit of the doubt on this one. We don’t believe these are sold anymore in Japan anymore. If there are any Japanese readers out there that are reading this article, we’d really like to know if this variety of chip is still on the market.

-In Turkey, they sell yogurt & mint flavored Doritos. We can see the appeal of yogurt because you can dip corn chips in sour cream or yogurt to give them some extra flavor but what’s up with the mint? Mint gives your taste buds a cool refreshing taste whereas most Doritos flavors are spicy or tangy so we don’t really see the appeal of them. In addition, these chips aren’t marketed as a snack and are marketed more as a desert meal which makes it even more of an odd situation for us.

-Canada and the UK have a large pocket of Indian people living there. So, it’s no surprise that Frito-Lay marketed and sold Tandoori Sizzler Doritos in those markets. These chips have a garlicky curry powder smell to them and the chips smell like curry which can be a good or bad thing depending on if you like the smell of Indian spices or not. Overall, we weren’t too impressed with these chips as we’re not the biggest fans of curry and won’t be buying these chips as often as other Doritos chips but they certainly will develop a fan following with a certain sector of the population – just not us.

-Doritos chips in Japan have a special brand line called ‘Doritos Gourmet’ where they sell some very interesting flavors. We think that the idea of the new brand was to market the chips as being more high class then regular Doritos and to have them feature some favorite American and European dishes along with Japanese dishes dressed as chips. Some examples of previous chip flavors include ‘Rich Mayo’, ‘German Potato’, ‘Fried Chicken & Green Onion Sauce’, ‘Clam Chowder’, ‘Grilled Squid & Soy Sauce’, ‘Corn Soup’, ‘Caesar Salad’, ‘Cheese & Almond’, ‘Fondue’, ‘Sesame Chicken’ and ‘Wasabi Mayo’ among others.

-Doritos has a promotion called X13-D where they tried to get Doritos fans to come up with a name for a mystery flavor of Doritos in the bag which were code-named X13-D. Shortly after, the company came out with these chips which were similar in taste to the mystery chip flavor. These chips were very impressive and actually tasted like a cheeseburger where you could taste pickles, onions, or cheese at different points when eating them. They’re not the greatest new flavor of Doritos that we’ve tried before but we’ll definitely pick up a bag if they keep them as part of their permanent brand lineup.

-Frito-Lay came out with their spiciest chips in a long time when they introduced a brand new chip that has wasabi on them. There is a bit of delay to the wasabi taste but when it does hit you definitely feel it. The chips themselves have a yellowish-green coloring similar to the outside of the bag. It’s been a while since there has been a really spicy Doritos flavor but we don’t think enough people will go for the increase in heat so grab a bag and horde it while you still can.

-Our final entry on this tour of Doritos chips are Gold Peking Duck Doritos. These Japanese Doritos have a rectangular shape instead of the more traditional triangle shape. They look similar in color to Doritos Cool Ranch chips. The taste does actually resemble the flavor of a Chinese Peking duck dish.

We also give an honorable mention to the Doritos Collisions brand line which features two different flavors of Doritos in one bag. Someone at Frito-Lay must have had the balls to stick up for their beliefs in the board room because now we get to enjoy two flavors of Doritos for the price of one. Some of the bags include ‘Zesty Taco/Chipotle Ranch’ , ‘Chicken Sizzler/Zesty Salsa’, ‘Cheesy Enchilada/Sour Cream’, ‘T-bone Steak/Grilled Pepper’, ‘Hot Wings/Blue Cheese’ and ‘Ranch/Pizza Cravers’. A second honorable mention goes to Blazing Buffalo and Ranch Doritos which are our favorite brand of Doritos chips.

We’re hoping that in the future, Frito-Lay will come up with a brand of chips similar to skittles where we get to taste an international selection of all of these flavors in one single bag so that we can taste for ourselves what kind of great flavors we’re missing up here in the great white North.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 29th, 2012 at 6:45 pm and is filed under Food. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.