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We live in a world where there can’t be just one or two flavors of, well, anything. To wit: Doritos tortilla chips. Not satisfied with the old-school Nacho Cheese and Cool Ranch flavors, the undisputed leader in the tortilla chip world offers a dizzying array of flavor combinations, leaning hard into the “flamin'” category. Not to be confused with spicy, because as you’ll see, those are different.
But which flavor is the best Doritos of them all? On a recent evening, I gathered some friends at my local brewery to put them to the test. This was serious business, I can assure you, and we gave the tasting all the gravitas it deserved. There were questions, there were debates, and above all, there were Doritos for days.
In the end, only one of us gets to crown the winner, and that job falls to me. So, read on to find out which Dorito took home the gold.
Doritos Flamin’ Hot Limón Flavored Tortilla Chips
Nutrition: (Per 12 Chips):
Calories: 150
Fat: 8 g (Saturated Fat: 1 g)
Sodium: 190 mg
Carbs: 18 g (Fiber: 1 g, Sugar: 1 g)
Protein: 2 g
There was zero debate on this frankenchip that pledges lime flavor but with a Spanish spelling. The neon green bag cost $5.99.
The look: No Doritos color comes from nature, but this is an especially lurid orangey-red chip with a medium to heavy coating of powder.
The taste: An odd combination of faux lime flavor, screaming heat, and corn. “Literally why?” “Absolutely gross!” and “Where’s the spit cup?” were among the nicer comments leveled at this variety. To me, it was like one of those plastic limes filled with “lime juice” that fell into a bag of spicy chips. One taster compared it to “one of those margaritas that tastes like it’s made with Glade.” Another was reminded of citronella. “There will be no mosquitos within 10 feet of my face,” he said before dumping the rest of the bag in the trash.
Doritos Spicy Nacho Flavored Tortilla Chips
Nutrition: (Per 12 Chips):
Calories: 140
Fat: 8 g (Saturated Fat: 1 g)
Sodium: 190 mg
Carbs: 16 g (Fiber: 1 g, Sugar: 0 g)
Protein: 2 g
Why mess with a winner? To increase market share, presumably. So, Doritos added some heat to their classic nacho cheese-flavored chip. The Spicy Nacho variety cost $5.99.
The look: A red bag emblazoned with chips afire hints at the heat within, while the fairly standard issue orange chips are light on the dust.
The taste: We can sum these up with a resounding “meh.” Tasters were confused that it didn’t just taste like a spicier version of the original. We all tasted … corn. They weren’t very spicy and didn’t have much cheese flavor, either. One taster thought they tasted nothing whatsoever like the original.
Doritos Flamin’ Hot Nacho Flavored Tortilla Chips
Nutrition (Per 12 Chips):
Calories: 150
Fat: 8 g (Saturated Fat: 1 g)
Sodium: 190 mg
Carbs: 17 g (Fiber: 1 g, Sugar: 1 g)
Protein: 2 g
It’s as if someone at Doritos said, “Let’s take the original and make it hotter than the original or the spicy original.” This Flamin’ Hot Nacho variety cost $5.99.
The look: The fiery orange bag dials up the heat with flames licking up from the bottom of the package, and the brand goes all in on the violent red of these chips, which will definitely leave a trademark stain on your fingers (or anything they touch).
The taste: Marginally better than the spicy hot version, the bright red chips leave a trail of dust and stain your fingers, but they don’t have much going for them taste-wise. Doritos is missing the happy medium, as these were too hot, according to the tasters (while the “spicy” flavor wasn’t hot enough). And they do blunt the palate. One taster compared them to eating wings that are so hot that you have to stop eating after just a few.
Doritos Blazin’ Buffalo & Ranch Tortilla Chips
Nutrition: (Per 12 Chips):
Calories: 150
Fat: 7 g (Saturated Fat: 1 g)
Sodium: 190 mg
Carbs: 17 g (Fiber: 1 g, Sugar: 1 g)
Protein: 2 g
If you like hot buffalo wings dipped in ranch dressing, Doritos wants you to like this lab recreation of that flavor combo. I found the Blazin’ Buffalo & Ranch variety on sale for $4.99.
The look: Presumably, the cool blue packaging is meant to communicate that these chips contain ranch flavor, while the fiery chip image conveys, well, heat. The chips themselves are a bit brighter than the standard Doritos orange with a consistent dusting.
The taste: A mixed bag. One taster said they’d grab a plateful at a cookout, calling them “appealing.” (The same taster also acknowledged being a chicken wing and Buffalo sauce fan.) Everyone agreed the ranch taste was subtle. For better effect, these chips needed to be dipped in actual ranch dressing. For that matter, another taster said there wasn’t much Buffalo taste, either. I thought they had quite an afterburn, but my friend with a higher heat tolerance labeled them medium heat. If there were no other Doritos around, these would do, I guess?
Doritos Sweet and Tangy BBQ Flavored Tortilla Chips
Nutrition: (Per 11 Chips):
Calories: 150
Fat: 7 g (Saturated Fat: 1 g)
Sodium: 190 mg
Carbs: 18 g (Fiber: 1 g, Sugar: 1 g)
Protein: 2 g
Did somebody dip a Doritos chip in barbecue sauce and cry voila!? So it seems. The Sweet & Tangy BBQ flavor cost $5.99.
The look:This relatively neutral bag in shades of gray and black boasts not a single flame and the chips are a bit … earthier color than other flavors with a hint of brown and a medium level of dust.
The taste: Through some food chemistry mystery, these chips had no discernible scent. But once you taste them, they lived up to the name better than anything we ranked lower. “Like I dipped a Dorito into barbecue sauce,” one taster summed up. These were pretty subjective. If you like sweet and tangy barbecue sauce, you like these. And if not? You’re out of luck. The balance of sweet and tangy got thumbs up from most of my tasters, although I found the sweetness a bit too reminiscent of ketchup. Doritos uses stevia for the sweet part, and a little of that goes a long way. Maybe save these for barbecue season, one taster suggested.
Doritos Spicy Sweet Chili Flavored Tortilla Chips
Nutrition: (Per 12 Chips):
Calories: 140
Fat: 7 g (Saturated Fat: 1 g)
Sodium: 270 mg
Carbs: 18 g (Fiber: 1 g, Sugar: 1 g)
Protein: 1 g
Tapping into your innate craving of things that are sweet and salty, Doritos presents this chip trading on the chili-flavored trend. The Spicy Sweet Chili flavor cost $5.99.
The look: There’s little difference in the color from the original Nacho Cheese Doritos, and dust was nearly non-existent.
The taste: Maybe the most divisive bag of the test, these are a love ’em or hate ’em flavor. “This doesn’t need to exist,” one taster said as I poured a few more onto my plate to chow down. Because I do love a strip mall restaurant pad thai, these were my jam, and in my personal top two. But my fellow tasters found the flavor weak, the dusting light, and the flavor confusing. “Is this teriyaki?” one asked. “I’d venture to say these are the worst selling of the group,” said another. Even so, 98% of reviewers on Doritos.com recommend them, so I’m ranking them high.
Doritos Cool Ranch Flavored Tortilla Chips
Nutrition: (Per 12 Chips):
Calories: 150
Fat: 8 g (Saturated Fat: 1 g)
Sodium: 190 mg
Carbs: 18 g (Fiber: 1 g, Sugar: 1 g)
Protein: 2 g
This is pure nostalgia. We’re talking about a flavor that’s been around since the 1980s, back when there wasn’t an endless array of flavors, and maybe the origins of America’s collective love affair with all things dipped in ranch? A bag of Cool Ranch chips cost $5.99.
The look: The bright blue, $5.99 bag is instantly recognizable as Cool Ranch, even with the addition of the (still outdated) Superbowl promo. These chips are the palest of the bunch with only specks of dust.
The taste: “Great to eat when you’re drunk” may not sound like a glowing recommendation, but we’re talking about a product made mostly of artificial colors and multisyllabic chemicals here, and this taster wasn’t wrong. It tastes like the original Doritos infused with ranch, and that’s a happy place to be. Nothing not to love here.
Doritos Nacho Cheese Flavored Tortilla Chips
Nutrition: (Per 12 Chips):
Calories: 150
Fat: 8 g (Saturated Fat: 1 g)
Sodium: 210 mg
Carbs: 18 g (Fiber: 1 g, Sugar: 1 g)
Protein: 2 g
The one, the only, the plain(est) Doritos still draw legions of fans despite giving itself so much competition. A bag of Nacho Cheese chips cost $5.99.
The look: The classic orange bag contains the classic yellowy-orange chip with a light to medium dusting. No surprises here.
The taste: These chips have some serious staying power. At a time when we all want what’s next, the classic Doritos is where it’s at. “Love the cheesy flavor. It also has the perfect amount of dusting,” said one happy taster. “It’s perfect as a nacho cheese flavor,” said another. We all gave the highest marks to this 50-year-old version that we would all consider the original—although it was technically the third flavor in the product line!—with one taster harking back to signing yearbooks with his review: “Stay the same and never change.”
Doritos Flamin’ Hot Cool Ranch Flavored Tortilla Chips
Nutrition: (Per 12 Chips):
Calories: 150
Fat: 8 g (Saturated Fat: 1 g)
Sodium: 190 mg
Carbs: 18 g (Fiber: 1 g, Sugar: 1 g)
Protein: 2 g
If the mark of a successful junk food product is a reluctance to stop at one or 12, this reboot of already delicious Cool Ranch Doritos fired up with rip-roaring heat is golden. (Hey, did you know internet lore has it that Doritos is Spanish for little golden things?) A bag of Flamin’ Hot Cool Ranch cost $5.99.
The look: Doritos did the most with this bag, drenched in blue but with a flaming, black hole of a chip-shaped tear-out situation framing a single flaming chip. Inside, garish red-orange chips are pretty heavily coated in dust.
The taste: With the precisely calibrated balance of savory, spicy, and sweet, the perfect crunch, and the cool of that ranch flavor humming alongside and taming the heat, these are indeed little golden things. The only complaint was that if they were slightly less spicy, you could binge them for hours. Hands down my favorite, with nearly perfect scores across the board, this chip drew praise like “better than the original.” Enough said.
