Rock Salt Doritos

For better or worse, Doritos and I go way back. While my favorite will always be Cool(er) Ranch, I love trying any and all new Doritos flavors I find in the US and Canada. Every now and then, I like to try Japanese flavors, though they do require a bit more work to acquire. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems like explosion of Japanese Doritos flavors has only happened within the last 10 years. When I visited in 2004, the students I met in Japan hadn't really heard of Doritos and we had to get them from a pricey import store, but now they seem downright common!

These Andes Rock Salt Doritos called out to me while browsing napaJapan (my favorite site for ordering Japanese treats - and no one gives me anything or pays me to say this). Sure, it's gimmicky, but come one, they're black chips! Sure, it's no Corn Cream Stew, but for some reason, I thought they'd be special.

It turns out, they were just peppery corn chips. These threw me for a loop because they don't have that Doritos smell or taste - even different flavors of Doritos still taste like Doritos. Maybe I need to investigate additional Japanese flavors to see if this is only true of North American Doritos.

At first, I was very disappointed because these just tasted like regular corn chips. Then, a nice, cracked black pepper flavor kicked in as I chewed, building until the salty finish. After eating a few chips, the heat built to about a medium. The slight spiciness was nice, but I really didn't need to go all the way to Japan to have this experience. At least the bag looked cool.

B-

Doritos website (Japanese)

Salsa Verde Doritos

On the last day of our annual Las Vegas trip, my husband and I went to a cute little restaurant called Island Style for some Hawaiian/Korean brunch. After some tasty Loco Moco (and great service, I might add), we had some time to kill, so we walked over to a nearby CVS drugstore.

While traveling, I love checking out grocery stores and drugstores for local releases, and one such product in this Las Vegas CVS was Salsa Verde Doritos (and some Chile Limon Lays that got consumed on the plane home). These aren't available in the Midwest, so I'm guessing they're limited to the Southwest. There were many more curiosities at this particular CVS, including slot machines, video poker, and a full liquor store, but that's Las Vegas for you.

The chips smelled a little like lime. Right away, I could taste tart lime, along with cilantro, then onion and garlic. Finally, there was a bit of jalapeno heat at the end. All in all, these Doritos did taste like salsa.

The best part about the Salsa Verde Doritos was the slow-building heat. After a couple chips, my mouth was a little warm! It never got too spicy, but these were certainly spicier than most varieties of Doritos. I hope these make their way to my neck of the woods in the future!

B+

Doritos website at Frito-Lay

The Doritos website has a neat little search feature that you can use to check if a certain product is available in your area. Sadly, no Salsa Verde Doritos are sold within 50 miles of my zip code.

Doritos Scream Cheese

Even though I've probably tried 3 new flavors of Doritos in the US within the past year, I was still excited to see a different flavor when I was shopping in Windsor, Ontario. Maybe it was the metallic bag. Little did I know that "Scream Cheese" was the product of a contest to name a new Doritos flavor in Canada. It was a good call for them to bring in outside talent to name their products - remember Nacho Cheesier?

Contestants submitted their own commercials for the flavor they named online, and if you're interested, Ryan Coopersmith's winning video can be viewed on the Doritos YouTube channel. It's worth a chuckle, not to mention $25,000 and 1% of profits from future flavor sales.


Of course, what's really important here is how the chips taste. Thankfully, the cheese didn't smell like nacho. My best guess would be cheddar, with sour and smokey notes. The best part was the nice mild heat that kicked in at the end, as I thought it helped to set them apart from other flavors.

The powder on them was a bright, bright red, and when I wiped the corners of my mouth after eating (as Doritos inevitably make a mess), it looked like I had wiped some lipstick off. I liked the heat, but wasn't crazy about the sour. They didn't make me scream, but I do love a good old-fashioned mystery flavor naming contest. Bonus points for that.

It looks like they have another contest going on now, and I do have a bag of "Unidentified Flavor II" Doritos just waiting to be consumed. It looks like this time, they want to create a viral video, so check out their website at the link below if you are interested.

B

Doritos website