May 28, 2025 • 63 mins
This international brand of tortilla chips (and dips, and scientifically engineered flavors) got its start at Disneyland. Anney and Lauren dust off the intense science and history of Doritos.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
Hello, welcome savor prediction of iHeart Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
I'm Any and I'm Moren Mogelbaum, and today we have
an episode for you about Dorito's.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Not a sponsor, nope, but wow, quite an episode. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
So the reason this was on my mind is that,
you know, we are entering a cookout season here in
Atlantis certainly, and you know the weather is turning and
it's been like kind of nice and sunny out and
we're about to come up on a bunch of weekends
where people tend to go have picnics or grill out
(00:49):
or whatever it is and perhaps eat some hacken.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Chips, perhaps eat some hacken chips, and people a lot
of people love Dorito's. They do. They have a lot
of fans. I can't wait to talk about it more.
And I listeners. At the top of the episode, I'm
just going to say, please write in any of your
(01:14):
Dorito thoughts. Oh yeah, I'm nearly positive that most of
you have at least one Derrito memory or opinion. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Yes, And strangely enough, I feel like that counts for
more of a global audience than I would usually be
confident in. I don't think I knew exactly how big
this brand was, and I don't know why I didn't,
but I'm like, you've got Peter Dinklage rapping about them
(01:48):
at the Super Bowl ad, like that's like, why am
I surprised about this?
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Yeah, they're a very specific type of brand that has
the energy of we know who our audience is. I
haven't had Doritas in a long time, but when I
was in high school, I went through a big dourrito
phase and I loved putting the nacho cheese Doritos on sandwiches,
(02:18):
primarily turkey sandwiches. Okay, so it would just be turkey
and Doritos. Interesting, like wet ingredients would they would mess
with the integrity of the crunch of the dorrito, which
is what I wanted.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
You were looking for the dorito crunch. Yeah, yes, but
it was really good. And for a while that was
like a whole thing. Every day I had a Toto sandwich.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
And then that phase faded away, And that's kind of
into that. Oh.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
I love those food obsessions you go through, kind of
especially when you're a kid, and maybe perhaps a slightly
neuro diverging kid who just gets obsessed with like a
flavor or a texture, or whatever it is.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
And no one can I mean, no one can really
stop you. So you're just like, all right, yeah, this
is what I'm doing for right now. I've never been
a chips on a sandwich human like I. I feel
like they tear up the roof of my mouth and
I get mad. Yeah. Well, we're going to talk about
this kind of a briefly in a history section. But
(03:29):
I did have an incident where a Dorito sandwich did
do some harm. Well, but it was minor. It was
minor harm. Sure, you live to tell the tale, and
that's what's important. Yes, And I still had a Dorito
sandwich the next day, so there you go.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
Yeah, I mean, Dorito's taste great. It's you know, I
try really hard to not purchase things like snack chips
because they're expensive, and then and then you just and
then if you have them, you're gonna eat them, and
then that's you know, there were more nutritionally sound options
to make that, honestly, probably cost less money. However, I
(04:13):
will say that while reading about various international flavors of
Dorito's freedo, lay, y'all, they come up with beautiful flavors everywhere,
but here.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
I know, I have moments of intense jealousy listeners or
if I'm missing out on something because again, like I
don't like, I don't buy a lot of Doritos, so
like very occasionally, if I'm going to a party or
something like that, I'll be like, yeah, hey, those are
going to be tasty. Yeah yeah, I mostly you know
(04:53):
what I'm sad about. And I don't know if I
cared enough to remedy the situation. I've never had to
Dorito's Loco Stacco, Oh no no, And I know people
love them, but I don't know. I'm at a crossroads.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
At a crossroads, I feel like you have a general
compunction against junk about like fast food.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
Yeah, I mean some brands in particular, but I don't
generally eat fast food, but I could for research, I
could make an exception.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Uh well, it's exactly what you would expect that that
it is. It is what it says on the label.
That's okay. And if you're into that, it's delicious. I
mean it is engineered, deeply engineered to be delicious, and
it is, so there you go. Yeah, they put a
lot of research into these things. Gosh, these for sure
(06:05):
hoofta four other episodes. You can see our episodes on
tacos and nachos for more on like corn tortillas and
corn chips.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Yes, but I guess that brings us to our question, Sure, Doritos,
what are they? Well?
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Doritos is a large international brand of primarily snack chips
made from a fried corn dough with a usually heavy
dusting of flavored powder coating each chip. The chips are
typically in a triangle shape with rounded corners like two
to three inches on a side that's about five seven centimeters,
although they can come in other shapes and sizes. Flavors
(06:56):
tend towards this variety of like very well honed combinations
of tangy, savory salty with like a little bit of sweetness,
And these days they've been leaning into more spicy concepts.
But the two classic ones are nacho cheese, which are
(07:16):
this purposefully fake cheese flavor with a bright orange color,
and then cool ranch, which are like a slightly herbal,
creamy ranch dressing flavor with a kind of light cream
color and little flex of green and orange in it.
They come in crinkly plastic bags and individual serving or
multi serving sizes. They are typically eaten straight out of
(07:40):
the bag as a snack, or maybe like a lunch
side dish, alongside a sandwich or in one if that's
your thing. They don't really taste like food, but they
are so pleasing to consume, so crisp and crunchy, and
that combination of flavors is tantalizing. They're like an ad
(08:06):
man's reimagining of food, like big and bold, and it
doesn't matter that's not nutritious because this is food in
three D and technicolor. It's like eating a television ad.
Each chip just bright and electric and void.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
I like this dark. It's not dark. It's a little dark,
a gritty take on it. But I feel it because
when I think of Gurrito's, it does have this. I
think of the nineties ads that were so color extreme. Yeah, exactly.
I feel that Gerrito's encapsulated in our more modern times
(08:47):
at least, is that it's like, just eat more and
more and more and more, and it tastes good, and
these commercials are great, so get some more. Yeah. Kind
of is really like leaning into being silly and big
and I don't know, it's it's weird. It's weird.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
I have a lot of I have a lot of
feelings about it. I'm kind of still kind of still
unwrapping them, honestly, but okay. So, Dorito's is owned by
Free Doo Lay, which is a subsidiary of the food
and beverage giant Pepsi Coo, and the brand concept is
vaguely like vaguely Mexican text mes, Mexican American themed, but
(09:30):
only vaguely, and it kind of varies from market to market.
As of right now in the United States, their lineup
of those typical triangular chips includes of course nacho, cheese
and cool ranch, then a siracha flavor, a barbecue sauce flavor,
salsaverde spicy sweet chili, cobranded tapetillo flavor that is this
(09:54):
upsetting shade of red retro taco seasoning flavor, spicy chili
lime flavor called Flamma okay uh, and then three Flame
and Hot flavors, which is a sub brand that started
with Cheetos. They've got Flame Hot cool Ranch, Flame and
(10:17):
Hot Nacho, and Flame and Hot Lime. They've also got
a different shape that Mini's, which are about an inch
to a side and come in a tube and then
chips that have been rolled into a hollow cylinder shape
like a little tube, like a little straw almost. They
call these Dinamta all in caps and the flavors are
(10:47):
flame and hot, caeso and chili lime, and the Dinamta
chips have a Dinameter label on the bag to tell.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
You how spicy they are.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
And yes, this is their direct answer to competitors snack
brand Talkies, which is owned by Mexican food giant Bimbo
Dorito's has invented these like Sassy a boila characters for
the advertising for them, named Dinah and Meta.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
I have so many questions that we could end the
podcast now and never get further, all right, I yeah,
the dangers of not watching television, or that you no
longer get as many advertisements for wacky things like this,
(11:42):
and I kind of regret it. This is this is
quite something, quite something, yes, But internationally they've got other
offerings for different markets. Most markets do seem to have
some riff on the classic nacho cheese flavor, and usually
(12:05):
the classic ranch flavor. It's not called Ranch in international markets,
but something like Cool American or Cool Original is pretty common.
But yeah, after that, anything goes. Some markets seem to
be really focused on American themed flavors and others on
(12:25):
more local flavors. For example, in Taiwan there's been flavors
like spicy garlic or Sishuan peppercorn chicken. Japan has had
wasabi teraake, burger shrimp mayo. South Korea has had a
honey chili and an oven roasted galby chicken. Australia has
(12:47):
different There's a different nacho cheese versus Cheese Supreme flavor,
and then there's a third that's called Mexicana that's the
same color basically as the other two. I have no
idea what the difference is is, because what the differences
are because I couldn't find labels that listed the ingredients.
Not that always tells you that much with something with
this many ingredients, but y'all write in the UK has
(13:11):
had a cheeseburger flavor and a hint of curry flavor.
Currently they've got like a loaded pepperoni pizza flavor. Yeah wow, Yeah,
I'm gonna have to look at my local store and
see what we've got going. But I just don't think
we have quite the variety that I'm here and here,
(13:33):
and I like some of these. Yeah, mostly right now.
I feel like it's like most stores will have like
nacho cheese flame and hot nacho cheese, and that's kind
of what you've got. Yeah, yeah. Oh.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
Dorito's does also sell dips in various markets, like sauces
and cheese dips like or cream based dips. They also
sometimes license their name and flavors out to other brands,
like Taco Bell or Rolled Gold pretzels. To produce the chips,
Doritos takes fresh corn kernels and cooks, soaks, and washes them,
(14:13):
then grinds them into dough. The dough is needed and
pressed into thin sheets out of which individual chips are stamped,
sort of like a cookie cutter. The chips are dried
and then deep fried. The flavorings are applied by tossing
the chips in drums. There's like a mist of oil
being sprayed inside the drum to make the surface of
(14:34):
the chips a little bit tacky or sticky, and then
the prepared powder is sprinkled in and coach the chips. Yeah,
and they do a lot of cool, weird science things
to make these chips delicious, like in addition to many
(14:57):
many different flavoring agents also commonly contain what's called in
the flavor industry flavor potentiators, and these are compounds that
muck about with your taste receptors in your mouth to
make you more sensitive to a particular flavor, in this case,
(15:17):
the savory or umami flavor that you experience when you
consume glutamates, glutamates being iterations of an amino acid that
tastes savory or lumammy. So doritos contain glutamates, and then
they also contain these potentiators that temporarily physically alter your
(15:37):
glutamate receptors to make them more sensitive, like up to
thirty times more sensitive, so like you truly experience more
flavor while you're eating doritos.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
In the processed food industry in general, potentiators can be
used to help reduce the amount of a given ingredient
that needs to be included, and not just the one
that the potentiator works in tandem with. In the case
of the glutamate one, I think it's more expensive than
the glutamates, so that would be silly, but you can,
(16:19):
for example, they can help. The food made with reduced
sodium still taste flavorful, so it's cool in various applications.
Slightly insidious, I adore it. A few other tricks are
in there, like like the flavor powder mix is given
(16:40):
this super fine flour level grind, which lets the powder
really like fill every part of the surface of a
chip and your fingers and your mouth, and thus increases
like the surface area of the flavoring, so that the
(17:01):
flavoring hits more of those receptors and tastes stronger.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
Wow, oh man, And yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
They're typically eaten as is, but their website insists that
there are all kinds of things things you can do
with them, mostly involving crushing them up and using them
as like a crispy coating or topping like our breadcrumbs.
Not enough if you're deep frying a whole onion. Yeah,
Dorito's has a solution for you. They do also list
of peanut butter and nacho Doritos sandwich, and I thought
(17:36):
of you.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
Oh wow, Okay, that's okay, I can see that. I
can see that working. Oh yeah, I feel like a
couple of years ago there was a I can't remember
if it was flaming hot cheetos are Dorito's, but there
was a like Thanksgiving turkey recipe. Oh oh, that got
a lot of traction where the chrome you fry it?
(18:02):
I guess, okay, yeah, I mean I'm sure it was tasty. Yeah, huh,
I guess I kind of went to the bad place
there for a second. But I'm coming back from it.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
And yeah, in the in the States, and ye all
write in about other cultural experiences, but in the States,
there is a pretty deep cultural nostalgia surrounding Dorito's as
like a simple snack that you've probably had as a kid,
or maybe at picnics or cookouts or like home viewings
of sporting events. And there's a bit of like almost
(18:39):
fetishization of getting a little bit messy while you're eating them,
because the powder coating does stick to your fingers and
it's like culturally allowable to lick it off. And like
fetishization is a strong word. But does people have like
specifically strong positive emotions about that.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
Yes, yes, I believe. Isn't that called the Dorito's experience?
I found a Reddit post about the experience. I haven't
read that term, but but yeah, I mean we can
we can call it that? I think people do. Oh,
we don't have to know. I'm cool with it. Yeah,
(19:22):
no reason not to. Speaking of the Dorito's experience, Man,
corporate marketing makes me feel so insane. Allow me to
quote for you from the Dorito's website. All right, Dorito's
Reserved isn't just a chip. It's fuel for disruption. Our
(19:43):
flavors ignite adventure and inspire action. With every crunch, we
aim to redefine culture and support those who are boldly themselves.
Are you ready if so, crunch on? Wow, my aspiration.
We aim to redefine culture. I don't know what that means.
(20:06):
I don't know what redefining culture means the specific instance.
And I'm slightly scared. And this absolutely flavored by my
top of the episode text. I mean, you are right,
the corporate marketing they always love to do. It's not
just a chip. It's going to change the entire galaxy.
(20:28):
And this is how And you read it and you're like,
You're like, are we still talking about snack chips. I'm
a little unnerved. I'm a little unsettled. Also, like I
really hate, I really hate like disruptor culture. I really
(20:49):
hate the term disruption, and so fuel for disruption is
very funny to me. Yeah, like do we need to
disrupt everything? Can't we maybe just like go with a flow,
just a little read the room. Perhaps, I don't know,
it's just spitball in here. Yeah, just eat some delicious
(21:12):
chips with your friends and that's okay. We don't have
to disrupt that. Well, what about the nutrition treats are nice?
Treats are nice. Yeah, that's a nice We do have
some numbers for you. Yeah, uh so okay. Uh.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
Doritos are the top selling tortilla chip in the United
States by far, with something like seventy percent of the
tortilla chip market share, and they have been for years.
They sold about one point one four billion units in
twenty twenty four.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
Uh huh.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
They're also the top selling tortilla chi in the UK.
I believe in even higher market share, like something around
seventy nine percent, and Dorito's runs Europe's largest tortilla chip
factory in Coventry in the UK. Some one third of
UK households purchased Dorito's. But so PepsiCo is actually a
(22:20):
little quiet about exactly how much business their brands do,
Like how much resources each one uses and what their
exact profits are.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
And stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
But I can tell you that Dorito's has been one
of PepsiCo's billion dollar brands, that is a brand that
makes over a billion in sales every year.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
Since sometime in the nineteen nineties. Dang, yeah. It seems
like Dorito's have been well loved, continue to be well loved,
and yet the history I found was surprisingly not as
(23:05):
well documented as I thought it would be.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
You know, there are some brands that are like, we
are going to aggressively detail this story, and some brands
that are like, look over here, we've got a late
night American hot wings flavor. Don't you want to eat it?
Speaker 1 (23:28):
We've got to look over here one. But it's really interesting,
a lot interesting stuff going on. Nonetheless, Yes, yes, and
we are going to get into that history as soon
as we get back from a quick break for a
word from our sponsors, and we're back. Thank you, sponsor, Yes,
(23:54):
thank you. Okay, so separate episode. But tortilla chips have
probably been around for hundreds of years in areas that
use corn based dough. It's just one of those things
that makes sense to me. M Yeah, especially right, Like,
if you're making masa, if you're making tortillas, you're gonna
(24:16):
make a chip out of it at some point. Yep,
it just makes sense to me. But that being said,
Freedo Lay is thought to be the first to make,
distribute and selt repea chips on a large scale in
the United States, and that was with Dorito's, all right.
So the history of Doriedo's generally starts around the nineteen sixties.
(24:41):
This was when convenience and modern technologies were all the rage,
and one of the companies really leaning into this was
Disney and Disneyland is a name often thrown about in
the discussion of the Doriedo's origin story. You never know
when disney right Land is gonna pop up. I didn't
(25:03):
know this, but it makes so much sense. It really does,
It really does, all right. So, as the story goes,
Anaheim's Disneyland had a Mexican restaurant called Casa de Frito's,
operated by Fretto l A in the nineteen sixties. It
opened pretty soon after Disneyland opened. It was, of course
(25:25):
good marketing for free doola. Customers got complimentary Freto's at
the end of the meal. I think, and it was
pretty savvy since this was around the time there was
an increasing interest in Mexican food in the United States,
and Disney kind of had that whole try foods from
around the world vibe. And sure enough, this restaurant was
(25:46):
so popular it had to move to a larger venue
just a few years after it opened. The restaurant didn't
make their own tortillas, though, they contracted that out to
Alex Foods, a company that delivered Mexican food items like
tortillas across southern California. One day, a salesman from Alex
(26:07):
Foods noticed that this restaurant was throwing out old tortillas,
and he suggested that they fry them up and seasoned
them as snack instead. And these chips were fairly popular.
I read they were a hidden menu item, and then
I heard but they were like just a really popular
one that ran out quickly. I'm not sure, but they
(26:28):
got pretty popular, and somehow word got to an executive
at Freedo Lay After getting a taste, the executive knew
they had a winner on their hands, and production started
in nineteen sixty four, and Dorito's hit grocery shelves in
nineteen sixty six. At first, Alex Foods made the chips
(26:49):
and Frido Lay sold them, but once the product was successful,
the company didn't renew the partnership with Alex Foods. However,
there are a lot of other stories out how this
whole thing happens. There's another one that's told a lot
that the free Dolay marketing executive at the time, Archibald West,
(27:10):
invented Dorito's. There are a lot of variations on this
specific story, one being he enjoyed roadside tortillas that came
in a round bag while he was on vacation with
his family in nineteen sixty four, and then he set
out to replicate them. He also is sometimes the executive
that tried the chips at Casa Deefrito's in the previous story. However,
(27:32):
and I kind of love this. Even a public relations
director at Freedo La has admitted they have no evidence
of any of this, okay, and says that no one
person invented Dorito's. Very diplomatic, very diplomatic, but I like
even them had to be like, we can't say that's true.
(27:58):
Others say that the chips were a sourced from local
Mexican producers and that it was their way of making
money off of remaining pieces of tortillas, and then Fredo
Lay basically just took credit for it. Just kind of
a similar You can make that same telling of the
alex food story as well, But anyway, whatever the case,
Dorito's were being sold in the southwest of the country
(28:20):
by nineteen sixty six and nationwide soon after. The first
flavor they offered was simply toasted corn, though two years
later they added taco seasoning. With all the company's marketing efforts,
Dorito's were pretty ubiquitous within a decade.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
Yeah, partially because while all of this was going on,
in nineteen sixty five, Freda Lay merged with Pepsi to
form Pepsi Coo. And that really catapulted both companies.
Speaker 1 (28:53):
Yes, and just to give you an idea of how
much we have to say about Dorito's, I love company Legalese.
This was a whole thing, and if you care to
read about it, you can. But I was overwhelmed by
everything else, so we'd go look it up if you
(29:13):
about it. Mergers. Yeah, I'm so boring in some things.
Oh my god, tell me about this Nacho cheese flavor
was released in nineteen seventy two. Cool Ranch was introduced
in nineteen eighty six, though it first went by the
name Cooler Ranch. By the nineties, Doritos were a household
(29:38):
name in the United States and there were flavors galore.
There were commercials everywhere. They were making an astonishing amount
of money.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
Oh yeah, Like, they did a product placement deal with
the first Wayne's World movie.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
Arth You know what I'm talking about, right, They.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
Co branded with Taco Bell, They placed their first Super
Bowl ad. It featured Chevy Chase. It was it was
becoming a cultural thing.
Speaker 1 (30:04):
Yes, but there was a lot of competition. So Freedo
Lay did a bit of a Dorito's rebrand in nineteen
ninety four nineteen ninety five. It included increasing the size
of Dorito's chips by twenty percent, making them thinner, with
more seasoning, and rounding out their edges, and that in
part was because of a lawsuit from a few years
(30:26):
earlier where someone claimed he'd been hurt by the sharp
edges of the Dorito like the corners. Yeah, they redesigned
the bag as well.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
They were also expanding at this time. For example, they
realized that the UK didn't have corn chips on the market,
so they did a bunch of market research and released
modified versions of a few Dourita's products in nineteen ninety four,
with flavors like cool original, tangy Cheese, savory beef, and
(30:58):
cheese an onion. I think it was just an individual
serving bags at first, but then they launched a line
of dips plus larger bags to go with them in
two thousand and one. I think the ad campaign for
this was called friend chips.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
Okay, all right, friendships. Sure. It was a really popular
ad campaign that went international. Hey, if you have a
friend who's hungry, Doritos might be friendships. They might save
your friendship. Oh wow, okay, Well, this was also a
(31:40):
time when they were trying a bunch of things like
Dorito's three D, which were these puffed up versions. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
Oh, I mean they were sort of like like pretty
like like if you ever had putty from an Indian
subcontinent related restaurant. Yeah, it's sort of like those, but
made with corn batter.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
You know.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
But how brief our time with Dorito's three D. They
only lasted from nineteen ninety eight through two thousand and four.
You never know how long you have. No, they did
come back briefly in twenty twenty, but I don't think
they're still on the market.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
And they had fans. Yeah, people were upset. Uh huh.
Listeners also write in if you've lost your favorite type
of dorito. I've never had one, but I remember them distinctly,
like I just remember the marketing for them. I guess. Yeah,
(32:39):
I definitely consumed at least a handful. I think I
had a friend who would like open it up and
then put stuff inside. Yeah sure, sure it follows right,
like that is right, like putty. Yeah sure, yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
Anyway, the marketing continued to develop. They had mystery flavors,
like contests to kind of like guess the flavor and
pick a name for it. They sponsored Stephen Colbert while
he was doing presidential campaign coverage in two thousand and eight.
There was a Mountain Dew flavored dorito.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
I don't know both those brands. I stay align with
the flavor of that. No, people didn't like it. It
was bad. Okay, that was my gut reaction. But all right,
thank you for confirming. Okay, here is the note that
(33:36):
gave me the biggest headache. Oh, I'm sorry, okay, no, no,
it was quite funny. I was just making sure I
wasn't being pranked, because that would be very embarrassing. In
two thousand and eight, the Dorito's Broadcast project in the
UK held a contest in biting the public to make
a thirty second ad, with the winning ad, which was
(33:58):
voted on being being into space to a solar system
forty two light years away, and it would also be
played on TV for a specific amount of time. The
winning video was called Tribe. It's about kind of a
sacrificial Dorrito jumping into some salsum. This whole thing was
(34:19):
part of a larger ad campaign from Dorito's called You
Make It, We Play It, which they're actually kind of
known for. Is this generative audience content?
Speaker 2 (34:29):
Yeah, yeah, they still dabble in that sometimes, so yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
Yes, Well this was called the world's first extraterrestrial advertisement.
But I have to say I'm not entirely sure it's true,
because you would think they would have a lot written
about it, but there isn't. And at first I thought
it was because like it would take so long in theory,
(34:55):
it hasn't even gotten to where it's being broadcast.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
I guess no, not been forty two years since two
thousand and eight. So I was like, but, I mean also, also,
it's not like.
Speaker 1 (35:07):
We're gonna know when it gets there, I mean, other
than other than being like well times past exactly. And
they kept saying a lot of the publications I was
reading were like, they're gonna put it in the Guinness
Book of World Records. So I went there no entry
to be found. But you can't watch the winning submission
(35:27):
on YouTube, so there's that.
Speaker 2 (35:32):
So so I did some checking and I do think
it's for real, although it is definitely a stunt and
not like a particularly useful broadcast. So the whole thing
was partially managed by the University of Lester's Department of
(35:54):
Physics and Astronomy in the UK, and they talked to
the press about it being an example of their public
outreach to like garner interest in science.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:03):
Also a European scientific association called ice Cat EISCAT that
works with like detecting and interpreting electromagnetic waves scattering in
near space, which is as simply as I can put it,
they work with waves and stuff. They used their equipment
(36:25):
to send the signal, and they said that they received
an undisclosed donation from Dorito's to do it, which is
why I think it's absolutely true and not a prank.
A rep from that association told the publication New Scientist,
it's not big money, but it could be the thin
(36:47):
end of a wedge to using our resources in a
new way some years in the future. The money that
comes from this kind of commercial service could be used
to fund pure research.
Speaker 1 (37:03):
Well interesting, I did. I was reading the comments under
the YouTube video. I was so unsure about the veracity
of this whole thing, and a lot of people seemed
to remember voting on it, and we're like, oh, yeah,
this is the one I wanted to win. Okay, so
(37:25):
that happened. Yeah, and I I I do have to
say that the term world's first extraterrestrial advertisement makes me
very unhappy. A lot of Yeah, a lot of people
were also unhappy because they're like, now they're going to
come here. They are sentient Doritos, and we're just killing them.
Speaker 2 (37:51):
I mean, that's assuming that they can decode the video.
Speaker 1 (37:55):
So here we are. But there's a lot of intermediate stepped.
There was some very cheeky joking about like how they
were putting it in zeros and ones and like, did
you use VLC? How did you code all of this?
They did, But you know, it's just kind of a
difficult concept to wrap your mind around anyway. So going
(38:24):
back to that executive I mentioned at the beginning, when
Arch West died in twenty eleven, his family sprinkled some
doritos into his urn before it was buried. Well, that's
what his daughter said they were going to do. So
he was a big fan, and he he was like
in the taste tests up until he died. I think
he really didn't like the Hamburger one. Oh okay, well yeah,
(38:49):
you can read more about that if you would like.
But this brings us too. Oh a collaboration between Taco
Bell and that gave us the wildly successful Dorrito's Locos
Tacos in twenty twelve. Taco Bells R and D Department,
(39:10):
which is a real thing, and I've even seen a
mini documentary about it. Oh yeah, it's intense. Yeah, it's
real intense. They spent two years refining it, and basically
the hold up was figuring out how to make something
dorito like that was sturdy enough to hold the toppings. Yeah,
(39:30):
but they succeeded. They sold over a billion of those
things the first year.
Speaker 2 (39:36):
The first year, yep, they had to hire an extra
fifteen thousand people to keep up with demand.
Speaker 1 (39:48):
Huh. Yeah, and they have debuted other flavors, some of
which have been discontinued to outrage and sadness. In twenty
twenty two, they debuted flaming hot Territo's Tacos. Honestly, this
whole thing is it was such a big deal you
(40:10):
could probably do an episode on it alone. I was
reading the numbers behind it. I was like, no, no,
clearly not today, but not today. There is some controversy
about who invented the DLT as it's called. There's two
(40:31):
main groups. Yeah, one of them being unpaid interns. Oh yeah,
I mean it. I mean yeah. It seems like a team,
like a team effort, perhaps competing teams. Perhaps some people
weren't as recognized as others. But yeah, well it was
(40:52):
a huge success. Yes, but this brings us to a fumble.
Oh I had not heard about this, Oh I did.
I can't wait to hear your thoughts about it. I
don't I missed this. In twenty eighteen, then Pepsiico CEO
Indra Nui caused a bit of controversy after she said
(41:15):
on the Freakonomics podcast that there were gender differences when
it came to eating Dorito's because women quote don't like
to crunch too loudly in public, and they don't lick
their fingers generously, and they don't like to pour the
little broken pieces and the flavor into their mouth. She
claimed the company was working on a type of dorrito
that tasted the same but was more discreet. I guess
(41:40):
like less crunch less powder. Uh. Well, the internet had
thoughts about what was dubbed the Lady Dorito, to the
point someone at Dorito's had to make a statement clarifying
that there were no plans for such a product and quote,
(42:02):
we already have doritos for women. They're called doritos, and
they're enjoyed by millions of people every day. At the
same time, we know needs and preferences continue to evolve,
and we're always looking for new ways to engage into
light our consumers. And I wow, what a corporate response.
(42:26):
I don't know if it's related, but Mui step down
from her position that same year. Listen, if you think
I'm not over here, with a bag of chips, dumping
it out, dumping the crumbs and the dust, the flavor
dust directly into my face. That that is one of
the purest moments you can experience as a human in
(42:48):
this corporate hellscape of our modern world. Right, don't deny
me that based on on my sex and or gender.
The crunch is like half of the whole, the powder
you're talking about, the whole chip. That's what makes it good.
(43:09):
And going back to the Dorito's experience, some of it
the fun is that you get your figures, get to
dump the cross.
Speaker 2 (43:21):
I yeah, that was, and particularly in twenty eighteen, when
I will say we ladies were a tiny bit fired
up about a number of things. Yeah, like making this
statement that year in particular, I was.
Speaker 1 (43:36):
Like, oh maam, what have you done? Like that's not
what to say right now? Yeah, well that she also
made a comment about like you can't put Dorito's in
a purse, and I was like, yes, you can. Also
why not I have chips in my purse right now.
(43:57):
There don't happen to be Dorito's, but right, I mean,
they're in a bag, They're not like I know anyway anyway,
that happened. Oh heck, all right, uh less controversial. Well now,
I don't know, actually, y'all tell me so. In twenty
(44:18):
twenty two, the brand launched this series of like pop
up slash ghost kitchen restaurants called Dorito's after Dark, with
like these kind of like fusion cuisine like stoner snack
culinary options. The concept has now landed more or less
(44:41):
permanently at a stadium arena in La where they serve
things like steamed dumplings that have a flame in hot
dorito chili crunch topping, sushi rolls rolled in Dorita's dust,
and a ramen rito, which is a burrito filled with
chicken corn and ramen noodles in a sweet chili sauce. Okay.
Speaker 2 (45:11):
They also serve a nacho cheese uh, machilada there, Mike,
A lotta.
Speaker 1 (45:19):
Okay. I think they hit the vibe they were going for,
to be honest, Yeah, yeah, I mean, there's right. I
think that they knew their audience and they made some choices,
and they were strong choices, and we applaud, we applaud
(45:40):
strong choices. Uh huh yeah, listeners, if you've been here
tried it, oh yeah, or if the pop ups were
like really brief and I think only in a few
plates like like La and uh Vegas and maybe New
(46:01):
York or something like that. But but yeah, yeah, yeah,
if you have any experience with all of that, do
write in. I know that in other countries, I know
that they've had flavors that were called like late Night
flavors that I think were kind of similarly like fusion
slash stoner sort of concepts. Yeah, but yeah, here we are.
(46:32):
Here we are.
Speaker 2 (46:35):
Also, in twenty twenty two, Derrida's launched a line of
dips in the United States, which is like a full
twenty years after a lot of other markets got them.
After that initial success of Friendships in the UK that
the ad campaign for the dips here in the Year
(46:56):
of Our Dark Lord twenty twenty two, in contrast to
Friendships was big Dip Energy.
Speaker 1 (47:04):
Yep. That sounds about right. Yep. Well, speaking of I guess,
Empirical partnered with Torito's in twenty twenty three to produce
a nacho cheese flavored liquor.
Speaker 2 (47:21):
Yes, Empirical being this liquor company run by a couple
of kids who used to work together at Noma and
enjoy weird flavor experiments as you would probably expect, and
unlike many stunt products which are created for like one
marketing push and never really come never really come to market, like,
this is a real product that you can go purchase,
(47:43):
like as of this recording in late May of twenty
twenty five, I do understand their their products are generally
like small batch and limited, so I don't know how
much longer it's going to be there. But from that
product page on Empirical's website, the spirit opens with umami
and tangy aromas of nacho cheese, moving to the deeper,
(48:05):
corn forward flavors of the chip to finish on a
soft salty note. All right, it sounds lovely, you know, yeah, sure,
And apparently what happened here is that like Dorito's wasn't like, hey,
do any wackos want to make a Dorito flavored liquor? Like,
(48:28):
Empirical reached out to Dorito's about it. The story goes
that while Empirical was in their early stages of playing
with like how to extract different compounds by by tweaking
the distillation process, one of their employees brought in a
lunch of a sandwich and a bag of Nacho Doritos,
and one of the company heads was like, hey, I
(48:52):
wonder if I could extract that, and basically stole their
chips and apologized, but ran the chips through the still
and it worked like the liquor tasted like Dorito's, and
they just kind of thought it was like funny and delightful,
and they were like, let's bring this to more people
(49:12):
who might find it funny and delightful.
Speaker 1 (49:14):
So here we are. That's nice, that's a fun Let's
just experiment with something story. Yeah, yeah, all right, So
this is this is a kind of out there note.
But in twenty twenty four, a team of researchers did
(49:37):
some really interesting research with one of the food dyes
that's used in Dorito's, called a tartrazine or yellow number five.
They used this dye in an experimental imaging study. Okay,
so you know how flesh is opaque and that makes
it a pain for doctors to see what's going on
(49:59):
inside living body. Yeah, so flesh is opaque because it
scatters visible light, so very Basically, their hypothesis was that
if they could apply a safe water based dye to
living tissues that strongly absorbs certain wavelengths of light.
Speaker 2 (50:22):
Rather than scattering it. That would let other wavelengths of
light pass through and bounce back and illuminate what's going
on underneath. So they made parts of living mice temporarily transparent.
Speaker 1 (50:41):
And what.
Speaker 2 (50:47):
Yeah, like it's wild like this, Like the photos are
like the skin of the mouse is transparent and you
can see what's going on with like the blood vessels
underneath or stuff like that. And yellow number five is
used in plenty of things. But like the pop science
headline that folks went with was Dorito's food dye can
(51:09):
make mice transparent. Of course it was the first and
like basically only result I got from googling certain key
terms relating to Dorito's in science.
Speaker 1 (51:25):
Yeah yeah, but interesting, feel weird, and I'm real glad
that I read about it. Yeah, I'm glad you did too.
Well this brings us to another spacefect Oh yeah, yeah, okay. Well.
In twenty twenty four, Free doo La launched a limited
(51:49):
time product, Dorito's Mini's Cool Ranch zero gravity flavored tortilla chips.
And yes, these are Doritos that are civically designed to
be enjoyed at zero gravity. They are bite size to
avoid crumbs, and the powder was adjusted so it wouldn't
(52:11):
flit away. They were packaged in tins that were specifically
designed for this situation. Dourrito's partnered with Saint Jude for
this release, donating five hundred thousand dollars, and non astronauts
could enter contests to get their hands on some by
donating two hundred dollars to the organization. And in my opinion,
(52:32):
this is part of why I got so confused with
my previous space fact. Hmm, this is their this is
your space ad because you can watch online the astronauts
eating it is pretty much an ad anyway, That's just
how my brain works. That's but I did get hung
up on this because I was like, I can this
(52:54):
one I know was in space. You're like two space ads,
but we can't even see the other one that didn't space.
There's no there's no visual of the signal going out there.
Two space ads pix or it didn't happen. Yeah, they're
really They've tried a lot of things, both in marketing
(53:18):
and products not they offer. Oh yeah, yeah, I still
have a tab open, and I'm sorry Annie, I know
that my tab habits give you anxiety. But I have
a tab open that lists two hundred and seventeen different
flavors of Dorito's from over time. I was like, I
(53:44):
was like, maybe I can list Nope, h do you
know we love our list here, but even we have
to realize when we've been defeated.
Speaker 2 (53:57):
Yeah, and also like they've got they've had so many
big marketing like big memorable marketing campaigns that I was like,
kind of going to mention some of them, but then
I mean, I guess I offhandedly mentioned the Peter Dinklage
thing earlier, but yeah, I was just like, ah, that's fine.
Speaker 1 (54:17):
Yeah. That was another thing I cut too because of
time was the super Bowl. They're usually sponsors of the
super Bowl, so yeah, they usually have a pretty big
Super Bowl ad and a lot of times they make
wacky announcements in them. So if you want to look
that up, there's a lot of rabbit holes, I'll say
(54:39):
in this.
Speaker 2 (54:39):
One, all these big brands, it's it's wild. I'm also like,
doing this reading made me so curious about about what
the true scale of Dorito's is, Like how much corn
do they process a year? Like where does that corn
come from?
Speaker 1 (54:56):
Where?
Speaker 2 (54:57):
I mean They've got a whole bunch of ingredients in there.
Where each of those come from and how how are
they produced? And who is you know, who is being
paid fairly for them? And I mean and the development
teams too, Like I want to know about every single
weird scientists. Who's who's up there like doing like like
(55:18):
mad science for Dorito's, Like what is what are they
up to? There's a book that I have not read,
so I can't recommend it, but that I'm saying it
exists called the Dorrito Effect by one Mark Shatsker, that
goes into these giant international food systems that wind up
(55:39):
producing these just mega brands.
Speaker 1 (55:45):
Yeah, and I know that was a big topic of
conversation continues to be. But a big topic of conversation
a couple of years ago was these companies are designing
food that you eat almost addictively. All that stuff you're
talking about at the top. So it's really interesting science.
(56:06):
It's scary science, interesting science. But yeah, maybe one day
in the future we can devote more time just to that.
But Doritos took up enough of our time as it is. Yes, yes,
I think that's what we have to say for now. Yes,
it is we do. We would love to hear from
(56:28):
you though, as we have said, and we do already
have some listener mail for you, which we are going
to get into as soon as we get back from
one more quick break forward from our sponsors. And we're back.
Thank you, sponsor, Yes, thank you, and we're back with
(56:50):
listen love. And they just haven't that vine, you know,
all right. So, because this episode is a bit longer
and we have a bit of a longer listener mail today,
(57:11):
we're splitting one in half. But we always love that,
don't cane. I don't know, no, please give us the
long the long takes. We love them, yeah, we do,
We do love them, all right, So M wrote, I've
been listening since the transition from food Stuff to Saver.
I could have written in many times, but it took
for someone from Houston to mention Shipley's Donuts Colachi and
(57:35):
I'm so sorry if I'm butchering that being pigs in
the blanket for me to finally get up the gumption
to writing, I do beg pardon for what will be
a slightly long winded email. I went to grad school
for sociology and focused on community and culture development through
(57:55):
food and sharing food wasts, so this topic is close
to my heart. I have long thought the kolash and
the klobas neck would be an excellent topic for y'all.
Kolashi are sweet topped pastries, fruit jam, cream, cheese, poppy seed,
et cetera, and klobasnck are sausage slash savory stuffed pastries.
(58:16):
The kolatschi is rooted in the Czech immigrant community heritage. However,
it appears that the kobas neck is a Czech Texan
or Checksin creation, born of a love of savory foods
in the state by the descendants of those original immigrants.
Back in the eighties, a man from Houston discovered the
(58:37):
two delicacies while traveling through the check part of the state.
Shout out to West Texas just north of Waco. Yes
the town is named West and yes it causes confusion.
He fell in love with the sausage klobas neck and
decided to make a business out of it. The only
problem he got the name wrong. He later founded the
(59:01):
Texas Coloschi Factory in Houston, which took off from there,
and so the confusion of what a coolachi is was
spread far and wide. They continue nowadays.
Speaker 2 (59:16):
Most folks who didn't grow up stopping off at I
thirty five, Exit three point fifty three for the required
Coolachi clobasneck break between Austin and DFW know the coolachi
as a sad pig in the blanket.
Speaker 1 (59:30):
Friends.
Speaker 2 (59:31):
Let me tell you that is so very wrong. My
own spouse was one such individual who grew up in Houston.
I made sure he learned what a klobasnek actually is.
The klobasnek is a pillowy, soft dough that fully encompasses
quality sausage links or meat of choice. Sometimes you have
the option for cheese, jalapenos, pepperoni, ham. Even a beef
(59:53):
and sauerkraut option one would be enough to tide you
over until you get to dinner at your grandparents' house.
Two or three are enough so you might not need dinner,
especially if you get a strawberry cream cheese colachi for dessert.
I've attached Texas Monthly article for y'all to read. I
tend to send it to the uninformed who show even
a speck of interest in this important Texas staple. In
(01:00:13):
my self appointed mission to share the true name of
the checks and staple. I've also included the link to
the Texas Colachi factory now called the Klachi Factory.
Speaker 1 (01:00:24):
Their response to getting the name wrong. Apparently it's their
own twist. All in all, I'm thankful that when I'm
far from home, traveling or living elsewhere, that the proliferation
of Kolachi and Klobasnek means that I can more easily
access the taste of my childhood. Nothing beats so warm
spicy sausage and cheese klobasnek while leaning against your car
(01:00:45):
to stretch your legs after you've been on the road
for three hours. I do want to express my appreciation
for all y'all have done for us, the listeners over
the years. At the start of the pandemic, I wound
up getting stuck in the Upper Midwest for a few years,
not a bad place to be, but certainly only as
a recent transplant, and the podcast helped provide distraction. Now
that I'm back home in Texas for family, I still
(01:01:06):
find comfort in the podcast that has continued to see
me through these crazy, scary times. Oh that's so sweet.
Thank you, Yeah, yeah, thank you, And I'm so glad
that we could. I'm so glad that we could be there. Yes,
just like, listen, you're telling me about this coolbasnik on
a road trip. That sounds so good, like yeahs like
(01:01:31):
such a good road trip food, like all the time food,
but on a road trip, right, Yeah, meat pies are
one of my favorite things for a road trip, like
a handheld meat pie. And but those are also kind
of difficult to get in the United States. And so yeah,
this sort of thing so good, so good, And you
(01:01:52):
know we love regional things like this, so thank you
for writing it, yes, and we both hope that we
did not I share those pronunciations too hard, yes, yes,
and thank you for writing in pronunciations as you probably
know all listeners probably know. Sometimes that's hard to gauge,
(01:02:12):
but we appreciate it nonetheless. Gosh, one day I think
an episode on this is oh oh absolutely, yeah, that's
such a fun story. Yes, And they're like, what it's
our ref on it? Be quiet, I love eat your snacks.
(01:02:33):
They're like, no, we knew what we were doing. How
dare you? Oh well, thank you so much M for
writing in. If you would like to write to us listeners,
you can You can email us at Hello at savorpod
dot com. We're also on social media.
Speaker 2 (01:02:51):
You can find us on Blue Sky and Instagram at
savor pod, and we do hope to hear from you.
Savor is production of my Heart Radio or more podcasts.
For my Heart Radio, you can visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you.
Speaker 1 (01:03:03):
Listen to your favorite shows. Thanks us always to our
super producers Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard. Thanks to you
for listening, and we hope that lots more good things
are coming your way
Hello, welcome savor prediction of iHeart Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
I'm Any and I'm Moren Mogelbaum, and today we have
an episode for you about Dorito's.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Not a sponsor, nope, but wow, quite an episode. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
So the reason this was on my mind is that,
you know, we are entering a cookout season here in
Atlantis certainly, and you know the weather is turning and
it's been like kind of nice and sunny out and
we're about to come up on a bunch of weekends
where people tend to go have picnics or grill out
(00:49):
or whatever it is and perhaps eat some hacken.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Chips, perhaps eat some hacken chips, and people a lot
of people love Dorito's. They do. They have a lot
of fans. I can't wait to talk about it more.
And I listeners. At the top of the episode, I'm
just going to say, please write in any of your
(01:14):
Dorito thoughts. Oh yeah, I'm nearly positive that most of
you have at least one Derrito memory or opinion. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Yes, And strangely enough, I feel like that counts for
more of a global audience than I would usually be
confident in. I don't think I knew exactly how big
this brand was, and I don't know why I didn't,
but I'm like, you've got Peter Dinklage rapping about them
(01:48):
at the Super Bowl ad, like that's like, why am
I surprised about this?
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Yeah, they're a very specific type of brand that has
the energy of we know who our audience is. I
haven't had Doritas in a long time, but when I
was in high school, I went through a big dourrito
phase and I loved putting the nacho cheese Doritos on sandwiches,
(02:18):
primarily turkey sandwiches. Okay, so it would just be turkey
and Doritos. Interesting, like wet ingredients would they would mess
with the integrity of the crunch of the dorrito, which
is what I wanted.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
You were looking for the dorito crunch. Yeah, yes, but
it was really good. And for a while that was
like a whole thing. Every day I had a Toto sandwich.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
And then that phase faded away, And that's kind of
into that. Oh.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
I love those food obsessions you go through, kind of
especially when you're a kid, and maybe perhaps a slightly
neuro diverging kid who just gets obsessed with like a
flavor or a texture, or whatever it is.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
And no one can I mean, no one can really
stop you. So you're just like, all right, yeah, this
is what I'm doing for right now. I've never been
a chips on a sandwich human like I. I feel
like they tear up the roof of my mouth and
I get mad. Yeah. Well, we're going to talk about
this kind of a briefly in a history section. But
(03:29):
I did have an incident where a Dorito sandwich did
do some harm. Well, but it was minor. It was
minor harm. Sure, you live to tell the tale, and
that's what's important. Yes, And I still had a Dorito
sandwich the next day, so there you go.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
Yeah, I mean, Dorito's taste great. It's you know, I
try really hard to not purchase things like snack chips
because they're expensive, and then and then you just and
then if you have them, you're gonna eat them, and
then that's you know, there were more nutritionally sound options
to make that, honestly, probably cost less money. However, I
(04:13):
will say that while reading about various international flavors of
Dorito's freedo, lay, y'all, they come up with beautiful flavors everywhere,
but here.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
I know, I have moments of intense jealousy listeners or
if I'm missing out on something because again, like I
don't like, I don't buy a lot of Doritos, so
like very occasionally, if I'm going to a party or
something like that, I'll be like, yeah, hey, those are
going to be tasty. Yeah yeah, I mostly you know
(04:53):
what I'm sad about. And I don't know if I
cared enough to remedy the situation. I've never had to
Dorito's Loco Stacco, Oh no no, And I know people
love them, but I don't know. I'm at a crossroads.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
At a crossroads, I feel like you have a general
compunction against junk about like fast food.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
Yeah, I mean some brands in particular, but I don't
generally eat fast food, but I could for research, I
could make an exception.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Uh well, it's exactly what you would expect that that
it is. It is what it says on the label.
That's okay. And if you're into that, it's delicious. I
mean it is engineered, deeply engineered to be delicious, and
it is, so there you go. Yeah, they put a
lot of research into these things. Gosh, these for sure
(06:05):
hoofta four other episodes. You can see our episodes on
tacos and nachos for more on like corn tortillas and
corn chips.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Yes, but I guess that brings us to our question, Sure, Doritos,
what are they? Well?
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Doritos is a large international brand of primarily snack chips
made from a fried corn dough with a usually heavy
dusting of flavored powder coating each chip. The chips are
typically in a triangle shape with rounded corners like two
to three inches on a side that's about five seven centimeters,
although they can come in other shapes and sizes. Flavors
(06:56):
tend towards this variety of like very well honed combinations
of tangy, savory salty with like a little bit of sweetness,
And these days they've been leaning into more spicy concepts.
But the two classic ones are nacho cheese, which are
(07:16):
this purposefully fake cheese flavor with a bright orange color,
and then cool ranch, which are like a slightly herbal,
creamy ranch dressing flavor with a kind of light cream
color and little flex of green and orange in it.
They come in crinkly plastic bags and individual serving or
multi serving sizes. They are typically eaten straight out of
(07:40):
the bag as a snack, or maybe like a lunch
side dish, alongside a sandwich or in one if that's
your thing. They don't really taste like food, but they
are so pleasing to consume, so crisp and crunchy, and
that combination of flavors is tantalizing. They're like an ad
(08:06):
man's reimagining of food, like big and bold, and it
doesn't matter that's not nutritious because this is food in
three D and technicolor. It's like eating a television ad.
Each chip just bright and electric and void.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
I like this dark. It's not dark. It's a little dark,
a gritty take on it. But I feel it because
when I think of Gurrito's, it does have this. I
think of the nineties ads that were so color extreme. Yeah, exactly.
I feel that Gerrito's encapsulated in our more modern times
(08:47):
at least, is that it's like, just eat more and
more and more and more, and it tastes good, and
these commercials are great, so get some more. Yeah. Kind
of is really like leaning into being silly and big
and I don't know, it's it's weird. It's weird.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
I have a lot of I have a lot of
feelings about it. I'm kind of still kind of still
unwrapping them, honestly, but okay. So, Dorito's is owned by
Free Doo Lay, which is a subsidiary of the food
and beverage giant Pepsi Coo, and the brand concept is
vaguely like vaguely Mexican text mes, Mexican American themed, but
(09:30):
only vaguely, and it kind of varies from market to market.
As of right now in the United States, their lineup
of those typical triangular chips includes of course nacho, cheese
and cool ranch, then a siracha flavor, a barbecue sauce flavor,
salsaverde spicy sweet chili, cobranded tapetillo flavor that is this
(09:54):
upsetting shade of red retro taco seasoning flavor, spicy chili
lime flavor called Flamma okay uh, and then three Flame
and Hot flavors, which is a sub brand that started
with Cheetos. They've got Flame Hot cool Ranch, Flame and
(10:17):
Hot Nacho, and Flame and Hot Lime. They've also got
a different shape that Mini's, which are about an inch
to a side and come in a tube and then
chips that have been rolled into a hollow cylinder shape
like a little tube, like a little straw almost. They
call these Dinamta all in caps and the flavors are
(10:47):
flame and hot, caeso and chili lime, and the Dinamta
chips have a Dinameter label on the bag to tell.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
You how spicy they are.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
And yes, this is their direct answer to competitors snack
brand Talkies, which is owned by Mexican food giant Bimbo
Dorito's has invented these like Sassy a boila characters for
the advertising for them, named Dinah and Meta.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
I have so many questions that we could end the
podcast now and never get further, all right, I yeah,
the dangers of not watching television, or that you no
longer get as many advertisements for wacky things like this,
(11:42):
and I kind of regret it. This is this is
quite something, quite something, yes, But internationally they've got other
offerings for different markets. Most markets do seem to have
some riff on the classic nacho cheese flavor, and usually
(12:05):
the classic ranch flavor. It's not called Ranch in international markets,
but something like Cool American or Cool Original is pretty common.
But yeah, after that, anything goes. Some markets seem to
be really focused on American themed flavors and others on
(12:25):
more local flavors. For example, in Taiwan there's been flavors
like spicy garlic or Sishuan peppercorn chicken. Japan has had
wasabi teraake, burger shrimp mayo. South Korea has had a
honey chili and an oven roasted galby chicken. Australia has
(12:47):
different There's a different nacho cheese versus Cheese Supreme flavor,
and then there's a third that's called Mexicana that's the
same color basically as the other two. I have no
idea what the difference is is, because what the differences
are because I couldn't find labels that listed the ingredients.
Not that always tells you that much with something with
this many ingredients, but y'all write in the UK has
(13:11):
had a cheeseburger flavor and a hint of curry flavor.
Currently they've got like a loaded pepperoni pizza flavor. Yeah wow, Yeah,
I'm gonna have to look at my local store and
see what we've got going. But I just don't think
we have quite the variety that I'm here and here,
(13:33):
and I like some of these. Yeah, mostly right now.
I feel like it's like most stores will have like
nacho cheese flame and hot nacho cheese, and that's kind
of what you've got. Yeah, yeah. Oh.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
Dorito's does also sell dips in various markets, like sauces
and cheese dips like or cream based dips. They also
sometimes license their name and flavors out to other brands,
like Taco Bell or Rolled Gold pretzels. To produce the chips,
Doritos takes fresh corn kernels and cooks, soaks, and washes them,
(14:13):
then grinds them into dough. The dough is needed and
pressed into thin sheets out of which individual chips are stamped,
sort of like a cookie cutter. The chips are dried
and then deep fried. The flavorings are applied by tossing
the chips in drums. There's like a mist of oil
being sprayed inside the drum to make the surface of
(14:34):
the chips a little bit tacky or sticky, and then
the prepared powder is sprinkled in and coach the chips. Yeah,
and they do a lot of cool, weird science things
to make these chips delicious, like in addition to many
(14:57):
many different flavoring agents also commonly contain what's called in
the flavor industry flavor potentiators, and these are compounds that
muck about with your taste receptors in your mouth to
make you more sensitive to a particular flavor, in this case,
(15:17):
the savory or umami flavor that you experience when you
consume glutamates, glutamates being iterations of an amino acid that
tastes savory or lumammy. So doritos contain glutamates, and then
they also contain these potentiators that temporarily physically alter your
(15:37):
glutamate receptors to make them more sensitive, like up to
thirty times more sensitive, so like you truly experience more
flavor while you're eating doritos.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
In the processed food industry in general, potentiators can be
used to help reduce the amount of a given ingredient
that needs to be included, and not just the one
that the potentiator works in tandem with. In the case
of the glutamate one, I think it's more expensive than
the glutamates, so that would be silly, but you can,
(16:19):
for example, they can help. The food made with reduced
sodium still taste flavorful, so it's cool in various applications.
Slightly insidious, I adore it. A few other tricks are
in there, like like the flavor powder mix is given
(16:40):
this super fine flour level grind, which lets the powder
really like fill every part of the surface of a
chip and your fingers and your mouth, and thus increases
like the surface area of the flavoring, so that the
(17:01):
flavoring hits more of those receptors and tastes stronger.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
Wow, oh man, And yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
They're typically eaten as is, but their website insists that
there are all kinds of things things you can do
with them, mostly involving crushing them up and using them
as like a crispy coating or topping like our breadcrumbs.
Not enough if you're deep frying a whole onion. Yeah,
Dorito's has a solution for you. They do also list
of peanut butter and nacho Doritos sandwich, and I thought
(17:36):
of you.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
Oh wow, Okay, that's okay, I can see that. I
can see that working. Oh yeah, I feel like a
couple of years ago there was a I can't remember
if it was flaming hot cheetos are Dorito's, but there
was a like Thanksgiving turkey recipe. Oh oh, that got
a lot of traction where the chrome you fry it?
(18:02):
I guess, okay, yeah, I mean I'm sure it was tasty. Yeah, huh,
I guess I kind of went to the bad place
there for a second. But I'm coming back from it.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
And yeah, in the in the States, and ye all
write in about other cultural experiences, but in the States,
there is a pretty deep cultural nostalgia surrounding Dorito's as
like a simple snack that you've probably had as a kid,
or maybe at picnics or cookouts or like home viewings
of sporting events. And there's a bit of like almost
(18:39):
fetishization of getting a little bit messy while you're eating them,
because the powder coating does stick to your fingers and
it's like culturally allowable to lick it off. And like
fetishization is a strong word. But does people have like
specifically strong positive emotions about that.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
Yes, yes, I believe. Isn't that called the Dorito's experience?
I found a Reddit post about the experience. I haven't
read that term, but but yeah, I mean we can
we can call it that? I think people do. Oh,
we don't have to know. I'm cool with it. Yeah,
(19:22):
no reason not to. Speaking of the Dorito's experience, Man,
corporate marketing makes me feel so insane. Allow me to
quote for you from the Dorito's website. All right, Dorito's
Reserved isn't just a chip. It's fuel for disruption. Our
(19:43):
flavors ignite adventure and inspire action. With every crunch, we
aim to redefine culture and support those who are boldly themselves.
Are you ready if so, crunch on? Wow, my aspiration.
We aim to redefine culture. I don't know what that means.
(20:06):
I don't know what redefining culture means the specific instance.
And I'm slightly scared. And this absolutely flavored by my
top of the episode text. I mean, you are right,
the corporate marketing they always love to do. It's not
just a chip. It's going to change the entire galaxy.
(20:28):
And this is how And you read it and you're like,
You're like, are we still talking about snack chips. I'm
a little unnerved. I'm a little unsettled. Also, like I
really hate, I really hate like disruptor culture. I really
(20:49):
hate the term disruption, and so fuel for disruption is
very funny to me. Yeah, like do we need to
disrupt everything? Can't we maybe just like go with a flow,
just a little read the room. Perhaps, I don't know,
it's just spitball in here. Yeah, just eat some delicious
(21:12):
chips with your friends and that's okay. We don't have
to disrupt that. Well, what about the nutrition treats are nice?
Treats are nice. Yeah, that's a nice We do have
some numbers for you. Yeah, uh so okay. Uh.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
Doritos are the top selling tortilla chip in the United
States by far, with something like seventy percent of the
tortilla chip market share, and they have been for years.
They sold about one point one four billion units in
twenty twenty four.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
Uh huh.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
They're also the top selling tortilla chi in the UK.
I believe in even higher market share, like something around
seventy nine percent, and Dorito's runs Europe's largest tortilla chip
factory in Coventry in the UK. Some one third of
UK households purchased Dorito's. But so PepsiCo is actually a
(22:20):
little quiet about exactly how much business their brands do,
Like how much resources each one uses and what their
exact profits are.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
And stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
But I can tell you that Dorito's has been one
of PepsiCo's billion dollar brands, that is a brand that
makes over a billion in sales every year.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
Since sometime in the nineteen nineties. Dang, yeah. It seems
like Dorito's have been well loved, continue to be well loved,
and yet the history I found was surprisingly not as
(23:05):
well documented as I thought it would be.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
You know, there are some brands that are like, we
are going to aggressively detail this story, and some brands
that are like, look over here, we've got a late
night American hot wings flavor. Don't you want to eat it?
Speaker 1 (23:28):
We've got to look over here one. But it's really interesting,
a lot interesting stuff going on. Nonetheless, Yes, yes, and
we are going to get into that history as soon
as we get back from a quick break for a
word from our sponsors, and we're back. Thank you, sponsor, Yes,
(23:54):
thank you. Okay, so separate episode. But tortilla chips have
probably been around for hundreds of years in areas that
use corn based dough. It's just one of those things
that makes sense to me. M Yeah, especially right, Like,
if you're making masa, if you're making tortillas, you're gonna
(24:16):
make a chip out of it at some point. Yep,
it just makes sense to me. But that being said,
Freedo Lay is thought to be the first to make,
distribute and selt repea chips on a large scale in
the United States, and that was with Dorito's, all right.
So the history of Doriedo's generally starts around the nineteen sixties.
(24:41):
This was when convenience and modern technologies were all the rage,
and one of the companies really leaning into this was
Disney and Disneyland is a name often thrown about in
the discussion of the Doriedo's origin story. You never know
when disney right Land is gonna pop up. I didn't
(25:03):
know this, but it makes so much sense. It really does,
It really does, all right. So, as the story goes,
Anaheim's Disneyland had a Mexican restaurant called Casa de Frito's,
operated by Fretto l A in the nineteen sixties. It
opened pretty soon after Disneyland opened. It was, of course
(25:25):
good marketing for free doola. Customers got complimentary Freto's at
the end of the meal. I think, and it was
pretty savvy since this was around the time there was
an increasing interest in Mexican food in the United States,
and Disney kind of had that whole try foods from
around the world vibe. And sure enough, this restaurant was
(25:46):
so popular it had to move to a larger venue
just a few years after it opened. The restaurant didn't
make their own tortillas, though, they contracted that out to
Alex Foods, a company that delivered Mexican food items like
tortillas across southern California. One day, a salesman from Alex
(26:07):
Foods noticed that this restaurant was throwing out old tortillas,
and he suggested that they fry them up and seasoned
them as snack instead. And these chips were fairly popular.
I read they were a hidden menu item, and then
I heard but they were like just a really popular
one that ran out quickly. I'm not sure, but they
(26:28):
got pretty popular, and somehow word got to an executive
at Freedo Lay After getting a taste, the executive knew
they had a winner on their hands, and production started
in nineteen sixty four, and Dorito's hit grocery shelves in
nineteen sixty six. At first, Alex Foods made the chips
(26:49):
and Frido Lay sold them, but once the product was successful,
the company didn't renew the partnership with Alex Foods. However,
there are a lot of other stories out how this
whole thing happens. There's another one that's told a lot
that the free Dolay marketing executive at the time, Archibald West,
(27:10):
invented Dorito's. There are a lot of variations on this
specific story, one being he enjoyed roadside tortillas that came
in a round bag while he was on vacation with
his family in nineteen sixty four, and then he set
out to replicate them. He also is sometimes the executive
that tried the chips at Casa Deefrito's in the previous story. However,
(27:32):
and I kind of love this. Even a public relations
director at Freedo La has admitted they have no evidence
of any of this, okay, and says that no one
person invented Dorito's. Very diplomatic, very diplomatic, but I like
even them had to be like, we can't say that's true.
(27:58):
Others say that the chips were a sourced from local
Mexican producers and that it was their way of making
money off of remaining pieces of tortillas, and then Fredo
Lay basically just took credit for it. Just kind of
a similar You can make that same telling of the
alex food story as well, But anyway, whatever the case,
Dorito's were being sold in the southwest of the country
(28:20):
by nineteen sixty six and nationwide soon after. The first
flavor they offered was simply toasted corn, though two years
later they added taco seasoning. With all the company's marketing efforts,
Dorito's were pretty ubiquitous within a decade.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
Yeah, partially because while all of this was going on,
in nineteen sixty five, Freda Lay merged with Pepsi to
form Pepsi Coo. And that really catapulted both companies.
Speaker 1 (28:53):
Yes, and just to give you an idea of how
much we have to say about Dorito's, I love company Legalese.
This was a whole thing, and if you care to
read about it, you can. But I was overwhelmed by
everything else, so we'd go look it up if you
(29:13):
about it. Mergers. Yeah, I'm so boring in some things.
Oh my god, tell me about this Nacho cheese flavor
was released in nineteen seventy two. Cool Ranch was introduced
in nineteen eighty six, though it first went by the
name Cooler Ranch. By the nineties, Doritos were a household
(29:38):
name in the United States and there were flavors galore.
There were commercials everywhere. They were making an astonishing amount
of money.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
Oh yeah, Like, they did a product placement deal with
the first Wayne's World movie.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
Arth You know what I'm talking about, right, They.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
Co branded with Taco Bell, They placed their first Super
Bowl ad. It featured Chevy Chase. It was it was
becoming a cultural thing.
Speaker 1 (30:04):
Yes, but there was a lot of competition. So Freedo
Lay did a bit of a Dorito's rebrand in nineteen
ninety four nineteen ninety five. It included increasing the size
of Dorito's chips by twenty percent, making them thinner, with
more seasoning, and rounding out their edges, and that in
part was because of a lawsuit from a few years
(30:26):
earlier where someone claimed he'd been hurt by the sharp
edges of the Dorito like the corners. Yeah, they redesigned
the bag as well.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
They were also expanding at this time. For example, they
realized that the UK didn't have corn chips on the market,
so they did a bunch of market research and released
modified versions of a few Dourita's products in nineteen ninety four,
with flavors like cool original, tangy Cheese, savory beef, and
(30:58):
cheese an onion. I think it was just an individual
serving bags at first, but then they launched a line
of dips plus larger bags to go with them in
two thousand and one. I think the ad campaign for
this was called friend chips.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
Okay, all right, friendships. Sure. It was a really popular
ad campaign that went international. Hey, if you have a
friend who's hungry, Doritos might be friendships. They might save
your friendship. Oh wow, okay, Well, this was also a
(31:40):
time when they were trying a bunch of things like
Dorito's three D, which were these puffed up versions. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
Oh, I mean they were sort of like like pretty
like like if you ever had putty from an Indian
subcontinent related restaurant. Yeah, it's sort of like those, but
made with corn batter.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
You know.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
But how brief our time with Dorito's three D. They
only lasted from nineteen ninety eight through two thousand and four.
You never know how long you have. No, they did
come back briefly in twenty twenty, but I don't think
they're still on the market.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
And they had fans. Yeah, people were upset. Uh huh.
Listeners also write in if you've lost your favorite type
of dorito. I've never had one, but I remember them distinctly,
like I just remember the marketing for them. I guess. Yeah,
(32:39):
I definitely consumed at least a handful. I think I
had a friend who would like open it up and
then put stuff inside. Yeah sure, sure it follows right,
like that is right, like putty. Yeah sure, yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
Anyway, the marketing continued to develop. They had mystery flavors,
like contests to kind of like guess the flavor and
pick a name for it. They sponsored Stephen Colbert while
he was doing presidential campaign coverage in two thousand and eight.
There was a Mountain Dew flavored dorito.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
I don't know both those brands. I stay align with
the flavor of that. No, people didn't like it. It
was bad. Okay, that was my gut reaction. But all right,
thank you for confirming. Okay, here is the note that
(33:36):
gave me the biggest headache. Oh, I'm sorry, okay, no, no,
it was quite funny. I was just making sure I
wasn't being pranked, because that would be very embarrassing. In
two thousand and eight, the Dorito's Broadcast project in the
UK held a contest in biting the public to make
a thirty second ad, with the winning ad, which was
(33:58):
voted on being being into space to a solar system
forty two light years away, and it would also be
played on TV for a specific amount of time. The
winning video was called Tribe. It's about kind of a
sacrificial Dorrito jumping into some salsum. This whole thing was
(34:19):
part of a larger ad campaign from Dorito's called You
Make It, We Play It, which they're actually kind of
known for. Is this generative audience content?
Speaker 2 (34:29):
Yeah, yeah, they still dabble in that sometimes, so yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
Yes, Well this was called the world's first extraterrestrial advertisement.
But I have to say I'm not entirely sure it's true,
because you would think they would have a lot written
about it, but there isn't. And at first I thought
it was because like it would take so long in theory,
(34:55):
it hasn't even gotten to where it's being broadcast.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
I guess no, not been forty two years since two
thousand and eight. So I was like, but, I mean also, also,
it's not like.
Speaker 1 (35:07):
We're gonna know when it gets there, I mean, other
than other than being like well times past exactly. And
they kept saying a lot of the publications I was
reading were like, they're gonna put it in the Guinness
Book of World Records. So I went there no entry
to be found. But you can't watch the winning submission
(35:27):
on YouTube, so there's that.
Speaker 2 (35:32):
So so I did some checking and I do think
it's for real, although it is definitely a stunt and
not like a particularly useful broadcast. So the whole thing
was partially managed by the University of Lester's Department of
(35:54):
Physics and Astronomy in the UK, and they talked to
the press about it being an example of their public
outreach to like garner interest in science.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:03):
Also a European scientific association called ice Cat EISCAT that
works with like detecting and interpreting electromagnetic waves scattering in
near space, which is as simply as I can put it,
they work with waves and stuff. They used their equipment
(36:25):
to send the signal, and they said that they received
an undisclosed donation from Dorito's to do it, which is
why I think it's absolutely true and not a prank.
A rep from that association told the publication New Scientist,
it's not big money, but it could be the thin
(36:47):
end of a wedge to using our resources in a
new way some years in the future. The money that
comes from this kind of commercial service could be used
to fund pure research.
Speaker 1 (37:03):
Well interesting, I did. I was reading the comments under
the YouTube video. I was so unsure about the veracity
of this whole thing, and a lot of people seemed
to remember voting on it, and we're like, oh, yeah,
this is the one I wanted to win. Okay, so
(37:25):
that happened. Yeah, and I I I do have to
say that the term world's first extraterrestrial advertisement makes me
very unhappy. A lot of Yeah, a lot of people
were also unhappy because they're like, now they're going to
come here. They are sentient Doritos, and we're just killing them.
Speaker 2 (37:51):
I mean, that's assuming that they can decode the video.
Speaker 1 (37:55):
So here we are. But there's a lot of intermediate stepped.
There was some very cheeky joking about like how they
were putting it in zeros and ones and like, did
you use VLC? How did you code all of this?
They did, But you know, it's just kind of a
difficult concept to wrap your mind around anyway. So going
(38:24):
back to that executive I mentioned at the beginning, when
Arch West died in twenty eleven, his family sprinkled some
doritos into his urn before it was buried. Well, that's
what his daughter said they were going to do. So
he was a big fan, and he he was like
in the taste tests up until he died. I think
he really didn't like the Hamburger one. Oh okay, well yeah,
(38:49):
you can read more about that if you would like.
But this brings us too. Oh a collaboration between Taco
Bell and that gave us the wildly successful Dorrito's Locos
Tacos in twenty twelve. Taco Bells R and D Department,
(39:10):
which is a real thing, and I've even seen a
mini documentary about it. Oh yeah, it's intense. Yeah, it's
real intense. They spent two years refining it, and basically
the hold up was figuring out how to make something
dorito like that was sturdy enough to hold the toppings. Yeah,
(39:30):
but they succeeded. They sold over a billion of those
things the first year.
Speaker 2 (39:36):
The first year, yep, they had to hire an extra
fifteen thousand people to keep up with demand.
Speaker 1 (39:48):
Huh. Yeah, and they have debuted other flavors, some of
which have been discontinued to outrage and sadness. In twenty
twenty two, they debuted flaming hot Territo's Tacos. Honestly, this
whole thing is it was such a big deal you
(40:10):
could probably do an episode on it alone. I was
reading the numbers behind it. I was like, no, no,
clearly not today, but not today. There is some controversy
about who invented the DLT as it's called. There's two
(40:31):
main groups. Yeah, one of them being unpaid interns. Oh yeah,
I mean it. I mean yeah. It seems like a team,
like a team effort, perhaps competing teams. Perhaps some people
weren't as recognized as others. But yeah, well it was
(40:52):
a huge success. Yes, but this brings us to a fumble.
Oh I had not heard about this, Oh I did.
I can't wait to hear your thoughts about it. I
don't I missed this. In twenty eighteen, then Pepsiico CEO
Indra Nui caused a bit of controversy after she said
(41:15):
on the Freakonomics podcast that there were gender differences when
it came to eating Dorito's because women quote don't like
to crunch too loudly in public, and they don't lick
their fingers generously, and they don't like to pour the
little broken pieces and the flavor into their mouth. She
claimed the company was working on a type of dorrito
that tasted the same but was more discreet. I guess
(41:40):
like less crunch less powder. Uh. Well, the internet had
thoughts about what was dubbed the Lady Dorito, to the
point someone at Dorito's had to make a statement clarifying
that there were no plans for such a product and quote,
(42:02):
we already have doritos for women. They're called doritos, and
they're enjoyed by millions of people every day. At the
same time, we know needs and preferences continue to evolve,
and we're always looking for new ways to engage into
light our consumers. And I wow, what a corporate response.
(42:26):
I don't know if it's related, but Mui step down
from her position that same year. Listen, if you think
I'm not over here, with a bag of chips, dumping
it out, dumping the crumbs and the dust, the flavor
dust directly into my face. That that is one of
the purest moments you can experience as a human in
(42:48):
this corporate hellscape of our modern world. Right, don't deny
me that based on on my sex and or gender.
The crunch is like half of the whole, the powder
you're talking about, the whole chip. That's what makes it good.
(43:09):
And going back to the Dorito's experience, some of it
the fun is that you get your figures, get to
dump the cross.
Speaker 2 (43:21):
I yeah, that was, and particularly in twenty eighteen, when
I will say we ladies were a tiny bit fired
up about a number of things. Yeah, like making this
statement that year in particular, I was.
Speaker 1 (43:36):
Like, oh maam, what have you done? Like that's not
what to say right now? Yeah, well that she also
made a comment about like you can't put Dorito's in
a purse, and I was like, yes, you can. Also
why not I have chips in my purse right now.
(43:57):
There don't happen to be Dorito's, but right, I mean,
they're in a bag, They're not like I know anyway anyway,
that happened. Oh heck, all right, uh less controversial. Well now,
I don't know, actually, y'all tell me so. In twenty
(44:18):
twenty two, the brand launched this series of like pop
up slash ghost kitchen restaurants called Dorito's after Dark, with
like these kind of like fusion cuisine like stoner snack
culinary options. The concept has now landed more or less
(44:41):
permanently at a stadium arena in La where they serve
things like steamed dumplings that have a flame in hot
dorito chili crunch topping, sushi rolls rolled in Dorita's dust,
and a ramen rito, which is a burrito filled with
chicken corn and ramen noodles in a sweet chili sauce. Okay.
Speaker 2 (45:11):
They also serve a nacho cheese uh, machilada there, Mike,
A lotta.
Speaker 1 (45:19):
Okay. I think they hit the vibe they were going for,
to be honest, Yeah, yeah, I mean, there's right. I
think that they knew their audience and they made some choices,
and they were strong choices, and we applaud, we applaud
(45:40):
strong choices. Uh huh yeah, listeners, if you've been here
tried it, oh yeah, or if the pop ups were
like really brief and I think only in a few
plates like like La and uh Vegas and maybe New
(46:01):
York or something like that. But but yeah, yeah, yeah,
if you have any experience with all of that, do
write in. I know that in other countries, I know
that they've had flavors that were called like late Night
flavors that I think were kind of similarly like fusion
slash stoner sort of concepts. Yeah, but yeah, here we are.
(46:32):
Here we are.
Speaker 2 (46:35):
Also, in twenty twenty two, Derrida's launched a line of
dips in the United States, which is like a full
twenty years after a lot of other markets got them.
After that initial success of Friendships in the UK that
the ad campaign for the dips here in the Year
(46:56):
of Our Dark Lord twenty twenty two, in contrast to
Friendships was big Dip Energy.
Speaker 1 (47:04):
Yep. That sounds about right. Yep. Well, speaking of I guess,
Empirical partnered with Torito's in twenty twenty three to produce
a nacho cheese flavored liquor.
Speaker 2 (47:21):
Yes, Empirical being this liquor company run by a couple
of kids who used to work together at Noma and
enjoy weird flavor experiments as you would probably expect, and
unlike many stunt products which are created for like one
marketing push and never really come never really come to market, like,
this is a real product that you can go purchase,
(47:43):
like as of this recording in late May of twenty
twenty five, I do understand their their products are generally
like small batch and limited, so I don't know how
much longer it's going to be there. But from that
product page on Empirical's website, the spirit opens with umami
and tangy aromas of nacho cheese, moving to the deeper,
(48:05):
corn forward flavors of the chip to finish on a
soft salty note. All right, it sounds lovely, you know, yeah, sure,
And apparently what happened here is that like Dorito's wasn't like, hey,
do any wackos want to make a Dorito flavored liquor? Like,
(48:28):
Empirical reached out to Dorito's about it. The story goes
that while Empirical was in their early stages of playing
with like how to extract different compounds by by tweaking
the distillation process, one of their employees brought in a
lunch of a sandwich and a bag of Nacho Doritos,
and one of the company heads was like, hey, I
(48:52):
wonder if I could extract that, and basically stole their
chips and apologized, but ran the chips through the still
and it worked like the liquor tasted like Dorito's, and
they just kind of thought it was like funny and delightful,
and they were like, let's bring this to more people
(49:12):
who might find it funny and delightful.
Speaker 1 (49:14):
So here we are. That's nice, that's a fun Let's
just experiment with something story. Yeah, yeah, all right, So
this is this is a kind of out there note.
But in twenty twenty four, a team of researchers did
(49:37):
some really interesting research with one of the food dyes
that's used in Dorito's, called a tartrazine or yellow number five.
They used this dye in an experimental imaging study. Okay,
so you know how flesh is opaque and that makes
it a pain for doctors to see what's going on
(49:59):
inside living body. Yeah, so flesh is opaque because it
scatters visible light, so very Basically, their hypothesis was that
if they could apply a safe water based dye to
living tissues that strongly absorbs certain wavelengths of light.
Speaker 2 (50:22):
Rather than scattering it. That would let other wavelengths of
light pass through and bounce back and illuminate what's going
on underneath. So they made parts of living mice temporarily transparent.
Speaker 1 (50:41):
And what.
Speaker 2 (50:47):
Yeah, like it's wild like this, Like the photos are
like the skin of the mouse is transparent and you
can see what's going on with like the blood vessels
underneath or stuff like that. And yellow number five is
used in plenty of things. But like the pop science
headline that folks went with was Dorito's food dye can
(51:09):
make mice transparent. Of course it was the first and
like basically only result I got from googling certain key
terms relating to Dorito's in science.
Speaker 1 (51:25):
Yeah yeah, but interesting, feel weird, and I'm real glad
that I read about it. Yeah, I'm glad you did too.
Well this brings us to another spacefect Oh yeah, yeah, okay. Well.
In twenty twenty four, Free doo La launched a limited
(51:49):
time product, Dorito's Mini's Cool Ranch zero gravity flavored tortilla chips.
And yes, these are Doritos that are civically designed to
be enjoyed at zero gravity. They are bite size to
avoid crumbs, and the powder was adjusted so it wouldn't
(52:11):
flit away. They were packaged in tins that were specifically
designed for this situation. Dourrito's partnered with Saint Jude for
this release, donating five hundred thousand dollars, and non astronauts
could enter contests to get their hands on some by
donating two hundred dollars to the organization. And in my opinion,
(52:32):
this is part of why I got so confused with
my previous space fact. Hmm, this is their this is
your space ad because you can watch online the astronauts
eating it is pretty much an ad anyway, That's just
how my brain works. That's but I did get hung
up on this because I was like, I can this
(52:54):
one I know was in space. You're like two space ads,
but we can't even see the other one that didn't space.
There's no there's no visual of the signal going out there.
Two space ads pix or it didn't happen. Yeah, they're
really They've tried a lot of things, both in marketing
(53:18):
and products not they offer. Oh yeah, yeah, I still
have a tab open, and I'm sorry Annie, I know
that my tab habits give you anxiety. But I have
a tab open that lists two hundred and seventeen different
flavors of Dorito's from over time. I was like, I
(53:44):
was like, maybe I can list Nope, h do you
know we love our list here, but even we have
to realize when we've been defeated.
Speaker 2 (53:57):
Yeah, and also like they've got they've had so many
big marketing like big memorable marketing campaigns that I was like,
kind of going to mention some of them, but then
I mean, I guess I offhandedly mentioned the Peter Dinklage
thing earlier, but yeah, I was just like, ah, that's fine.
Speaker 1 (54:17):
Yeah. That was another thing I cut too because of
time was the super Bowl. They're usually sponsors of the
super Bowl, so yeah, they usually have a pretty big
Super Bowl ad and a lot of times they make
wacky announcements in them. So if you want to look
that up, there's a lot of rabbit holes, I'll say
(54:39):
in this.
Speaker 2 (54:39):
One, all these big brands, it's it's wild. I'm also like,
doing this reading made me so curious about about what
the true scale of Dorito's is, Like how much corn
do they process a year? Like where does that corn
come from?
Speaker 1 (54:56):
Where?
Speaker 2 (54:57):
I mean They've got a whole bunch of ingredients in there.
Where each of those come from and how how are
they produced? And who is you know, who is being
paid fairly for them? And I mean and the development
teams too, Like I want to know about every single
weird scientists. Who's who's up there like doing like like
(55:18):
mad science for Dorito's, Like what is what are they
up to? There's a book that I have not read,
so I can't recommend it, but that I'm saying it
exists called the Dorrito Effect by one Mark Shatsker, that
goes into these giant international food systems that wind up
(55:39):
producing these just mega brands.
Speaker 1 (55:45):
Yeah, and I know that was a big topic of
conversation continues to be. But a big topic of conversation
a couple of years ago was these companies are designing
food that you eat almost addictively. All that stuff you're
talking about at the top. So it's really interesting science.
(56:06):
It's scary science, interesting science. But yeah, maybe one day
in the future we can devote more time just to that.
But Doritos took up enough of our time as it is. Yes, yes,
I think that's what we have to say for now. Yes,
it is we do. We would love to hear from
(56:28):
you though, as we have said, and we do already
have some listener mail for you, which we are going
to get into as soon as we get back from
one more quick break forward from our sponsors. And we're back.
Thank you, sponsor, Yes, thank you, and we're back with
(56:50):
listen love. And they just haven't that vine, you know,
all right. So, because this episode is a bit longer
and we have a bit of a longer listener mail today,
(57:11):
we're splitting one in half. But we always love that,
don't cane. I don't know, no, please give us the
long the long takes. We love them, yeah, we do,
We do love them, all right, So M wrote, I've
been listening since the transition from food Stuff to Saver.
I could have written in many times, but it took
for someone from Houston to mention Shipley's Donuts Colachi and
(57:35):
I'm so sorry if I'm butchering that being pigs in
the blanket for me to finally get up the gumption
to writing, I do beg pardon for what will be
a slightly long winded email. I went to grad school
for sociology and focused on community and culture development through
(57:55):
food and sharing food wasts, so this topic is close
to my heart. I have long thought the kolash and
the klobas neck would be an excellent topic for y'all.
Kolashi are sweet topped pastries, fruit jam, cream, cheese, poppy seed,
et cetera, and klobasnck are sausage slash savory stuffed pastries.
(58:16):
The kolatschi is rooted in the Czech immigrant community heritage. However,
it appears that the kobas neck is a Czech Texan
or Checksin creation, born of a love of savory foods
in the state by the descendants of those original immigrants.
Back in the eighties, a man from Houston discovered the
(58:37):
two delicacies while traveling through the check part of the state.
Shout out to West Texas just north of Waco. Yes
the town is named West and yes it causes confusion.
He fell in love with the sausage klobas neck and
decided to make a business out of it. The only
problem he got the name wrong. He later founded the
(59:01):
Texas Coloschi Factory in Houston, which took off from there,
and so the confusion of what a coolachi is was
spread far and wide. They continue nowadays.
Speaker 2 (59:16):
Most folks who didn't grow up stopping off at I
thirty five, Exit three point fifty three for the required
Coolachi clobasneck break between Austin and DFW know the coolachi
as a sad pig in the blanket.
Speaker 1 (59:30):
Friends.
Speaker 2 (59:31):
Let me tell you that is so very wrong. My
own spouse was one such individual who grew up in Houston.
I made sure he learned what a klobasnek actually is.
The klobasnek is a pillowy, soft dough that fully encompasses
quality sausage links or meat of choice. Sometimes you have
the option for cheese, jalapenos, pepperoni, ham. Even a beef
(59:53):
and sauerkraut option one would be enough to tide you
over until you get to dinner at your grandparents' house.
Two or three are enough so you might not need dinner,
especially if you get a strawberry cream cheese colachi for dessert.
I've attached Texas Monthly article for y'all to read. I
tend to send it to the uninformed who show even
a speck of interest in this important Texas staple. In
(01:00:13):
my self appointed mission to share the true name of
the checks and staple. I've also included the link to
the Texas Colachi factory now called the Klachi Factory.
Speaker 1 (01:00:24):
Their response to getting the name wrong. Apparently it's their
own twist. All in all, I'm thankful that when I'm
far from home, traveling or living elsewhere, that the proliferation
of Kolachi and Klobasnek means that I can more easily
access the taste of my childhood. Nothing beats so warm
spicy sausage and cheese klobasnek while leaning against your car
(01:00:45):
to stretch your legs after you've been on the road
for three hours. I do want to express my appreciation
for all y'all have done for us, the listeners over
the years. At the start of the pandemic, I wound
up getting stuck in the Upper Midwest for a few years,
not a bad place to be, but certainly only as
a recent transplant, and the podcast helped provide distraction. Now
that I'm back home in Texas for family, I still
(01:01:06):
find comfort in the podcast that has continued to see
me through these crazy, scary times. Oh that's so sweet.
Thank you, Yeah, yeah, thank you, And I'm so glad
that we could. I'm so glad that we could be there. Yes,
just like, listen, you're telling me about this coolbasnik on
a road trip. That sounds so good, like yeahs like
(01:01:31):
such a good road trip food, like all the time food,
but on a road trip, right, Yeah, meat pies are
one of my favorite things for a road trip, like
a handheld meat pie. And but those are also kind
of difficult to get in the United States. And so yeah,
this sort of thing so good, so good, And you
(01:01:52):
know we love regional things like this, so thank you
for writing it, yes, and we both hope that we
did not I share those pronunciations too hard, yes, yes,
and thank you for writing in pronunciations as you probably
know all listeners probably know. Sometimes that's hard to gauge,
(01:02:12):
but we appreciate it nonetheless. Gosh, one day I think
an episode on this is oh oh absolutely, yeah, that's
such a fun story. Yes, And they're like, what it's
our ref on it? Be quiet, I love eat your snacks.
(01:02:33):
They're like, no, we knew what we were doing. How
dare you? Oh well, thank you so much M for
writing in. If you would like to write to us listeners,
you can You can email us at Hello at savorpod
dot com. We're also on social media.
Speaker 2 (01:02:51):
You can find us on Blue Sky and Instagram at
savor pod, and we do hope to hear from you.
Savor is production of my Heart Radio or more podcasts.
For my Heart Radio, you can visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you.
Speaker 1 (01:03:03):
Listen to your favorite shows. Thanks us always to our
super producers Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard. Thanks to you
for listening, and we hope that lots more good things
are coming your way
Savor News
Hosts And Creators
Anney Reese
Lauren Vogelbaum
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