Arriba – Sweet Chili Tortilla Chips

Arriba is the tortilla chip line of products of Old Dutch. I once enjoyed Old Dutch potato chips quite a bit, and while I still do, I’m starting to appreciate their Arriba line a bit more. They have a lot of flavours that go head to head with the big honcho Doritos, but they also have a lot of unique and interesting flavours that have impressed me and made me wanting more. So much so that I tend to look for Arriba over Doritos, which is saying something given how Doritos is everywhere.

As I explore more of the Arriba catalogue, I’m beginning to try the flavours where they go up against Doritos directly. Sweet chili is a fairly popular Doritos flavour,and has a decent tenure. While not as established as Nacho or Ranch, it’s a mainstay flavour that you can find basically anywhere they stock Doritos.

These smell very sweet – I recall the Doritos smelling a lot more acidic and vinegary. Appearance wise, they both are equally orange red, though these seem to be less so. Everything else seems about the same. I guess if you saw them you might think they are some off brand Doritos, since something about them is off but I can’t quite put my finger on it.

The big difference between this and the more popular Doritos flavour is this isn’t quite as sharp or acidic as the other brand. It has a very similar taste of sweet, spicy and slightly sour, but there’s also less of a vinegar sting to it. A few chips in and I could taste what I believe to be lime juice. It’s always hard to tell if something is actually intended to taste that way or it’s my mind playing tricks, but that’s how it tastes to me and I like that better than the vinegar forward version that Doritos does.This ultimately may come down to preference though, as some people love the acidic sharpness of the vinegar. Not aye.

The texture is not too far from the big head honcho either, I’d say these are slightly thicker but they tend to have a similar crunch and crisp snap to them. I enjoy this a little more, but I do wonder if it’s just the contrarian, low key hipster in me rebelling against the big boy and cheering for the underdog. Either way I would give these the win.

While not my favourite flavour or one I reach for on instinct, if I were to get sweet chili again I would definitely prefer Arriba over Doritos if that option presents itself.