Doritos – Flamin’ Hot Nacho

With the overwhelming success of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, it comes as no surprise that the big boys upstairs want to capitalize on it and apply that wining formula at everything. I imagine an executive taking a spray nozzle of Flamin’ Hot and spraying it on every existing product that the seasoning will land and stick on.

I never understood the hubbub around Flamin’ Hot Cheetos and I always preferred jalapeno if I wanted something spicy. At least with jalapeno there was some semblance of flavour. I always felt like Flamin’ Hot was a flavour that was overly red and spicy for the sake of spicy. I don’t mind spicy if there’s some flavour to it, but spice for the sake of spice is not my jam. Clearly I’m in the minority though, since it’s gotten so popular that it now spans over other snack brands. Which brings us to today.

This flavour is supposedly a hotter version of the spicy nacho flavour? I guess? Appearance wise they definitely look the part, with how red they are. They smell fairly similar to the nacho cheese flavour, but with a little something extra that’s hard to put my finger on. Or rather, I wouldn’t want to put my finger on it because of how red it is.

The flavour starts off basically identical to the classic, much beloved nacho cheese. Very quickly though things go south, or north depending on how you look at it. The spice kicks in real fast and doesn’t play fair – it goes right for the throat. The heat builds fast and doesn’t let up for a good half a minute. It’s actually fair strong, and stronger than I remember the Cheetos being. I wonder if it’s a surface area thing.

The texture is really nothing different from any other Doritos chip. These big companies pay a lot of money to make sure their product is consistent across millions of bags, and these are no different. It’s got the right balance between crunchy and thickness, so that it’s not a chore to eat but also not a chip that disintegrates into dust when you try to hold it.

I’ll be honest, if I was less of a spice wimp I’m still not sure I would enjoy these. I get that some people enjoy spicy and hot foods, but for me if it’s spicy it has to have a reason to be hot beyond burning. If it’s hot but there’s a nice flavour to it, fine. But most of the flamin’ hot flavours tend to just be the regular flavour with a hot kick to it. I’m sure it draws in some people, but not I. I don’t get much of a high off spice, just pain and suffering. This is a “never again” situation for me, but if you’re into that type of thing I’m sure you’ll love this. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to make sure my poop isn’t red after this ordeal.