Doritos Fiery Habanero Tortilla Chips

After much hustle and bustle on thehotpepper.com’s forums about Doritos Fiery Habanero Tortilla Chips, they finally arrived in Hollywood. I picked myself up a 99-cent bag for sampling and waited till lunchtime to snack on them. After pulling out the first chip I immediately noted that these chips are completely covered with flavoring (both artificial and chili), much more so than their normal chips.

Down the hatch they went, one after the other until the bag has half empty. I sat in my chair waiting for my tongue to start tingling with the lovely heat of habanero…and I waited, and waited. Bah! Nothing! Now, don’t get me wrong, there is a lot of habanero flavor in these chips, but if you are a chili head looking for heat, then this product is not for you.

I asked my friend/non-chili head, Ken White, to try it for an objective opinion. Turns out, they are hot to those that don’t know heat. When asked if his mouth was burning with the fury of a thousand suns, he said no, but it would be if he were to eat half a bag.

My next qualm with the product came when I read the propaganda (also known as sales pitch) on the back of the package. It says, and I quote, “Experience that massive Doritos brand crunch as it ignites a nuclear explosion of HABANERO, JALAPENO, and CHIPOTLE PEPPERS in your mouth.” I go and check their ingredients…look at that, no Jalapeno or Chipotle peppers listed, only “Habanero Chili pepper”. I sometimes wonder how companies can get away with such blatant false advertising…

So, bottom lines, if you are a chili head looking for heat, skip this product. If you are looking to get people hooked on heat that have not had heat before or you love Doritos and want some slight pepper taste, then this product is for you.