Doritos Hot Honey

 Yellow Doritos bag?
Could it be cheddar flavor?

The Attraction

As part of my plunder on my last trip to H-Mart, I scored these "exotic" flavored Doritos. I wasn't quite sure what flavor they were when I bought them, but I just knew it said Doritos on it and it was different....that was good enough for me.

The Review:
After doing some digging on the interwebs, I discovered that this yellow bag of Doritos is actually "Hot Honey" flavored. I can't be certain, but I'm willing to bet this may have something to do with the recent influx of honey-flavored snack items into the market following the honey-butter craze in Korea. (See here and here). I'm just thankful these chips aren't honey-butter flavored as well.

I also do observe that in the upper-left hand corner, it's noted that Lotte, the fine makers of classic Asian snacks like Choco-Pie and Toppo Coffee and Vanilla Ice Cream Flavor produced this Doritos product. This will be interesting.

I tear open the bag of chips and take a deep inhale. There isn't an obvious scent, maybe one of fried corn chips, if you inhaled deep enough. That could be a good sign as it wasn't too sweet or too spicy to the point where it was obvious even without taking a bite.

I pickup a well formed chip and take a bite. It's every bit what you would expect from a Doritos-branded chip; nicely formed corn chip with a great crunch, but in terms of taste, it reminded me of something that I haven't had in awhile. Something that wasn't even a snack, per se. More on that in a minute.

Looks like a pale Dorito

The initial flavor of the sweetness strikes first and as slowly as that flavor begins to fade, there is a slow burn towards the back of my throat. I'm beginning to like this type of spicy. It's a much more laid back spicy. I've been so accustomed to the forward-vinegary heat of things like buffalo wings and certain kinds of beef jerky that when you have something that attacks your spicy zones in a different way, it's really interesting. Most of the spicy items I've had seems to impact the front-to-center part of your tongue. This sweeter heat seems to hit from the back and then the sides of your tongue. Don't get me wrong, you have enough of these and your mouth won't care where the heat is coming from, it just knows it's on fire..but in the most pleasant kind of way.

In terms of the sweetness, I was surprised to discover that the initial sweet hit reminds me of McDonald's Sweet and Sour sauce. Yes, that's right. The very sauce you use to dip your McNuggets into. Shocking, but true! There's even a slight hint of smokiness in there which gives it almost gives it a bbq twist. Turn up the dial a few more notches and you could possible mistake this for a sweet bbq-flavored product.

Pale does not mean no flavor

The Sweet:
Great Doritos crunch with a tasty sweet and spicy flavor dusting.

The Bitter:
If you aren't used to sweet-flavored chips, this may take some time to adjust to.

Conclusion:
I was never totally won over with the honey-butter craze from a little while back. All those products were fine, but it never got me to the point of going from store to store trying to locate my next "hit". These Doritos Hot Honey chips won't quite get me to that point either, but if anything, it made me wonder why this product couldn't be as big.

I prefer the thicker corn chip with the associated crunch that this snack offers. The heat also provides a "cleansing" affect from the first sweet flavor wave and clears the deck for another chip to follow...and believe me...another chip will follow.

Video of the Week

What could possibly go wrong? (hehe)

Ah...what can be more beautiful than a couple's wedding day? A day to celebrate all the love and joy that will culminate out of the union of two people. Sometimes when you see two people, you aren't totally sure if they belong together. In this case, I'm sure they do because the only thing better than her reaction is his equally intellectual reaction. Blessings to you both...you will need it.