This New Doritos Flavor Is a Flamin’ Hot Mystery

If the snack world were a city it would be New York because, hooo boy, packaged food companies never sleep. You may have thought every flavor, shape, size, and style of chip has already existed at this point, but you thought wrong. A new Doritos flavor is coming soon, and guess what it is. No, really, guess—because we have no idea either. All we know is that something spicy this way comes. That’s right, Frito-Lay is releasing Flamin’ Hot Mystery Flavor Doritos. Now, you may be thinking, wait, isn’t this the second new Doritos flavor to be announced this month? Yes. Yes, it is. Did we need two more Doritos flavors, one spicy mango and one an utter enigma? I guess we do, otherwise Frito-Lay would slow its roll a bit. Far be it from us to flavor-shame chip brands, so let’s talk about these mysterious spicy corn chips, which will soon grace our pantries.

Do we have any intel on the nature of the new Doritos mystery flavor? Are we sure the chips will be “mysterious” and not just “emotionally unavailable”? (I’ve been burned before.)

Well, we really don’t have a whole lot of info, but here is what we do know. We got a look at the packaging via food news Instagram page @Candyhunting and it appears to be a black bag with a giant question mark and a crime scene outline of a single Dorito. We also happen to know what some of the ingredients are since the chips are already listed on Walmart’s website (although you can’t order them just yet). For instance, we know that the ingredient list contains “sugar, whey, MSG, red pepper, onion powder, natural flavors, and yeast extract,” which tells us a few things: These chips will have plenty of umami from the MSG and the onion powder. They may have a cheesy or ranchy flavor from the whey and the yeast extract. The red pepper could either be a part of the signature Flamin’ Hot red hue, or it could add additional heat. And the sugar is likely there for balance. All of this is to say, the flavor really could still be anything, especially with the enormous variety of things “natural flavors” could encompass. My best guess? Some form of BBQ. Or maybe a spicy salsa flavor to match the Lay’s flavor of the summer?

The only way to find out is to wait, unfortunately. These mystery flavor Doritos are expected to start hitting stores soon, but we don’t know exactly when. According to Walmart.com, Walmart+ members can get early access to Until then, we can always entertain ourselves with Reddit’s guesses as to what this flavor could be, with everything from “cheeseburger” to “gabagool” to “Sweet chilli dill pickle buffalo pepper corn!” And hey, if it is that last one…well, I could honestly see that being quite good.


About the Author

Jessica Block

Jessica Block is a freelance contributor to Sporked, a comedian, a baker, a food writer, and a firm believer that Trader Joe's may just be the happiest place on earth. She loves spicy snacks, Oreos, baking bread, teeny tiny avocados, and trying new foods whenever she can. Also, if you give her a bag of Takis she will be your best friend.

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  • Mexico had a similar new flavor maybe 25 years ago. They launched a contest to name the new flavor, at the end, they simply left it as “incognita” which can roughly be translated to “mystery”. I’d love to find that flavor here in the US.

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