Munch my Extremely nice corns (Doritos Extreme Chilli Heatwave)

Member Name: The_Patriarch

Product:	Doritos Extreme Chilli Heatwave
Date:	09/11/05 (2385 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: More substantial than crisps . Very tasty .

Disadvantages: None that I know of.

As a lover of crisps and peanuts, in fact all things snacky, it is no surprise to find another review in my small portfolio dedicated to a savoury snack. Anyone who read my Chilli flavoured peanut review will know that I like snacks with a bit of "zip". Well….a LOT of zip, actually. These Doritos Extreme Chilli Heatwave certainly have the "zip" factor and are currently my favourite "crisp". Of course Doritos are not technically a "crisp" as such, because they are a corn snack, but you know what I mean…..they come in packets and are found on the crisps shelf in the supermarket.

I'd like to say that I stumbled upon these by accident and have been hooked ever since, but that would be a lie. The truth is that I wrote to Walkers back in 2001, or whenever it was, and demanded they make some new tasty crisps instead of the boring cheese & onion ones. I had, by this time, outgrown Prawn Cocktail, Worcester Sauce and Tomato Ketchup flavours. Strangely enough they never replied, but they did bring out these………and I was waiting!

(To be honest I didn't really write to Walkers at all…..that was just a bit of artistic licence, commonly known as a downright lie!) Anyway; on with the review….


***** The Basics *****

Doritos Extreme corn chips are produced by Walkers and, according to their own advertising, are made the traditional Mexican way…… "The best corn is ground into a soft dough, it is then shaped, lightly toasted and quickly dried before being seasoned". The other flavours available are Cool Original and Tangy Cheese plus in the "Extreme" range - Tandoori Sizzler. In addition there are also a range of flavours in Doritos Dippas and Doritos Latinos.


***** Taste and Consistency *****

Doritos corn chips are a kind of triangular shape. They are quite thick (compared to crisps) and rough to the touch. On the Chilli Heatwave flavour, the chilli flavouring is quite visible with a thick coating and has a red colour seemingly sprinkled over the yellow (.. ish) corn chip.

When first opening the packet you get a waft of sweet spiciness and you are just drooling to get one in your mouth. First taste reveals a crunchy and spicy corn chip. It's more tangy, to my taste buds, rather than hot and would probably be better described as Sweet Tangy Chilli flavour rather than Chill Heatwave. It's warm enough and sweet enough, though, that you wouldn't want too much at one time.


***** Presentation and Packaging *****

Chilli Heatwave come in a dark red foil packet (which is recyclable) with the Doritos registered trademark logo emblazoned on the front. Underneath this is the "EXTREME crunch & flavour OVERLOAD" logo and another little box declaring that these are "Chilli Heatwave flavour corn chips". Just in case you are completely dumb and still think you've got something else, there is a picture of two corn chips. So, there's really no mistaking what you've got here then!
On the reverse side of the packet are the usual consumer nutritional information, ingredients, Customer Services address and Best Before date.

To my knowledge these Doritos come in three different size packets. If you buy them as singles packets, the standard size is 40g, but you can also get a large family pack of 200g. Now here's the con. If you buy a multipack, the packets look exactly the same but are only 33g. So not quite the saving that you might expect!

***** Price and Availability *****

Obviously prices vary from shop to shop, but the 40g pack will set you back 28p in Tesco, but could cost as much as 40p in a vending machine. The large family pack of 200g is £1.08. A multipack of 10 packs costs £1.38, but bear in mind that these are smaller packets (33g). These are exceedingly popular snacks and being such a major brand as Walkers, are readily available in all good grocery and newsagent stores (as well as many bad ones).

***** Ingredients & Nutritional Information *****

These Doritos are supposedly packaged in a protective atmosphere, like all Walkers products. Without boring you too much, the main ingredients include whole maize kernels, sugar, sweetener, salt and various numerous flavourings.
As stated on the back of the pack, these are suitable for Vegetarians and contain a source of phenylalanine (whatever the hell that is!).

A typical 40g packet contains a wapping 10.4g Fat (4.8g saturated), 200 calories and 0.4g of Salt! Phew! Not sure how that compares to standard crisps, though I suspect that there might be a bit more fat in crisps, but possibly less Saturates.

***** Customer Service and Information *****

Customer Services are contactable at the following address:

Consumer Services department
Walkers Snack Foods Ltd
PO Box 23
Leicester LE4 8ZU

In addition Walkers website has good information on all their products at:

http://www.walkers.co.uk


***** Conclusion *****

As you would expect from Walkers, these are another quality product. I haven't tried other similar corn chips, such as supermarket own brands, to compare these against. Even so, I wholeheartedly and unreservedly recommend you give these a try. As mentioned before, these are my favourite so it's difficult to give an unbiased opinion (that and the fact that I've got shares in Walkers!)

Thanks for reading. Cheers!

Summary: Probalby the tasiest savoury snack in the world