Ranking All 13 Doritos Flavors from Worst to Best

There are few simpler pleasures in life than a diet soda and a bag of Doritos. They’re my go-to road trip fuel, and I would venture to say that out of all the chip brands out there, Doritos may be the hardest to dislike. The brand has nailed the consistency of its chip, so you’ll never have to worry about any of your chips breaking as you scoop them into a dip. Doritos are also versatile — meaning you can forego the dip and just eat them straight from the bag if you prefer. Pair these qualities with tons of different flavors to choose from, and you’ve got a shoo-in for any tailgate, pantry shelf, or late-night snacking affair. 

Doritos’ flavors are the reason we’re meeting here today, dear reader. Everyone has their favorite bag of Doritos, and unless you regularly venture outside of your comfort zone and pick up a different one from time to time, you may be missing out on the full scope of Doritos’ offerings. I put my personal chip bias aside to sample every flavor I could find at my local Walmart before ranking them from worst to best. The primary basis for my ranking is simple: Not only did the “best Doritos” have to have a great flavor balance, but each also had to make me want to eat more of them.

Should Doritos be playing with flavor combinations when it has yet to perfect either of those flavors on its own? I would venture to say, “no.” But it tried its hardest — and it came up with these Blazin’ Buffalo & Ranch chips. 

The Buffalo sauce-inspired chips should, in theory, offer a bright and buttery heat that complements and counterbalances the coolness of the ranch. What I got was just a confusing intermingling of sauces — like someone went into the sauce aisle at the grocery store and squeezed a little bit of each into a ramekin, swirled it, and dipped a tortilla chip in it. The Buffalo flavor is a big miss, as it doesn’t have that unique, buttery undertone that you would get from a good Buffalo sauce brand. The chips also have a slightly lemony undertone that’s not really ranch-y, nor tied to the Buffalo flavor. The wholly underdeveloped ranch flavor tries to compete with the Buffalo, and the two are so caught up in fighting that you lose both of those flavors altogether. I was left with a peppery flavor on my tongue and a slight hint of spice. Otherwise, I was lost. 

This Doritos flavor takes you for a ride — and not in a good way. I think a Buffalo-flavored chip on its own would be a great addition to the lineup, so long as the brand can channel that buttery essence that makes Buffalo sauce, well, Buffalo sauce. The separation of church and state — Buffalo and ranch — is more than justified here.

Did you ever want to eat Takis in Doritos form? Let me introduce you to these Flamin’ Hot Limón chips. It’s like your favorite hint-of-lime tortilla chip got a little facelift, a whole lot more citrus, and an ungodly amount of spice. The first thing you taste as you eat these chips is their lime flavor, which, like many other lime-flavored chips I’ve sampled over the years, tastes like cheap margarita mix — it’s not fresh or inviting. Rather, it’s sour, biting, and super artificial, though its flavor has more direction than the Blazin’ Buffalo & Ranch chips, giving it the upper hand in this ranking. 

What’s interesting about all of the Flamin’ Hot Doritos is that the spiciness doesn’t hit you until after you swallow the chips, when you’ll feel a little bit of warmth doing a tap dance on the tip of your tongue. They’re not formidably spicy, though I think you could underestimate their heat if you ate a handful in a single sitting. 

I personally don’t like the flavor of artificial lime in anything, and in this chip, it only distracts from the lackluster savory undertones. The saltiness on the chips is solid, but I’m missing the savory quality that I found in some higher-ranking Doritos flavors. While I think there is a time and a place for these Limón chips, I don’t think it’s going to be any time soon — for me at least. 

Doritos took a fan-favorite — the Nacho Cheese flavor — and turned the heat up a notch to make this product. And I hate to say it, but I don’t think it was a success. 

Its standard Nacho Cheese chips have a solid cheesy flavor, but these chips replace some of that indulgent, spray-cheese essence with undiluted heat. It’s prickly and singe-your-tastebuds spicy, which would appease a spicy snack lover. But, I think that the heat wholly eclipses the cheese flavor. There should be some sort of interplay between the two, and since it is a nacho chip, that’s what Doritos should be driving home the most. It’s not a good thing that the only flavor note I got from these chips was “hot.” 

Part of this may have been because I was bracing to get hit with a spicy wave, as I did with all of the other Flamin’ Hot flavors I sampled for this ranking. There wasn’t enough balance to convince me to eat these chips again, which earned them a relatively low spot on this list. If you are a hot chip fan, there’s a chance that you may think differently. But the lack of depth in these chips will be evident to practically anyone who tries them — hot chip lover or not. 

The name “Flamin’ Hot Cool Ranch” is an oxymoron. And, in Doritos’ case, it was also far from a success. 

The cooling flavor of the ranch chips, which is not something that’s readily apparent in the regular version of the chip, does nothing against the unrelenting heat and spice from the Flamin’ Hot seasoning. I also couldn’t pick up on any of the ranch flavor; there was no herbiness, tanginess, or all-around zest that would tell me these are supposed to be “ranch” chips.

I don’t think that the heat in these chips was as raw and unrelenting as some other chips here, namely the Flamin’ Hot Limón. If anything, the heat level for these chips was wildly uneven. Some, particularly the very small shards, were super spicy, while the large ones barely had a whisper of heat. Luckily, there wasn’t any of that nasty, cheap lime flavor, which earned these chips a spot near (but not on) the bottom. Otherwise, there was nothing to really write home about when it came to these chips. There was no “wow” element, and again, I was missing out on the savoriness that would make this chip worthwhile to eat. 

Forgive me, but is there a new sriracha Doritos flavor that I was not aware of? Apparently there is, because I hadn’t heard of Golden Sriracha prior to this tasting. I don’t entirely know what the flavor is supposed to be like, though, because when I think of “sriracha,” I think of the quintessential bottle of Huy Fong — not whatever this is. The bag notes that these are supposed to be “sweet” and “tangy,” and I would agree that those notes are present. However, I still get more of a day-old Chinese takeout vibe than a sriracha one.

No flavor specifically stands out in this chip. There’s a little bit of a fishy, MSG-like aftertaste to them, which really prevents the chips from delivering on the promise of being spicy and bright. They don’t have the chili-forward punch that I look forward to in sriracha. This is one of few occasions during this tasting where I really craved something more fiery and spicy to help deliver on that sriracha promise. Since I didn’t get that, I was just left with a dull flavor that didn’t really underscore anything in particular. 

I assumed that Doritos Flamas were just the un-spicy version of the Flamin’ Hot Limón chips, and I was right — to some degree. These chips still had a biting lime flavor and a considerable degree of heat, but it wasn’t the raw, unadulterated heat that the Flamin’ Hot version of this chip had. The Flamas Doritos, luckily, allowed their spice to have more of a supporting role. I’ll admit that I was glad about this, as it allowed me to taste more of those savory notes — which is not something that I got from many of the Doritos I sampled for this ranking. 

Unfortunately, that sourness from the artificial lime was still prevalent and left an unsavory taste in my mouth. It’s not fresh, nor does it make these chips feel light. Lime is an ingredient that you have to be very careful with, and it seems like Doritos wanted it to be the most prominent flavor here, which is likely why the company was so heavy-handed with it.

I didn’t know what I was walking into with these chips, as the name didn’t give me any clues. But Doritos was very intentional with its flavors here, which is why I gave Flamas a spot in the middle of the pack. 

I definitely think that having three nacho-flavored Doritos is, in a word, overkill. After all, don’t we have other wheels in need of reinventing? 

In theory, the Nacho Cheese bag should have been the least spicy, this Spicy Nacho bag should be in the middle, and the Flamin’ Hot should be five-alarm. “Should” is the operative word. If you ate the Spicy Nacho Doritos and the original Nacho Cheese Doritos side-by-side, I don’t think you would able to tell the difference between them. I barely got a whisper of pepper or heat from these chips, and when I tasted them immediately after the OG Nacho Cheese, I only felt that the spicy version was a touch warmer. It wasn’t a fresh or flavorful type of heat; instead, it warmed my throat just a little as I swallowed. There certainly wasn’t enough heat to earn the “spicy” moniker, which pushed these down in the ranking. 

But they weren’t on the bottom for one reason: These Spicy Nacho chips didn’t abandon cheesiness in pursuit of spice, as did the Flamin’ Hot chips. They also didn’t have the same artificiality as either of the lime-adjacent chips. 

Cool Ranch Doritos seemingly have a cult-like following (and for good reason). The chips deviate from the “just add cheese” formula of some other Doritos offerings, and from the industrial chip complex as a whole. I, however, have never really liked Cool Ranch Doritos. As a kid, I always gravitated towards the cheese ones — though I was also the kid that despised ranch dressing with a passion, so take my thoughts with a grain of salt. 

Even though my dislike for ranch dressing has waned as I’ve grown older, I still found that these chips fell short of my expectations. When I think of “ranch,” I think of buttermilk, fresh herbs, and a subtle tang. These chips delivered on the tanginess, though it was more sour cream-like than ranch-like. I was also missing out on the promise of herbs, which would have livened up the chips and made them tastier. I could parcel out some salty notes, but otherwise, I don’t think I could eat one of these chips blindly and clearly define its flavor as being “ranch.” 

Don’t get me wrong, these aren’t bad chips. Even though I was wary about their flavor, I still found my hand gravitating back towards the bag for another handful. You can put them out at a party and eaters of all ages will enjoy them — I’d just be hard-pressed to call them the “best” that Doritos has to offer. 

“Why is Doritos so good at making barbecue chips?” This is a question I asked out loud as I was tasting these chips. I’m usually not a fan of barbecue chips, so imagine my surprise when I found that these chips were better than most of the potato ones I’ve tried in the past. As the label promises, these are indeed sweet and tangy. 

The concept of a barbecue seasoning on a tortilla chip works quite well because the base has enough heft to support the seasoning, whereas a normal potato chip may just crumble. That being said, it’s not the best barbecue chip I’ve had. I couldn’t pick out a smoke flavor — like hickory, applewood, or mesquite — and it was lacking that salty-savoriness to really drive it home and shift its balance from sweet to savory. Tanginess is intertwined in that sweetness too, though it’s not as oppressive as it was in the limón chips. 

But, let’s not forget that this is not a barbecue chip ranking — it’s a Doritos ranking. And compared to the other Doritos flavors, I was still left wanting more savoriness from these chips. While they were a novel concept, I think they needed more salt and umami to even things out. They offer a great departure from the super spicy flavors, but were still not memorable enough to earn a top spot in this ranking.

Nacho Cheese is obviously Cool Ranch’s biggest competition. These orange-hued chips are a favorite in the snack aisle, and they adorned almost every childhood function that I can remember. But eating them now, I can say I’m far less enthused about them, especially after I got to sample all of the flavors that Doritos has in its lineup. 

It’s hard not to like the nacho flavor of these chips. It’s almost creamy and reminiscent of the fluorescent-orange Kraft mac and cheese — which was also a childhood staple. But, the cheesy flavor just isn’t as pronounced as it should be. As it stands, these chips taste like a generic, cheese-flavored chip. There’s nothing hard-hitting or iconic about them, and I think that any brand could make a nacho spinoff that rivals the quality — and certainly the price — of these Doritos.

I’m on team Nacho Cheese rather than Cool Ranch, simply for the fact that Doritos actually delivers on the cheese flavor. They’re good chips, but in this very competitive race, there needs to be some secret sauce that makes a flavor really stand out. 

Walking tacos are a great invention, and Doritos’ Late Night Loaded Taco chips would be my pick of the litter if you needed a chip to go with them. 

When you open the bag, you get a big whiff of that taco seasoning — like someone had opened a packet of it and just shook it straight into the bag of tortilla chips. Their flavor is very cumin and coriander-centric, and there’s very little heat. I would have liked a little more heat to help distract from the dry mouthfeel that the spices bring. If you aren’t a big fan of taco seasoning, you’ll likely find their aftertaste off-putting. Though, if you love Tex-Mex everything, than these chips are a must-try. 

When you eat the chips with a walking taco — or even as a base for homemade nachos — you can hide some of that raw seasoning. While these chips would be a great choice for someone who is heat-sensitive, I think that Doritos used a little too much seasoning on them, to the point where their flavor is abrasive. While they’re interesting and complex, they lacked the satisfying, hand-gravitating-back-to-the-bag sensation that my top-ranked flavor offered. 

Spicy Sweet Chili Doritos have been a longtime favorite of mine, especially seeing as how they don’t overtly include any animal products. Though Doritos refuses to admit that these are “vegan,” I would say that there is nothing on the label to suggest that they aren’t. 

Regardless, these are good chips. As their label suggests, they feature a mashup of two flavors: spicy and sweet. Their flavor is bold enough to leave your tongue tingling, and they almost have a Thai-inspired bite to them. The tanginess really helps balance out the sweetness and makes these chips quite approachable, even for someone who is spice-averse. 

The one thing that I’m missing here that I got with some of the other Doritos flavors, including the lower-ranked Cool Ranch and Nacho Cheese, is the savoriness. I wish there was a little more umami flavor milling about, but as it stands, these Spicy Sweet Chili Doritos were the most well-balanced, cohesive, and overall tasty chips that I sampled. The novelty of these chips supersedes classics like Cool Ranch and Nacho Cheese, and I found them more likable than the Loaded Taco flavor. They’re unique, fun, and easily a fan favorite, which earned them the title of “top chip.” 

I opened and sampled each of these chips on the same day to ensure they were all fresh. Since I would venture to guess most people eat them without a dip, I snacked on them solo and sipped water in between to cleanse my palate. 

Doritos are a brand designed for snacking, so the ideal flavor should make me want to eat more of them, rather than having two chips before putting the bag aside. This can be achieved through a complex and multi-dimensional medley of flavors — be it salty, umami, sweet, or spicy. One-note Doritos that felt unbalanced or did not deliver on the flavor listed on the label ranked lower than ones that were well-thought-out and really drove home their intended flavor.