12 Discontinued Doritos Flavors We Wish Would Return

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Doritos have been a favorite snack of many since they came on the scene in 1964. There are probably things you didn't know about Doritos, like the fact that they originated at Disneyland. The cheesy chips were created from tortillas served at the Frito-Lay company's Mexican-inspired restaurant, Casa de Fritos, in Frontierland. Instead of throwing stale ones in the trash, the restaurant cut them up and tossed them in the fryer.

These were served as snacks in the restaurant and eventually nationally under the Doritos name in 1966. The taco flavor was introduced in 1968, followed by nacho cheese in 1972. There have been about 179 kinds of chips that have come and gone over the years. Some were downright flops with everyone, and then you have the bizarre flavors, like the chicken or garlic shrimp, that were just plain strange.

There were some Doritos varieties that were lamented, with customers protesting for their return. But the tortilla chip conglomerate says it has its reasons. "We understand each brand or flavor will end up being a front-runner for someone. We wish we could carry them all. Regrettably, some snacks must be discontinued to make room for new ideas and the ever-changing market demand," a rep once reportedly wrote to a fan.

People miss Fiery Habanero Doritos so much that a petition and a Facebook page are dedicated to bringing them back. They were introduced between late 2005 and early 2006. While the habanero chili notes were cooled by cheese, onion, and garlic flavors, it was still a very spicy chip.

"For years, we got to enjoy the deliciously spicy chips that came to be many people's favorite. Then, without warning, this all was taken away," the petition, which started in 2017, states. Cries for the heat-heavy snack's return go back to 2009 on the Facebook page. While Doritos has introduced many different spicy flavors since then, fans of Fiery Habanero say they don't compare.

One customer tried the Diablo flavor as a substitute but said, "These turned out just being basically Takis." A rolled-up version of the previously square chip was introduced under the name Doritos Dinamita Fiery Habanero, but this also didn't satisfy fans who said, "The flavor is different the old ones had a smokey savory flavor. These are more sharp and over burdening."

In 2003, the geniuses at Frito-Lay had an idea to save customers from buying chips and dip separately. The company combined them both into one as Doritos Guacamole. They didn't taste exactly like seasoned avocado, but the inspiration was there inside of its tasty unique flavor. Fans loved rustling through the bag to pull out the darkest chips with the most seasoning. Sometimes, there are things that taste better with Doritos versus trying to pack different flavors onto a chip.

To their dismay, the chip was pulled from shelves in 2006. "The green chips were an awesome idea and were too good to be gone from the Doritos line," a petition to have them returned states. While petitioners weren't successful in convincing Frito-Lay to bring its Guacamole flavor back to the U.S., they did become available in the U.K. in 2020.

The U.K. version was branded as a new flavor, but many fans called the company out, saying this wasn't the case and that they had already seen these chips elsewhere when they were kids. Guacamole Doritos made another appearance in a dual-flavored bag that was also filled with salsa-flavored chips. The bag states that they are a limited edition and are available on some non-U.S. websites.

When Frito-Lay decided to create a party mix with our favorite crunchy triangles in 2016, it was described by Food Processing as "its biggest product launch in recent history." Bags of Doritos Mix Explosion were filled with different shaped pieces, like a mini tortilla chip, an open triangle, a rolled tube, and a spiral — each with a different flavor. It came in two different versions: Cheese Explosion and Taco Explosion.

Cheese Explosion had nacho cheese, four cheese, jumpin' jack cheese, and spicy nacho flavors, while the Taco Explosion had spicy nacho, sour cream, taco, and salsa-tasting pieces. Though listings for them that are still up on Amazon and Walmart, they are out of stock, and there doesn't seem to be anywhere else to purchase them. The last purchase on Amazon was in 2017, but the taco-flavored ones have more recent reviews on Walmart in 2022. There is actually a single triangle chip from the Cheese Explosion bag that is being sold on eBay for $22,000.

The X-13D Dorito was branded as a "flavor experiment" or, as Two Bites in Suburbia explains it, an "unholy" snack and "attempt at getting gullible people like me to buy more chips we don't need." This chip is believed to have been introduced in 2007 and came in a black bag that asked you to go to a website to find the Clue Generator, which made you solve puzzles to find out what flavor they were.

There isn't a solid consensus on what this mystery chip was supposed to actually taste like. Most said it was a cheeseburger flavor, while others said it tasted like barbecue or "barbecue and ass." While some bloggers noted that they could definitely sense the beef, cheese, mustard, and even pickle flavors, others were horrified by the flavor — which was described as "bizarre." One blogger said the X-13 was "the most disgusting junk food I've ever eaten," while another reported, "I'm frightened by these Doritos, yet somehow drawn to them." Clearly a lot of mixed reviews and thoughts across many different blogs.

A 2007 YouTube video review of the chip actually begged Frito-Lay to take them off the shelf. But not everyone felt this way — one customer on Reddit was impressed, saying, "These were hella good. they didn't taste exactly like a cheeseburger but pretty much as close as you could make a chip taste like one." So, why do we want them back? Just to keep things weird. They give off a Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans vibe, and we are here for it.

Apparently, there was a time in 2010 when Frito-Lay was looking to spice things up, ranging from mild to extreme. The tagline for its Degree Burn line asked, "Can you take the heat?" There were three different bags available: 1st Degree Blazin' Jalapeño, 2nd Degree Fiery Buffalo, and 3rd Degree Scorchin' Habanero. The chips were marketed along with Pepsi Max Cease Fire which was aimed at cooling down the heat from the Doritos.

Blazin' Jalapeño packed some serious heat but not enough to overpower the flavors. While Fiery Buffalo offered a sinus-clearing burn, some reviewers said it didn't have much of a buffalo taste. The Scorchin' Habanero was covered in seasoning to the point where they were basically red in color. They were said to be cheesier but less spicy than the Fiery Habanero. Still, they were just as hot as the 2nd Degree version. A petition was started in 2019 to bring 3rd Degree Burn Doritos back.

Doritos released its Blaze line in 2018, with the package saying the chips were like "licking a volcano." And it delivered in this department because it made our editors "choke and cry." They needed milk and some tissues nearby just to get them down. Our staff found the chip to begin as "bland" and end with their mouths on fire by the time they were done chewing.

"It feels like their only point is to make your tongue burn... if you have no tolerance for spiciness, that is," an editor wrote. But some people are into that. Still, it didn't stop Doritos Blaze from being discontinued. We're not exactly sure when this fiery flavor was pulled from shelves, but a Twitter page created in 2020 was dedicated to encouraging their return. So, we don't think it lasted too long.

The creator of the page said they were "the taste of the gods" and that "England wants Blaze, America wants Blaze, the world wants Blaze." One of the main reasons we want them back is because they were vegan – which is not entirely common for Doritos.