FOOD NEWS
Doritos' 2007 Mystery Chip Experiment Launched Pickle Chip Cravings
By C.A. Pinkham
Frito-Lay has a long history of experimenting with Doritos, sometimes resulting in flavors that don't work out, such as when the company put two different chip varieties in one bag and called it "Doritos Collisions." Interestingly, the most long-lasting effect of a Doritos experiment didn't even result in a new Doritos flavor.
In the early 2010s, a new chip joined the Lay's lineup, one that seemed absurd but was oddly compelling: dill pickle chips. As it turns out, the inspiration for these chips came from the 2007 "Doritos X-13D Flavor Experiment," in which Frito-Lay released a mystery chip that turned out to be cheeseburger with a hint of dill pickle.
The interaction between pickle and corn chip is kind of weird, so the flavor didn’t work for Doritos, but when Frito-Lay shifted gears and started producing dill pickle potato chips, it was off to the races. Today, other big potato chip manufacturers like Utz and Herr's also make pickle chips — but it was the 2007 Doritos experiment that launched the trend.