CREDIT PEPSICO DESIGN
Drinkable Doritos? In hard liquor form? An interesting concept from the folks at Empirical Spirits, one that raises additional questions. How does nacho cheese-flavored liquor taste? Is it worth $65 per bottle? And, of course, how the hell did they make it?
We’ll get into all that in a second, but first, a little primer on Empirical Spirits, the company behind the Doritos liquor. Founded in 2017 by Lars Williams and Mark Emil Hermansen, Empirical Spirits focuses on flavor first, and spirit categorization second. Using custom-built machinery and equipment, as well as bespoke fermentation and distillation techniques, the team—comprised of staff who’ve toiled in the world’s best kitchens, pushing the boundaries of food—brings a self-described “maniacal approach” to bring new flavors to liquor shelves.
There’s a heavy emphasis on uncategorized spirits. Empirical isn’t trying to compete with existing categories, deemed too restrictive for its experimentations, which is why the Doritos liquor isn’t billed as a whiskey or a vodka. Besides, Empirical doesn’t want you tasting Doritos liquor and comparing it with what’s on the shelf. Makes sense. So, to be clear, Doritos liquor is its own kind of liquor.
How Is Doritos Liquor Made?
The ingredients are simple: Belgian Saison beer yeast, malted barley, and, of course, Doritos Nacho Cheese. (Yes, Empirical tried to do this with Cool Ranch too but noted that the outcome was less than stellar, so they scrapped it.) The base of distilled pilsner malt is infused with a heap of Doritos chips. Then it’s vacuum distilled, which helps preserve the delicate flavors during the process. The finished spirit clocks in at 42% ABV and it’s crystal clear since it spends no time in aging barrels.
And Why, Exactly, Was Doritos Liquor Made?
It’s easy to presume the marketing folks at PepsiCo, Dorito’s parent company, were tossing around ideas to generate some hype and buzz and landed on making a liquor and here we are. Except it was actually Empirical that brought the finished concept to PepsiCo. According to Empirical’s website, the genesis came from a staffer who was wrapping up lunch and had an open bag of Doritos. “I apologized and threw the Doritos in the still,” writes Williams. “To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much, perhaps some top notes, or only the tortilla flavor. But as the [research and development] team sipped it for the first time, we burst into laughter. We were drinking Doritos!” Some refinement rounds later, and Empirical got the signoff for the partnership with the beloved snack company.
Does Doritos x Empirical Spirit Taste Like Doritos?
It smells like tortilla corn chips along with that trademark Doritos Nacho Cheese dust. But it’s a little funkier, and not entirely pleasing on the nose. There’s a hint of grain spirit that creeps in under deeper inhales. After nosing for a while, it starts to move from Doritos to Fritos, but maybe that’s just my olfactory summation.
Empirical recommends serving Doritos spirit neat or over ice, and also has some recommended cocktail recipes (we’ll get to those below). First, I tried it neat. The first thing that hits is the tortilla corn chip. It’s big and bold, and it’s distinctively on the mark. There’s a solid amount of salinity, that salty note you get from the snack chips themselves. There’s a hint of the nacho cheese, and that note lingers for a while before tapering off into the base spirit. There’s a clarity and brightness to the pour that’s nice.
As the corn chip drops off—relatively quickly—there’s a finish that’s akin to having just inhaled a bag of actual Doritos and now you’re picking the bits out of your teeth. It’s not the best finish, but it’s true to the real-life snacking experience.
Over ice, the base spirit notes get tamped down, and it’s closer to smelling like a Doritos chip. The addition of ice smooths the more abrupt flavor transitions present in the neat pour, but it also mutes the Dorito essence. I’m left with more of a Fritos finish than nacho cheese. Interestingly, when you chew ice with the spirit, there’s something about the crunch of the ice and the spirit’s flavor profile that gets it closest to its edible muse.
I’ve had the bottle for a few months, and I’ve poured it extensively at parties and gatherings, curious to hear others’ thoughts. Of the 50-plus people who’ve sampled it, only a handful find it enjoyable. The bulk of taste testers react with a scrunched nose and a visible shudder. Everyone who sampled it agrees that Doritos x Empirical is close in flavor profile, but there’s something slightly off, something preventing it from giving the full Doritos experience.
Doritos x Empirical Spirit Cocktails, Reviewed
There is a trio of cocktail recipes that were shared in the press mailer that accompanied the bottle. I tried them all. First was the Red Bag Old Fashioned (1.5 oz. Doritos liquor, .5 oz. of mezcal, 1 barspoon simple syrup, 2 dashes of bitters, and a pinch of salt). It largely tasted like mezcal, so I tried upping the Doritos to 2 ounces, to see if that helped move the drink more toward the nacho cheese flavor realm. It did not, unfortunately. Perhaps there needs to be an edit to the name here, because when I think Old Fashioned, I have a very distinct flavor profile in my head, and this just misses it completely. Even if you’re a fan of an Oaxacan Old Fashioned, which uses mezcal, the Red Bag version still tastes off.
Next was the Doritos Bangarang. This recipe made me do a double take: in a Collins glass, add 2 oz. Doritos Empirical, 1 pinch of sea salt (it technically asks for smoked sea salt), 1 squeeze of fresh grapefruit, and then top it all off with…Pepsi. Yes, you read that right. This was a disaster in a glass. The color wasn’t great (dark grayish), and the taste was worse. Like saltier Pepsi with some citrus funk on top. I tried a few variations to tweak the ratios of the ingredients though none produced a cocktail I enjoyed or finished.
Lastly, there’s the Double Triangle Margarita. This calls for 1 oz. Doritos Empirical, 1 oz. blanco tequila, .75 oz. fresh lime juice, and .75 oz. agave syrup. This was the most palatable of the cocktails, though it still doesn’t give that umami flavor that you’re accustomed to with Doritos chips. The variation I liked most was .5 oz of blanco tequila and .5 oz of reposado tequila. (Splitting the ounce between mezcal and reposado tequila was also decent.) But again, if I’m going for a Margarita, this one ain’t it. I’d rather taste the agave from solid tequila than the Doritos liquor in the glass.
Is Doritos Liquor Worth $65?
As the adage goes, something’s worth whatever someone’s willing to pay for it. Is it a fun conversation starter at a party, when you whip out the bottle and ask who wants a shot of Doritos? Absolutely. However, no one will want seconds, nor to try any of the cocktails. So is that limited use case enough to justify the $65 SRP point, considering flavored vodka comes in at about a third of the price? That’s up to you to decide, dear reader.
