DORITOS and EMPIRICAL launch first nacho cheese spirit

Collaboration imbues the iconic nacho cheese flavour of Doritos into a first-of-its-kind distilled spirit

Doritos unveiled a collaboration with global flavour innovator Empirical: Empirical x Doritos Nacho Cheese Spirit. This limited-release offers a multi-sensorial, delicious beverage experience that smells and tastes just like the real thing – bringing the iconic flavour of Doritos Nacho Cheese Chips into the spirits aisle.

“Doritos is all about disrupting culture and bringing our fans unexpected, bold experiences,” said Tina Mahal, Senior Vice President of Marketing for Frito-Lay North America. “We’re always pushing our fans to try new things, so we figure it’s time we disrupt the spirits category by offering our iconic nacho cheese flavour in a bottle.”

The partnership marks a first-of-a-kind innovation for both brands and brings fans a truly new experience. To create the flavour, the many flavour layers of Doritos Nacho Cheese are extracted through Empirical’s innovative production process, using real Doritos chips and retaining their essence through vacuum distillation. Unlike traditional distillation methods, vacuum distillation operates at lower temperatures, preserving the full spectrum of flavours derived from Doritos.

“Empirical is an ‘uncategorised’ spirits company, so it allows us the freedom to experiment with really interesting flavours and not have to be stuck in a gin box or tequila box or whiskey box,” says Lars Williams, Chef/Distiller & CEO, of Empirical. “And we can take something that has a unique and amazing flavour, like Doritos, and evolve it into something completely new.”