Japanese Cheetos & Doritos - A Review

If you are a savory snack fan like me, Japan is a perfect place to get your fix. The varieties, flavors, and formats of products is so immense that you could try a different snack every day and never get bored. Whether it is a rice cracker, potato chip, corn chip, shrimp crisp, or pretzel you choose, you will still need to make more decisions on flavor, size, and price.

As far as tastes go, there tends to be a lot of flavors found in Japanese cooking ingredients such as Soy Sauce, Wasabi, Yuzu, and Hot Mustard, to name a few. Seafood, Chicken Soup Stock Consomme, Beef, and Pork are other popular bases.

Japanese snack manufacturers tend to offer multiple sizes of the same product calling them "mini" or "mega" or offering them in different shapes or packaging. Pricing can vary a lot too depending on brands, ingredient contents, and pack size.

I always tend to gravitate towards the international brands where I know I will be getting something familiar, all be it with a unique twist to the flavoring. That is why this post is going to be dedicated to a couple famous brands of corn snacks: Doritos and Cheetos. Both are made by Frito-Lay Japan and both are released in numerous flavors every year.

I still recall chomping away on Tuna Mayonnaise Doritos one cloudy afternoon, while washing them down with a Cucumber flavored Pepsi. Yes...the wild flavors don't stop at salty snacks. Chocolate covered Cheetos provided me with another eating experience that is ingrained in my mind. The milk chocolate sweetness combined with the salty corn created an addicting combination. Too bad that those releases are no longer in production.

Well, 2016 was no different when it comes to odd, limited-edition Frito-Lay flavors.
Check out some of these recent ones that took the internet by storm.

Doritos Black Garlic and Black Pepper. Not only are these cool looking chips but the package design is a piece of art. The shiny black bag has a spooky haunted vibe to it as it was released prior to Halloween. I found the chips almost had a sweet taste however when the garlic kicked in you soon forgot about that. The black pepper added an extra dimension which made these stand out. 9/10

Along the same Halloween theme came these wonderfully unique Cheetos. Called "Bag of Bones" due to their white appearance and skeleton shape, the real intrigue was with the flavor: Yogurt! In all my years I don't recall once having the urge to dip my Cheetos into a tub of yogurt. Well, Frito-Lay Japan has made that possible with one product. Odd but strangely tasty. 7/10

Doritos Wasabi & Soy Sauce is a very popular product as it has a perfect balance of spiciness and savory mellowness. You just can't go wrong with these two flavors mixed together. If you love sushi you probably already drown wasabi in your soy sauce. On a corn chip it tastes great too. 8/10

Cheetos Ex Spicy. Wear gloves! Do not touch any part of your body after eating these until you wash your hands thoroughly! These are HOT! So hot that I couldn't properly enjoy them. They ruined my taste buds for the rest of the afternoon. The adventurous eater would surely enjoy them more than I did. 6/10

There still may be limited quantities of these available so please check HERE for the latest stock, including new flavors!

Please drop me a line or leave a comment on this blog if you want to share any of your Doritos or Cheetos eating experiences.

Happy snacking!

J-san