84-proof Doritos—behind the chip’s new alcohol collab

Ready or not, here comes 84-proof Doritos. The PepsiCo-owned snack chip is the latest mainstream brand to introduce a boozy variant, teaming with distiller Empirical on a spirit infused with the taste of nacho cheese chips. Empirical x Doritos Nacho Cheese Spirit will be available in January online and in select locations in New York and California for a suggested retail price of $65 for a 750-milliliter bottle. Preorders begin today at doritos.x.empirical.co. Also read: Top 5 food and beverage campaigns and trends of 2023 The collaboration comes as Doritos makes its chips work harder, positioning them not just as snacks but also as ingredients, flavors and meals. A year ago, Doritos was the center of a limited-time late-night delivery menu consisting of Doritos-inspired munchies. “We’re really trying to drive that association of Doritos as a culinary ingredient, an ingredient to play with and have fun with, and be creative,” said Courtney Larson, senior director of marketing for Doritos, in an interview. Doritos’ fans have led the brand that way, Larson said, from demonstrating creative ways of making meals out of chips during the pandemic, to a practice of using crushed Doritos chips on the rim of tequila glasses. “Gen Z loves experimenting, and they’re not afraid to do bold and disruptive things, which we love,” Larson said. See our 2023 Marketers of the Year here Vacuum distilled The idea for a Doritos spirit dates back to 2017, when CEO and Chief Distiller at Empirical Lars Williams was experimenting with vacuum distillation, a technology the former chef established to extract flavors to infuse into spirits. “I was still trying to get a sense of exactly what kind of flavors we could extract using this technology that we’d developed. And so I was running everything I could think of through it—parsley, oysters, red meat, cooked meat, blood,” Williams said. When a coworker came back from lunch with a sandwich and a bag of Doritos, Williams had another idea. “I wasn’t expecting much. I thought maybe we would get like a little bit of a tortilla chip flavor or, maybe a little bit of tanginess from paprika or onion from the nacho cheese flavoring,” Williams said. “But when we blended it together, it tasted incredibly, exactly like eating Doritos.” Executives from Doritos parent PepsiCo tasted the spirit during a 2018 tour of Empirical’s distillery in Copenhagen and discussed a potential collaboration then, but Empirical declined, worried that the emerging brand would be defined by the stunt, said Williams. All was forgotten until Williams unboxed a bottle earlier this year and reached out to PepsiCo. “Candidly, there’s a lot of partners that want to do fun things with Doritos,” Larson said. “It’s a pretty high bar, so we need to be blown away by the experience. And we most certainly were when our friends at Empirical came to us with this.” ‘Closet affection’ The unusual combination of snack chip and liquor makes sense from a flavor perspective, Williams said. “I think most cooks, if you really press them, will admit to having a closet affection for Doritos,” Williams said. “From my perspective, they’re very intentional about hitting every one of the taste buds that you have. So there’s a bit of salt, and there’s a bit of sweetness, slight bitterness, sour tanginess and certainly a healthy dose of umami. It appeals to the things we crave as mammals, but I also have an affection for it.” Empirical x Doritos is an “uncategorized” spirit, meaning it doesn’t belong to a traditional category such as vodka, gin or tequila. But it can be used in cocktails that typically feature spirits, for example replacing tequila in a margarita, vodka in a bloody mary and bourbon in an old-fashioned. Williams said the collaboration showcases the technology behind the distillery while exposing the Empirical brand to a new audience. “I think it’s a great way for us to be in front of a different demographic of people, than what I would say is the foodie, high-end cocktail scene bubble that we sort of inhabit,” he said. See our Year in Review stories here Crossover beverage trend The beverage alcohol industry has seen an influx of food and drink brands making so-called crossover drinks, as brands cash in on the fast-growing ready-to drink trend. Some of the drinks and collabs include Hard Mtn Dew, Lipton Hard Iced Tea, Sprite and Absolut, Jack & Coke and Simply Spiked Lemonade. Some collaborations, such as Sunny D vodka seltzer, have caused a stir among some who see the combination of alcohol and a drink traditionally marketed to children as irresponsible marketing that could draw scrutiny from federal regulators. And while most of those products have a beer-like alcohol content, some brands have partnered with spirits companies, including Doritos sister brand Lay’s, which launched a limited-run potato vodka in 2021, and Arby’s, which made vodkas highlighting french fry flavors. Empirical x Doritos Nacho Cheese is 42% alcohol by volume. “Our target consumer for Doritos is Gen Z, 21-plus, so we’re going to take all the standard brand protocols that we do with any of our products, to make sure that they are only targeted to 21-plus,” Larson said. “All of the brand activations you’re going to see, from our launch event in New York, to the way we target through media, the influencers we’re going to use … we’re doing everything to we can to make sure that we are delighting our core consumer who is that Gen Z 21-plus, and not go into the minor space.” The marketing effort for the product began last week with a #flavorheist tease on social media, with Doritos asking consumers to guess, “Where did the flavor go?” Where did all the Nacho Cheese flavor go? Drop your guess below and it just might be featured on a NYC billboard. #FlavorHeist pic.twitter.com/5tfI7c1Ia6— Doritos (@Doritos) December 7, 2023 Larson said the product would be supported through a kickoff event in New York this week, as well as paid media and influencers. Empirical will also promote the drink to its audience in the culinary space. Check out the latest Ad Age events and award programs

84-proof Doritos—behind the chip’s new alcohol collab

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