A few years ago — or you know, a decade or so ago (time is a construct which escapes me) — sriracha was the flavor du jour. Mad food scientists in R&D for all the big food conglomerates were busy sticking the angry chili sauce in all of their products. McDonald’s did it. Taco Bell did it. Cheez-It and Pringles imbued their respective crackers and crisps with the much-beloved condiment.
Heck, even Doritos traveled down this road in 2019 with its Screamin’ Sriracha offering.
And so, a scant five years later and apparently running low on ideas, they’re back in an attempt to reignite snackers’ passion for the spicy sauce. Is this new version any different? And in a world packed with choices hoping to capture your snacking dollar, are they worth a go?
Well, the answer to the first question is a definite, “I don’t know, but it certainly looks that way?” I didn’t have the first iteration (I honestly don’t even recall seeing them in my area), but looking at pictures from our very own review five years back, the initial Sriracha Doritos were, well, “screamin’.” Violently red and absolutely blasted with seasoning, this was a very different chip.
The 2025 variant, by comparison, is a soft yellow color with mild, minimal seasoning specks. And, truth be told, it’s a pretty mild flavoring overall. If you’re familiar with sriracha, you know the drill — tangy, a bit vinegary, a little garlicky background, and the heat. This chip captures the tang pretty well — a sweet, ketchup-like zing — but I’m afraid it misses a lot of the nuanced undertones that make sriracha work so well. There’s a bit of vinegar, sure, but it’s slight. I don’t notice anything of a garlic nature. The heat kicks in on the back end of the first chip and is milder than the eponymous sauce, so if you can tolerate at least the teensiest bit of heat, these should pose no problem.
In the end, I found myself wishing these chips were just more. More seasoned. More fiery. More interesting. As it stands, if you’re looking for heat, you’d be better served choosing from Doritos Flamin’ Hot versions. And if you’re looking for a Doritos with sriracha flavor, might I suggest applying actual sriracha sauce to a regular Doritos chip? Because if you’ve never done that, you should.
Purchased Price: $3.00
Size: 9.25 oz
Purchased at: Walmart
Rating: 6 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (28 g) 140 calories, 7 grams of fat, 1 gram of saturated fat, 0 gram of trans fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 150 milligrams of sodium, 17 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of fiber, less than 1 gram of sugar, and 2 grams of protein.
