It’s not too crazy to see Doritos teaming up with another brand but this collaboration might just be the strangest yet. Doritos announced its partnership with alcohol company Empirical to create nacho cheese-flavored booze.
On December 12, 2023, the flaming orange chips we all know and love launched its collaboration with Empirical Spirits, a Copenhagen-based distillery. The pair announced Empirical x Doritos Nacho Cheese, a limited edition beverage flavored like nacho cheese.
“We’re doing more disruptive partnerships,” Courtney Larson, Doritos’ senior director of marketing, said. “When one of the most innovative flavor leaders in the world reaches out to you, you take notice.”
Empirical was started by Lars Williams and Mark Emil Hermansen. The Doritos partnership is a “chance for us to get out in front of a whole new group of people, and showcase what Empirical can do,” Williams said.
PepsiCo isn’t paying for the partnership but they are supplying the chips needed. Williams estimated that they use a standard, 2¾-ounce bag in each bottle of the 42% ABV product.
As for the flavor, Empirical’s brew tastes almost exactly like a bag of Doritos nacho cheese-flavored tortilla chips. When you take the first sip, flavors of toasted corn, cheese and onion powder is immediately present in liquid form.
The limited release of the beverage was available online and at select locations in New York and California. It costs $65 for a 750 milliliter bottle and while Doritos has no current plans to extend the collaboration once the run is sold out, there is a “very strong possibility we will renew,” Larson said.
Source: https://us.empirical.co/products/doritos-x-empirical