Every difference between UK and US Doritos including portion sizes and exclusive items
- We ordered Doritos in the UK and US to find out the big differences between the two.
- While the franchise look similar on the surface in the different countries, there were differences between the sizes, calories, and ingredients.
Harry: From calorie count to portion sizes, we wanted to find out all the differences between Doritos in the UK and the US. This is "Food Wars."
In the UK, Doritos come in four portion sizes, starting with this one, which is a 30-gram bag. However, these only come in the form of multipacks, either as a multipack of five or as a multipack of 12.
Joe: The smallest bag of Doritos you can get in the US is the multipack size, which is this, 1 ounce. You can get these in multipacks of 10.
Harry: Next up we have a grab bag, which is 48 grams. These are usually found as part of a lunchtime meal deal, just as a snack.
Joe: Next size up, a 1 3/4 size bag. Next size up, this is the 2 3/4 pounds bag.
Harry: Next up we have our regular bag, which in the UK is 180 grams.
Joe: That's nothing. Our standard bag size, 9.75 ounces.
Harry: Finally, we have our biggest size, which is a share-size bag coming in at 230 grams.
Joe: We got you beat again, UK. This is our party pack, 14.5 ounces, which is also 411 grams. 88% larger than any size you have in the UK.
Harry: Let's count out all the Doritos in our respective largest bags to see what the difference looks like. The good news is that I'm counting out this bag, which is 230 grams. Joe is counting out a party-sized bag of American ones, which is 425 grams, so he might be here a while. Sorry, Joe.
Joe: Yeah, thanks, Harry. [sighs]
We're doing the math so all you stoners don't have to.
Harry: 15 times 8. 11 times 10, plus 1, 2, 3.
Joe: Count out, like, 10 chips, weigh them, divide by 10, and then go, OK, that's how much a chip on average weighs, and then weigh the pile of crumbs and divide it by that number, seeing how many chips are - does that make sense?
I'm gonna be here all day. So, one chip weighs 2.5 grams. So the remainder of the crumbs, 65 grams. What's 65 divided by 2.5? So, altogether, 168 chips. Wow, we're really smart. That was smart what we just did there, right?
Harry: Nine. Leaving our total at 119 Doritos.
My flatmates can eat these. I won't tell them the amount of fondling that's gone on.
Harry: Here's everything that's in a Cool Original Dorito in the UK.
Joe: And here's everything in a Cool Ranch Dorito in the US. All right.
Harry: There are a few things to watch out for in here as well as in other Dorito flavors.
Joe: Ah, good old USA-only food coloring, Red 40 and Yellow No. 5. It's in everything these days. And the UK, of course, opts to color its Doritos with things like annatto and paprika.
Harry: A fun one to know is that the Doritos in the UK and the US both contain potassium chloride. Now, in normal doses, this is perfectly normal and safe to eat in food, as it's used to reduce the sodium content in salt. However, it's also one of the three drugs used in a three-drug cocktail of chemicals used for lethal injections. Enough potassium chloride will increase your blood's concentration of potassium, which will create an irregular heartbeat and lead to cardiac arrest.
Joe: Ah, how many Doritos would it take to kill someone? I think just one, if you crush it up, put in a syringe, and just jam it right into the arm. Death by Cool Ranch. That's how I want to go. I've eaten five of these, and I feel like I'm gonna die.
This here is 100 grams of Cool Ranch Doritos. And in the US, that contains 535 calories. The total fat is 28.56 grams, sodium 678.3 milligrams. Oof. That's a lot of sodium in that pile right there.
Harry: We actually call those Cool Original over here because no one in the UK knows what ranch is. But as far as we're aware, they are the same. In the UK, 100 grams of Cool Original Doritos contains 498 calories, 25.5 grams of fat, 592 milligrams of sodium, and 58.1 grams of carbs. So our version has slightly more calories, fat, and sodium than the UK version. What about the least healthy flavor? Well, in the UK, Flame Grilled Steak is the highest in calories and sodium. Four Flame Grilled Steak grab bags would be your entire daily allowance of fat, sodium, and calories. "With intense flavours, full-on crunch, and a Grilled Steak Kick, Doritos are the great tasting bold snack for when you're getting together with mates!" Bold of you to assume I'm sharing these with my friends.
Joe: What about the least healthiest Dorito? Well, the calorie count is pretty much similar among all of them, but if you're paying attention to your sodium intake, which I guess you should be, then I would say steer clear of the Spicy Sweet Chili Doritos. 100 grams of these, so roughly two of these, is 963.9 milligrams of sodium. That is a 42% increase from the Cool Ranch. [crunching] Everything tastes like insanity. I don't mind this, but you gotta, like, water them down or something, Doritos. This is way too strong. Yet, I'm eating them.
Harry: Here are all the Doritos you'll find in the UK that you won't find in the US. And here are most of the Doritos that are native to the US. Let's start with the classics. In the UK, you will find Guacamole flavor, Flame Grilled Steak flavor, Lightly Salted, and Hint of Lime Doritos.
Then we have a few which aren't technically exclusives but have some differences, which I thought were worth pointing out. For example, as I previously mentioned, we call these ones Cool Original instead of Cool Ranch, because ranch just really isn't a popular condiment in the UK.
There are also a couple of color differences worth noting. For example, the red ones in the UK are actually Chilli Heatwave, whereas the bright orange ones are Tangy Cheese.
In the UK, Doritos also offers a range of salsas and other dips, like nacho cheese and sour cream. In the UK, you are actively encouraged by Doritos, and society as a whole, to dip your Doritos into these sauces, as you can see on the packaging here. But apparently Americans find that super weird and will only ever dip plain chips into salsa. Is that right, Joe?
Joe: Doritos and dips seems like flavor mayhem. The thought of dipping Nacho Cheese Doritos into nacho cheese, I think one bite would just unplug you from the matrix. That seems, like, impossible to handle. But, yeah, go for it.
Harry: Sweaty hands. Sweaty Dorito hands. Save my pride. That's really on there. I have no grip strength. Oh, wow. Before, you know, I've loosened it up for you. There we go. Nice. Every episode. I need to work on my grip strength, go climbing.
To me, it's just like that scene in "Ratatouille" where Remy is feeding his brother a piece of cheese and a piece of strawberry, and if you eat them one at a time, they're pretty good. But if you mix them together ... [dynamic music]
It's a taste explosion. Delicious! Why wouldn't you do this? You guys are missing out, OK? You're missing out.
Joe: I don't think I'm missing out. I think that seems like way more flavor than I can handle, personally. Enjoy!
So, they got the Tapatio flavored Dorito. Collab, love to see it. This guy's Salsa Verde. Spicy Nacho. Spicy Sweet Chili, we saw that a little bit earlier. This one, the Flamas! Just look at the fire on that. These gotta be hot. Whoa. Uh-oh, I don't like the look of this chip. Yeah, yeah. I would say that the Flamas flavor reminds me a lot of Takis. But if that's not Taki enough for you - and this, I think, is actually really irritating - Doritos also has something called the Dinamitas. What do those look like? Takis. Doritos, come on, guys. Let another company make some money. Takis are better. Two other US exclusives that I could not get my hands on by the filming of this episode is Blazin' Buffalo & Ranch and Poppin' Jalapeno. What appears to be, I don't know, an attempt at making a healthier Dorito, if there's such a thing. So, White Cheddar and Spicy White Cheddar. "At Simply, our snacks are made with ingredients you can feel good about and come from the brands you love. We call it PURE DELICIOUSNESS." Barf!
Ingredients: organic corn, organic expeller-pressed sunflower oil, organic cheddar cheese, milk, cheese culture solids, enzymes, organic maltodextrin. They just put the word organic in front of everything. Organic maltodextrin made from corn, sea salt, organic butter, cream, salt, organic skim milk, organic spices, citric acid, organic garlic powder. So I think these are more organic. [laughs]
You know what they taste like? Sunchips. I hate Sunchips.
Harry: We also have an exclusive Dorito shape, which is Doritos Stax. These are kind of like a Dorito-Pringle hybrid, which are mostly just like regular Doritos, but then stacked in a triangular tube.
Joe: Yo! Doritos is going after Takis, now they're going after Pringles? Doritos, let someone else make a dollar in this space!
Harry: These come in four flavors, and we've got them all here. We've got a Mexican Chilli Salsa Stax, these Flaming Chicken Wings Stax, some Sour Cream & Onion Stax, and Ultimate Cheese Stax. Yeah, I mean, they kind of look like maybe thinner than normal Doritos. I wonder why these are Ultimate Cheese compared to just our normal Tangy Cheese. Let's find out. Those aren't bad. They're pretty good, they're pretty good.
Joe: That is an exclusive container shape, but in the US, we have an exclusive chip shape. And that is these, the 3D Crunch. Two flavors that we got are Spicy Ranch. Spicy Ranch? I think I'm in trouble. And Chili Cheese Nacho. I like it. They're, like, lighter, fluffier. Let me ask you guys a question. What shape does that look like? Think really hard.
Announcer: Live from New York, it's "What Shape Is It?"
Joe: What does this shape look like? Imagine if it didn't close up at the bottom. This looks exactly like a Bugle! Doritos is going after everyone. That's why I like them so much, they taste like Bugles. Stay out of Bugles' lane, Doritos. You got a lot to learn. You got a lot to learn about Bugles. And you got a lot to learn about Takis.
Actually, these guys are kind of growing on me. Overall though, yeah. I like Doritos.