Also, if you haven’t seen Chronicle, you should. I’ve watched it three times in the last month and still think it’s pretty awesome. So awesome in fact, I drew a spot of fan art:

Audio: Broken Social Scene.Forgiveness Rock Record / Pretty Lights.Taking Up Your Precious Time

Visual: Adventure Time.Season One / Primer / Heroes.Season 4

I was actually having a rather bad day but when this showed up at my front door, it made everything so much better.

As I’ve  mentioned before, I’m quite a chip fan (they’re probably my biggest weakness) and Doritos has long been my favorite chip. So you can imagine how excited I was to try them.  As soon as I opened the first bag, I could tell right away that some changes had certainly been made – and these changes were all good.

Unlike most chip bags that are one third chips and two thirds disappointment, I was relieved to see the inside of the Doritos Jacked bag was packed almost to the top with hardly any room left over.

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a full bag of chips

The tortilla chips are actually an impressive 40% larger than traditional Doritos. As promised they are bigger, bolder and thicker. And because of the larger and thicker size, almost all chips in the bag retained their distinctive triangle shape with very few broken ones. They also pack a louder crunch, which depending on how you look at it, could be a good thing.

The new Doritos Jacked on the left and classic sized Cool Ranch on the right

The Smoky Chipoltle BBQ favor is very intense, with just as much emphasis on the chipoltle as on the smoky BBQ. The back of the bag boasts how the chips will “light up your senses with the taste of SPICY chipotle peppers for a WICKED afterburn“. After eating several handfuls (did I mention they’re also very addictive?) I started to feel the spiciness on my tongue almost right away. But it was one of those good spicy sensations where I found myself coming back for more. Enough heat to make it stand out from other so-called spicy chips, but not too hot where you can’t eat more than three.

Doritos Jacked really are bigger, bolder and thicker

To get the distinctive flavor, the new chips are sweetened with brown sugar, sugar and Sucralose. Like normal Doritos, they are Trans-Fat free and they manage to capture the true barbecue smokiness that makes them stand out compared with overly seasoned “barbecue” flavored chips, which is a nice touch especially as we get ready for BBQ season. I would easily pair these chips in the place of fries with a freshly grilled burger or even as a unique side to a cedar smoked salmon filet.

Truth be told, I was skeptical, wondering if Doritos could actually make such a drastic change, yet preserve their originality, taste and have them be a “fun” snack without insisting upon themselves the way some chip flavors do when they come up with bizarre combinations or tastes. Food gimmicks and trends come and go, so it will be interesting to see what other flavors they will add to the line up in the coming months and years.

The obvious question is will the Jacked chips take the place of the classic ones and will we start seeing nacho flavor and Cool Ranch Jacked chips? I actually don’t think that will happen.  There’s more than enough room in this world for both the classic and the new Doritos Jacked.

DORITOS JACKED GIVEAWAY!

Since I enjoyed the chips so much, Doritos Canada and Fleishman Hillard are giving me another basket that I’m giving away! (I honestly thought about selfishly keeping it for myself… they’re that good… but I wanted to share the love.) So you can win a basket of Doritos Jacked prize basket filled with $100 worth of awesomeness from Doritos. And yes, the new Doritos Jacked chips will be in that basket.

If you want to win, all you have to do is send me an email using the secure email form on this site, and tell me in the body of the email your name, address and phone number and how much larger are the new Doritos Jacked chips compared to normal Doritos.  I will draw one lucky winner from all the correct answers and that person will win their very own basket. (Contest open to residents of Canada. One entry per person. Draw will be held on May 4 and winner will be notified by email)

And as I mentioned, Doritos is rolling out the new bigger, bolder, and thicker chips which I’m told are actually a whopping 40% larger than the regular Doritos, by giving away a JACKED MINI Cooper Countryman as well as some other great prizes.

But of course there are some spoilsports out there; a group called the Micro Munchers Association of Canada  (an advocate group in support of eating micro sized foods) have now jacked the Doritos Canada Facebook page and all the JACKED prizes including the MINI Cooper Countryman. Thankfully for chip lovers such as myself, the MMAC have given Canadian Doritos lovers a chance to unlock these prizes by playing online games and collecting points.

This is actually a very witty and well thought-out promotion and as Canadians await the arrival of the Doritos Jacked Chipotle BBQ, they can try to win some prizes and unlock through the Doritos Facebook page.

But for me, as my snack of choice when I’m craving that crunchy corn chip, hearing that Doritos is once again re-inventing the wheel (or in this case, the triangle) is music to my ears.

The new Doritos JACKED chips

Doritos Canada is set to release Doritos JACKED in the great white north very soon (they already launched at the SXSW event in Texas last month) and to help roll out the new chip, they are hosting contests and tons of on-line promotion through Facebook. They also handed out some samples of the new chips last week in downtown Toronto.

I have yet to try the new Doritos  JACKED chips or even see the Canadian versions in person, but the promised “bigger, bolder, thicker”  Doritos certainly have my attention. I’m really looking forward to seeing how they stack up to their long-standing counterparts which have become a staple of every party I’ve ever had. Normally I wouldn’t embrace such a drastic change, but in a situation like this, I can only imagine it will be for the good.