In the 1960s, Frito-Lay marketing executive Arch West returned from a family vacation in California singing the praises of the toasted tortillas he had sampled at a roadside stop. In 1972, his discovery morphed into Doritos, a plain, crispy tortilla chip that was sprinkled with powdered gold in the form of nacho cheese flavoring. There was just one problem: aside from the orange cheese coating that covered their fingers, those who chowed down on Doritos were left with a garlic-laden, oppressive odor emanating from their mouths. The socially stigmatizing condition became known as "Doritos breath.” It wasn’t long before Doritos fans let Frito-Lay know that they wanted their breath to stop wilting flowers. Unfortunately, the company didn’t think it was a pressing issue. Despite their pungent nature, Doritos were a $1.3 billion brand, so clearly people were willing to risk interpersonal relationships after inhaling a bag. However, in the course of formulating a cheesier taste — which the company dubbed Nacho Cheesier Doritos — they found that it altered the impact of the garlic powder used in making the dip. Tinkering with the garlic flavoring had the unintended — but very happy — consequence of significantly reducing the smell. When Arch West died in 2011 at the age of 97, his family decided to sprinkle Doritos in his grave. They were plain — not because of the smell, but because his daughter believed that mourners wouldn’t want nacho cheese powder on their fingers.
