The Thought Of Dorito-Covered Hot Wings Convinces Buffalo Wild Wings To Switch From Coke To Pepsi

(photos: Morton Fox and Danny Ngan)

Restaurant chain Buffalo Wild Wings is ditching Coca-Cola as its soft drink supplier and switching to Pepsi. But what’s most fascinating about this change is how the folks at PepsiCo convinced BWW to jump ship.

See, PepsiCo doesn’t just make Pepsi and Mountain Dew. Through Frito-Lay, the company also owns a large number of popular snack brands like Doritos, Ruffles, Cheetos, Sun Chips, Lay’s, Funyuns, and Tostitos. And it’s the thought of being able to offer those products in conjunction with the wings and beverages that has BWW happy to say adios to Coke.

But it’s not just about having some Cheetos in a bowl on the table. No, there’s some crazy food science in the works here.

BWW CEO Sally Smith tells the AP that the recently visited the PepsiCo food innovation lab — which we imagine is like an Oompa-Loompa-less Wonka chocolate factory — where Pepsi showed off some possible treats that BWW could make with PepsiCo products, like Doritos as a crunchy topping for wings or chicken tenders, or salad dressing that uses Mountain Dew.

“I don’t think it will be in the next 12 months, but we’ll possibly start testing after a year or 18 months,” said Smith.

PepsiCo still has a huge partnership going with the Dorito-shell tacos going over at Taco Bell. Perhaps the way forward for the company is to just seek out more deals like that the BWW one.

Maybe it can reach out to Pepperidge Farm and create Cheeto-flavored Milano cookies? Or maybe the people at Mondavi might be interested in a Diet Mountain Dew zinfandel? The world could be PepsiCo’s orange-powder-coated oyster!

by Chris Morran via Consumerist