Ask someone what the happiest place on Earth is and they will probably say something about Disney. Disneyland has had that tagline associated with their park forever and for many people who have visited the parks, some of whom are bonafide superfans who are so into Disney that they’ll stand for hours in line to buy novelty merchandise like popcorn buckets, the phrase holds true. Now we’ve learned a new fact about Disneyland that solidifies the tagline even further – apparently, our favorite snack was invented there!
According to SFGATE, Disneyland is who we have to thank for the invention of Doritos, the delish multi-flavored snacks. The story of how Doritos came to be is super fascinating and quite a ride, too. It all began in 1955 when Fritos became a corporate sponsor of Disneyland, opening Casa de Fritos, a restaurant in the park.
The restaurant served “authentic Mexican food,” and several of the dishes came with a side of Fritos – which was just tortillas. These tortillas came from Alex Foods, a local tortilla factory – and a worker there had a genius idea when visiting Disneyland for work.
“One day, a salesman from Alex Foods noticed that Casa de Fritos was dumping stale tortillas in the trash,” Bob Sorokanich wrote on Gizmodo. “He gave the kitchen a tip: instead of trashing the stale tortillas, cut them up and fry them.”
1955 Disneyland Casa de Fritos Matchbook https://t.co/qfLqdDgDkL pic.twitter.com/AkwhcbABs9
– Cory Doctorow RIGHT-CLICKING WORDCEL MENTALITY (@doctorow) November 12, 2018
And that’s how Doritos were born. At first, these were just plain crunchy chips, but they were really well-loved. People liked to eat them at the park and the company realized selling them outside the park would probably be successful, too. Decades on, new flavors were released, and Doritos have been a snack staple since. Starting from the trash before taking over the world, Doritos has the origin story of legends.
