Randy Crouton on Ranch Dressing

We live in a country (world?) obsessed with ranch dressing. Why? What's so special about it? Today I was eating some ranch flavored chips and was trying to figure out what it even tasted like... salty for sure... kinda creamy (but chips and dry and crunchy)... and kinda oniony. That doesn't sound like a mixture of flavors that would drive people of all ages to invite to accompany so many frequent forkfuls of food into their mouths. BUT IT WORKS!!!

From Wikipedia:
"Ranch dressing is a condiment made of buttermilk or sour cream, mayonnaise, minced green onion, garlic powder, and other seasonings mixed into a sauce. Ranch dressing is one of the two most popular styles of salad dressing in the United States, together with Italian dressing. It is also popular as a dipping sauce."

Okay, but why is it called "ranch"?

"In 1954, Steve and Gayle Henson opened a dude ranch near Santa Barbara, California, and named it "Hidden Valley Ranch". As a side business, they sold to guests a special dressing that Steve had developed in Alaska. The dressing was popular, and they began selling bottles that guests could take home, and later opened a factory to sell packets of ranch seasoning that had to be mixed with mayonnaise and buttermilk (packets that are still available to this day). In 1972 the brand was bought by Clorox for $8 million.
Clorox reformulated the dressing several times to try to make it more convenient. The first change was to include buttermilk flavoring in the seasoning so that home chefs only had to add milk rather than buttermilk. In 1983, Clorox developed a non-refrigerated bottled formulation, making it even more popular.
Ranch became a common snack food flavor, starting with Cooler Ranch Doritos in 1987, and Hidden Valley Ranch Wavy Lay's in 1994."

I just had to Wiki "dude ranch". So there you have it!

In one year from today we will discuss (if someone reminds me):
So is sour cream and onion flavoring completely redundant?
What exactly are those little, dark green specs in ranch dressing?
What new foods will be ranch flavored?
What new possible flavors of dressing that will be surpass ranch flavoring?

Signing off,
R.C.