There are few things more satisfying than a salty, crunchy snack. We reach for chips because they're
so very satisfying and crunchy. But what if you're tired of potato chips? Fritos to the rescue!
How much do you really know about these corny snacks? This is the untold truth of Fritos.
Making Fritos isn't as simple as frying up some corn. A Fritos factory has the
capability to make at least 20,000 bags of corn chips per shift, and ensuring these salty,
crunchy snacks are ready for consumers is really quite a process. Totally worth it, though.
"Muncha buncha muncha buncha..."
First, the factory gets a delivery of fresh corn, which is stored in grain
silos on-site. Once the corn makes its way into the factory, it's cooked in water to break down
the starch. That corn is subsequently cleaned and ground up, effectively turned into masa,
which serves as the base of the chip. This masa is methodically cut into Fritos' signature shape
before being fried, thus creating the finished product we all love to munch on.
The chips are topped with salt as they go through a tumbling machine, which makes the
seasoning relatively consistent from chip to chip. Those Fritos you're so casually enjoying
have actually been on quite a journey, so treat them with some respect! As you crunch and munch,
stop for a moment to consider how these little guys valiantly make their way to the
packaging line. Then, these aspiring Fritos are weighed and measured, added into branded bags,
sealed, and ready to make their way to your local store. Wheeeee!
When you boil it all down, Fritos are a relatively simple concept. The recipe really only calls for
three basic ingredients: corn, oil, and salt. But that recipe has certainly been tinkered with over
the years. These days, a slew of different flavors are available in the United States.
You have your lightly salted option, of course. Then there's Fritos Scoops, which launched in the
early '90s to offer a more convenient way to gorge on salsa, sauces, or whatever you tend to like.
"You'll dig the taste." "I know what I like… I like Fritos!"
And let's not forget Fritos' Chili Cheese variety, which debuted in the mid-'80s. This flavor was
created to pair with chili, although they're certainly a satisfying snack in their own right.
And that's to say nothing of flavors like Spicy Jalapeno or Flamin' Hot Fritos,
a flavor released in 2020 following the success of its cousin, the ever-tasty Flamin' Hot Cheetos.
To state the abundantly obvious, a brand needs to appeal to a wide audience in order to grow. Well,
the mastermind marketers behind Fritos clearly worked overtime in order to whip up some truly
exciting flavors that people around the globe will be more than happy to crunch and munch a bunch on.
Over the years, there have been so many unique flavors released upon unsuspecting consumers,
so let's dig in and discuss some of the most intriguing variations.
In Mexico, Fritos are available in a "Chorizo and Chipotle" flavor, offering a unique meat-flavored
chip with more than a little kick to them. In South Africa, you can find flavors like
Chutney and Tomato Ribbons. Meanwhile, Canada has a Bar-B-Q Hoops flavor, which has a sweet,
tangy barbecue sauce flavor. This Fritos variation also offers the classic corn chip in
a completely different shape. Wait, is that why so many of our friends want to move to Canada?
Of course, one of the keys to having a successful product
is having a fantastic advertising campaign.
"MUNCHABUNCHAMUNCHABUNCHAMUNCHABUNCHAMUNCHABUNCHMUNCHABUNCH… Fritos go with munch!"
Unfortunately, Fritos rather missed the mark with one of its earliest advertising campaigns,
which managed to ruffle quite a lot of feathers, and rightly so.
In a series of commercials that ran from 1967 to 1971, Fritos debuted its mascot,
"The Frito Bandito". The commercials leaned heavily on talent from the Looney Tunes franchise:
Tex Avery — who directed lots of Looney Tunes shorts— directed the spots. Meanwhile,
Mel Blanc — the original voice of Bugs Bunny and almost every other Looney Tunes character — did
the voiceover work. Sounds like the perfect creative team, right? Well, about that...
"Frito Bandito, what are you doing here?" "Oh I am the moon parking lot attendant."
According to Fox Business, the ad agency behind the commercials took quite a bit of
heat because of the ads. Groups like The National Mexican-American Anti-Defamation Committee and
the Involvement of Mexican-Americans in Gainful Endeavors voiced their concerns as early as 1968.
Frito Bandito was always portrayed with a thick Mexican accent, often singing enthusiastically
about his unhealthy obsession with Fritos. These groups felt — quite rightly -- that this portrayal
perpetuated an insensitive stereotype. The higher-ups at Fritos made quite a
few changes to the campaign over the years, and the mascot was ultimately off the air by 1971.
When Disneyland opened in 1955, Charles Elmer Doolin, the creator of Fritos, managed to
open a restaurant onsite, and the eatery was entirely devoted to his product. Originally
located in Frontierland, the restaurant featured a Mexican theme and was named Casa de Fritos.
And once guests arrived triumphantly at the Fritos restaurant, they'd receive a whole
lot more than a free bag of Fritos. Fritos also happened to be a prominent ingredient
in many of the dishes on the menu. In case that didn't make you totally freakin' sick of Fritos,
there was also a Fritos vending machine on-site.
Well, we're sorry to break your heart here, but the Fritos restaurant is no longer open at
Disneyland. The space became a Mexican restaurant called Casa Mexicana, which itself closed in 2000.
Sorry, all you Disneyland and Fritos freaks... you're going to have to find
your crunchy corn chip fix elsewhere. Maybe try the Second or Third Happiest Place on Earth?
Interestingly enough, Charles Elmer Doolin may be the man who conjured up all this crunchy goodness,
but he also happened to be a die-hard vegetarian. Shocker! He followed the works of Dr. Herbert
Shelton, who promoted a healthy lifestyle focused on vegetarian meals and raw food consumption.
So it's rather surprising that he expected consumers to eat Fritos by the handful.
Reportedly, Doolin generally didn't eat too much of his own product,
because he and his family were focused on a healthy vegetarian diet with very little salt.
As NPR reports, Doolin would only grab Fritos from the factory before they were
salted... on the rare occasions that he brought them home to his family at all.
"Muncha buncha muncha bunch. Muncha buncha muncha bunch. Muncha Buncha Fritos go with lunch."
Truth be told, it can be hard to find snacks that are gluten-free. And when you do happen
to find such a snack treat, the product is often processed in a plant that uses gluten,
making it difficult to determine just how gluten-free it actually is.
For many people, eating gluten-free is a dietary choice. But for people
with celiac disease, it can be a serious matter.
Celiac disease causes the immune system to attack gluten with a toxin. Those toxins destroy
small protrusions in the small intestines that play a role in absorbing nutrients.
And once they're destroyed, you could end up with intestinal damage or serious malnutrition.
For people who need a gluten-free snack,
Fritos has made an effort to validate themselves as a gluten-free producer.
The powers that be have even worked closely with the Celiac Disease Foundation to do so. After all,
Fritos are made from corn, oil, and salt, all of which work within a gluten-free diet.
We also have Charles Elmer Doolin to thank for another snack time favorite:
Cheetos, the crunch classic that's been around since 1948. According to Insider, Cheetos were
originally made with the same ingredients as Fritos, but with cheese added into the mix.
This crunchy snack debuted in San Antonio, Texas several years after Fritos.
"He put his hands where? He's like a six-handed monkey. Eww, get away, sky rats!"
Cheetos also laid the framework for the partnership with Herman W. Lay and Doolin,
resulting in the merger that created Frito-Lay Inc. Doolin needed help distributing this second
snack product, and Lay helped make it work. What a delicious partnership.
As Doolin perfected his Fritos corn chips recipe, he knew that it all had to start with great corn.
After all, not much else is added to the mix. According to NPR,
Doolin actually came up with his own hybrid of corn, making a custom variety to produce
the perfect chip. Doolin utilized Texas farmers to plant a huge array of varieties
until he finally landed on the perfect type of corn to use in making his chips.
Kaleta Doolin's book Fritos Pie: Stories, Recipes, and More details the company her father built.
In one section, she reveals that the final hybrid of corn was developed by an employee
with a degree in agronomy, the science of soil management. This employee paired sweet
corn and field corn to make the perfect match. These days, the corn used in Fritos
comes from farms in the US that are devoted to bringing fresh corn cobs to the Fritos factory,
where they're turned into chips that you can happily stuff into your adorable little face.
"Nothing gives your old lunch new life like Fritos brand corn chips!"
Fritos have been around for awhile. Maybe you enjoyed them with your school lunches back in
the day, or have been known to munch on them at the occasional family barbecue. But here's
something you might not know: this is one snack with a seriously fascinating history.
1932 was the year that Charles Elmer Doolin changed the world of snacking forever.
As it says on the official Fritos website,
"In 1932, C.E. Doolin entered a small San Antonio cafe and purchased a bag of corn
chips. After learning the manufacturer was eager to sell his business, he bought the recipe and
started making Fritos corn chips in his mother’s kitchen. He sold them from his Model T Ford."
NPR goes a bit more in depth about this unusual business deal, writing that,
"At a gas station, Doolin found a Mexican man making an extruded corn chip out of masa,
frying it and selling little bags of the fried corn chips.
They were fritos, 'little fried things' — the beach food of Mexico."
Doolin subsequently worked at finessing the recipe, leading to the Fritos corn
chips we simply adore today, even if Gene Wilder seems skeptical:
"James, don't you simply adore Fritos corn chips?" "Yes madam. What's so good about them?"
Here's a question for you:
What in the world is Frito pie? The late Anthony Bourdain famously described the snack like this:
"Feels like you're holding warm crap in a bag."
People subsequently got
very offended when he suggested the Frito pie he tasted was made with canned chili.
"It was very irritating.
Right away. It was like he doesn't know what he's talking about. Where did he get this?"
But everything was okay, because Bourdain subsequently apologized.
"Bourdain now admits he got it wrong and his publicist told the Associated Press
today that the show will correct the error for future airings."
Anyway, Eater reveals that,
"Despite its name, Frito pie is not pie at all but rather a pile of Fritos with chili on top."
So how did Frito Pie come to grace our planet? Well, some folks have claimed it was created at a
general store in Santa Fe, but this tall tale has since been debunked. According to Houstonia Mag,
the recipe was largely a result of a corporate test kitchen.
That article quotes another piece published in the 1960s that claims,
"While recipes are created for Frito-Lay’s entire line of snack products and canned foods, perhaps
the most famous recipe developed by the Consumer Service department is that for Fritos Chili Pie.”
These days, Frito pie is a mainstay at sports games, picnics, and family dinners,
and it can be served in a variety of ways. Some people even present it to you right there in
a droopy Fritos bag. Others like to stuff it in a casserole dish and call it dinner.
We hope all these images of Frito pie are making you hungry. Really hungry. In 2012,
the State Fair of Texas made the world's largest Frito pie and set a new world record.
This monstrous mound of chili and corn-chip goodness was slopped together to celebrate the
80th anniversary of Fritos. It all came together with 635 bags of Fritos, 660 cans of chili,
and an amazing 580 bags of shredded cheese. Ultimately, this massive undertaking used
1,325 pounds of chili pie goodness, the perfect symbol of Texans' loyal devotion to Frito Pie.
You know what really tastes great with a salty snack like Fritos? If you ask us,
the answer can only be an ice-cold, refreshing Pepsi. If you've never tasted this outrageously
crunchy and carbonated combination, you should absolutely give it a whirl at your earliest
convenience, because this is a match made in heavily-processed, garbage-food heaven.
Well, as fate would have it, the companies Frito-Lay Inc.
and Pepsi-Cola ended up merging in 1965. Go ahead and call it the
ultimate snack conglomerate. They chose to call themselves PepsiCo.
These days, the company reigns supreme when it comes to salty snacks that pack
a whole lot of crunch. Its portfolio includes the likes of Fritos, Cheetos,
Ruffles, Tostitos, Doritos, and of course, Lay's. And as you might expect, the company
also sells a slew of carbonated beverages like the aforementioned Pepsi and its various offshoots,
along with sports drinks and iced teas. Sounds like the perfect business plan to us.
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