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As postwar prosperity fueled demand for indulgent snacks amidst Cold War tensions and civil rights struggles, an unassuming cheese-dusted puff would capture hearts and appetites worldwide.
Rising from humble origins in a quiet Texan kitchen to become a global symbol of junk food decadence over the latter 20th century in the fascinating history of Cheetos.
Emerging in 1948 as Charles Doolin's novel experiment in flavor and texture, Cheetos served as a bright spot of comforting familiarity for generations of snackers against a backdrop of seismic social and political upheaval spanning the Cold War, moon landing, and fall of the Berlin Wall.
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As a savvy businessman, Charles Elmer Doolin recognized the potential market for a new cheese-flavored snack food in the post-war years.
Though best known as the creator of the Frito corn chip in 1932, Doolin continued innovating from his headquarters in San Antonio, always staying abreast of popular tastes.
Thus, in 1948, after careful research and planning, Doolin unveiled his latest snack food creation: Cheetos.
This fried cornmeal snack, coated in cheesy seasoning, was the first of its kind. Ever the diligent tinkerer, Doolin perfected the unique taste and texture of this novel treat through trial and error right in his company’s test kitchens.
The initial test batches cooked up by Doolin himself laid the foundation for a snack so beloved that by 1976 Cheetos had expanded from the American market to Brazil.
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The immediate popularity of Cheetos following their 1948 debut sparked immense growth for The Frito Company. As the cheese-dusted corn snack flew off shelves, Frito founder Charles Doolin glimpsed larger possibilities ahead for his humble firm.
Seeking to leverage Cheetos’ runaway success, in 1961 Doolin merged his company with the H.W. Lay & Company potato chip business.
This powerhouse union formed Frito-Lay Inc., combining the reach, manufacturing capabilities and distribution networks of these snack food pioneers.
Cheetos thus proved the catalyst that spawned a snack food giant. But Doolin and Lay’s ambitions stretched even further, beyond merely dominating grocery aisles from coast to coast.
Hence Frito-Lay allied with drink industry heavyweight PepsiCo only four years later in 1965. This partnership gave Cheetos and Fritos essential exposure in vending machines, convenience stores, and other outlets nationwide as PepsiCo’s snacks division.
Today PepsiCo remains at the helm of a snack empire ruling 36 global markets—all thanks to the booming popularity of one cheesy kernel of innovation: Cheetos. From small batch test fryings to a globe-spanning colossus, the humble Cheeto indeed achieved extraordinary things.
When traditional Cheetos sales softened after decades of runaway success, parent company Frito-Lay hungered for an inventive means of reinvigorating public appetite in the early 1990s.
Their solution?
Infusing the classic cheesy snack with tongue-singeing spice to create Flamin’ Hot Cheetos.
This fiery upgrade launched in 1992 after successful regional test markets. And the zesty makeover proved a masterstroke, lighting consumer passion for Cheetos ablaze once more as sales erupted.
Not merely a passing fad, Flamin’ Hots earned distinction as a “cultural phenomenon” from Newsweek for their immense and lasting appeal.
By injecting extreme heat into this comfort food staple, Frito-Lay tapped into its base’s latent craving for intensity beyond cheddar and corn.
And in the process, Flamin’ Hot Cheetos sparked a snack food revolution—paving the way for other spicy fan favorite variants as the brand expanded its selection to 21 flavors after this invigorating facelift.
Today Flamin’ Hot Cheetos remain the brand’s second best-selling product behind their classic namesake nearly three decades later—a testament to the rejuvenating power of Frito-Lay’s fiery masterstroke.
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While American audiences know Cheetos primarily for cheddar cheese, Frito-Lay has catered its flagship snack to suit many far-flung locales since the 1990s.
No division has embraced flavor experimentation quite like Japan, where Corn Nibblitos (local Cheetos) indulge the populace’s sweet tooth through creative twists.
The unusual innovations began in 2008 as PepsiCo Japan introduced Strawberry Nibblitos: corn puffs drenched in strawberry icing.
These novel pink Cheetos proved merely the first foray into fruit flavors for the brand. In keeping with Japanese tastes, PepsiCo later debuted Pepsi and Mountain Dew Nibblitos as well, featuring syrupy sodas condensed into snack form.
Such confectionary pizza and ice cream flavors too over the years, certifying Japan as Cheetos’ international epicenter of invention.
These envelope-pushing products underscore the brand’s willingness to shape itself around local preference rather than impose Americanized tastes abroad.
After all, Japanese Nibblitos outsell their conventional cheese cousins even without cheddar coating or fiery spice. By fully embracing the foreign market’s unique vision, PepsiCo thus grew Corn Nibblitos into Japan’s top-selling variant of the classic American snack.
Richard Montañez's story seemed like a classic tale of corporate America.
He claimed that as a humble janitor at Frito-Lay in the early 1990s, Montañez devised the idea for Flamin' Hot Cheetos by adding chili pepper seasoning to regular Cheetos.
This eventually led to booming sales and national prominence for the spicy new snack. Montañez quickly rose through the corporate ranks as a result, becoming an executive and motivational speaker.
Hollywood soon came calling, with a biopic about Montañez's underdog story entering development in 2018.
However, this chips-to-riches fable shattered following an internal investigation by Frito-Lay in 2021. Their extensive review of records found no evidence suggesting Montañez contributed at all to the creation of Flamin' Hot Cheetos.
In fact, the product appeared to have been developed internally by the Frito-Lay R&D department years before Montañez began promoting new ideas to the company.
This contradicted the premise of the highly-publicized upcoming film about Montañez, which was already completed by that point.
Thus Montañez's account joined the likes of other disputed self-made tales like the McDonald's hot coffee lawsuit.
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As a testament to their beloved status across generations, Cheetos represent no mere niche snack. Today the brand enjoys staggering demand on a truly global scale, with annual sales exceeding those of PepsiCo’s other billion-dollar food and beverage lines.
Raking in approximately $4 billion each year, Cheetos now constitutes PepsiCo’s 11th largest brand worldwide as of 2010.
Their yearly revenue nearly matches that of mega-brands like Quaker Oats or Tropicana—a remarkable feat for a snack that began as one man’s experiment in a humble test kitchen.
From early samples served up by creator C.E. Doolin himself in 1948 San Antonio, Cheetos have since become an international sensation, crispy and cheese-dusted symbols of junk food nostalgia across 36 countries.
An entire legacy springs from Doolin’s original vision for the perfect cheesy snack. And 72 years later, Cheetos show no signs of ceasing their crunch heard ’round planet Earth.
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