Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Savior production of Buyhart Radio.
Speaker 2: I'm Annie Reese and I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, and today we
Speaker 2: have a classic episode for you about cheese curls, mostly Cheetos,
Speaker 2: but also generic brands.
Speaker 3: I did have to clarify this point earlier because I
Speaker 3: was like, wait, I don't remember doing an episode on
Speaker 3: cheese curls, and then seconds later I was like, oh, Cheetos, Cheetos.
Speaker 2: You mean Cheetos, Uh huh, yep, cheesypoofs, you know the
Speaker 2: whole thing.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this one is from September of twenty eighteen, and
Speaker 2: we were so chipper. I almost didn't want to run
Speaker 2: this episode because we are so chipper here, and I'm like,
Speaker 2: is this appropriate? Is this appropriate for our modern times?
Speaker 1: I think people could use some chipper? Yeah? Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3: And as I said to you, we talked about a
Speaker 3: video game, a branded video.
Speaker 2: Game with Chester Cheetah Oh yeah, and I think.
Speaker 1: You know, if that brings anyone joy like it did me,
Speaker 1: we should do it.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Oh yeah, yeah, No, this is a this is
Speaker 2: a joyous episode there. I mean, from the way that
Speaker 2: they're made to all of these weird marketing details, it's a.
Speaker 2: It's a thing of beauty, so forgive our perky tone.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: It also made me think of our super producer Dylan
Speaker 3: and that brings me joy.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, because he is a he's a cheetoh genius.
Speaker 2: He eats them with chopsticks as so to avoid getting
Speaker 2: the dust everywhere.
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, excellent, excellent stuff. Was there any particular reason
Speaker 3: this one was on your mind to bring back Lord?
Speaker 2: Nope, it was just it was in the archive. I
Speaker 2: was like, oh, that was a fun one. Here we are, yeah,
Speaker 2: here we are. Although there is some recent Cheetos news
Speaker 2: that I would like to share with you. So just
Speaker 2: this month, March of twenty twenty five, still a really
Speaker 2: weird number to me.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: So there was a flame and hot Cheeto that someone
Speaker 2: found that has shaped more or less like the Pokemon Charizard. Okay,
Speaker 2: and it's sold at auction this month for nearly ninety
Speaker 2: thousand dollars like eighty seven thousand something wow for auction.
Speaker 2: It was packaged on this custom Pokemon card and labeled
Speaker 2: Cheeto's Ard, which has one hundred and twenty HP if
Speaker 2: you if you need to know that, if that helps
Speaker 2: you in any way. There were some sixty bits on it,
Speaker 2: and the auctions description explained that this cheeto and I
Speaker 2: quote was initially discovered and preserved sometime between twenty eighteen
Speaker 2: and twenty twenty two. The cheeto surged in popularity on
Speaker 2: social media platforms in late twenty twenty four.
Speaker 1: Okay, how much do you want to bet either Dylan
Speaker 1: or Andrew superproducers were involved in this? Both?
Speaker 2: I hope, I mean yeah, although I would hope that
Speaker 2: they would tell us about it if they had. You know,
Speaker 2: I don't want to learn from Google. That's rude.
Speaker 1: Yes, well, let us know.
Speaker 3: I do have a friend who loves both Cheetos and
Speaker 3: Charis Art, so I should chick in with her as well.
Speaker 2: It does, you know, Like I don't always I don't
Speaker 2: always like see the image in the clouds that people
Speaker 2: are talking about with things like this, but it does.
Speaker 2: It does look like Charis Aard, like for like a
Speaker 2: flick from a profile.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I also love that the preserved sometime between twenty eighteen
Speaker 3: and twenty twenty.
Speaker 2: That's a large crow. That's a large range.
Speaker 1: It makes it sound like a fossil, which I love.
Speaker 2: Has anyone radiocarbon dated this cheetos ared right.
Speaker 1: I mean, see, it's hard not to be chipper about Cheeto, dude.
Speaker 2: It is.
Speaker 1: Oh heck, all right, Well.
Speaker 2: I guess we should let former Annie and Lauren take
Speaker 2: it away.
Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to food Stuff.
Speaker 2: I'm Anniris and I'm Lauren vocal Bomb, and today we're
Speaker 2: talking about cheat and other cheese puffs, cheeseypoofs, whatever you
Speaker 2: want to call them.
Speaker 1: I did keep calling them cheesypoofs. That's from South Park, Yeah.
Speaker 3: As we learned in the fictional trivia thing. I mean
Speaker 3: also from watching the show. But I think that's why
Speaker 3: it's been on my mind.
Speaker 2: Ah.
Speaker 1: Yes, there's a lot of things to say about Cheetohs.
Speaker 2: There is that. This episode was inspired by our super
Speaker 2: producer Dylan and his Cheeto genius. He eats Cheetoh's chopsticks.
Speaker 2: It keeps everything nice and clean and neat. He's doing
Speaker 2: it currently, he is right this very.
Speaker 3: Moment, and it is delightful. Yes, So I want to
Speaker 3: start out with a question. Do you know the game
Speaker 3: A Jack in the Bucks?
Speaker 2: I believe we've played it in line for rides at
Speaker 2: Disney World.
Speaker 1: Oh that was heads up?
Speaker 2: Oh, okay, okay, sorry.
Speaker 1: Man, we did get a lot of enjoyment out of that.
Speaker 2: But I am familiar with the game Jack in the Box.
Speaker 3: It's like a series of games, sure, but you play
Speaker 3: it usually on your phone with other people in the room,
Speaker 3: and all the phones connect to the TV.
Speaker 1: And there's one that is sort of.
Speaker 3: Like a March Madness brackets thing where people vote to
Speaker 3: determine what being in the bracket should advance. And one
Speaker 3: of the competitions or questions is around the sexiest mascot,
Speaker 3: and Chester of the Cheetos always wins, no contest, no
Speaker 3: one votes for anyone else. And I've pondered it sometimes
Speaker 3: I'm like, I mean, I.
Speaker 2: Suppose, you know, as Chester himself might say, it's not
Speaker 2: easy being cheesy.
Speaker 3: No, we know. Every time we record we know the battle.
Speaker 3: Also another cultural thing I want to mention is super
Speaker 3: disilted Dads. The taste of loneliness is the parody brand
Speaker 3: on thirty Rock. That's what Liz Lemon eats when she's
Speaker 3: sad or you know, upset or just in general because
Speaker 3: she's usually pretty oh yeah yeah, Baseline a little bit,
Speaker 3: a little bit upset at people.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I love it. I love it. But all right, Cheetos,
Speaker 1: what is.
Speaker 2: It Cheetos are a name brand of cheese puffs, which
Speaker 2: are a snack made of puffed corn dough that's either
Speaker 2: baked or fried and then coated in either dehydrated cheese
Speaker 2: or a cheese flavored.
Speaker 4: Powder cheese flavored powder, cheese.
Speaker 2: Flavored powdered yes, depending on your level of actual cheese,
Speaker 2: and there there's certain marketing restrictions on what you can
Speaker 2: actually call something.
Speaker 1: Love it.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Cheese puffs, by the way, here are are not
Speaker 2: to be confused with gagere, which are French pastry puff
Speaker 2: bites that are made with just an impressive amount of
Speaker 2: grey are cheese and are so delicious, so good. Sometimes
Speaker 2: they come stuffed with things.
Speaker 1: Yes, oh oh, indeed.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's like cheese flavored chew and it's just so good.
Speaker 1: Anyway, Yes, we must move on.
Speaker 2: We do that. It's all who other episode about puff
Speaker 2: pastry at some point in the future. I'm a little
Speaker 2: bit intimidated by it in a baking and a science standpoint,
Speaker 2: but we're gonna come back to it. Meanwhile, Cheetos, Yeah,
Speaker 2: how they're made is great. I'm really excited about this
Speaker 2: because they're because they're basically a different form of popcorn.
Speaker 3: What yoh, oh, I couldn't be more on board.
Speaker 2: You start, You start the cheeto process with three simple
Speaker 2: ingredients and one kind of complicated one corn meal, water, oil,
Speaker 2: and flavor coating.
Speaker 1: Flavor coating.
Speaker 2: The flavor coating will come back to you later. But okay,
Speaker 2: so did you listen to or perhaps, if you're Annie
Speaker 2: and sitting across from me, participate in our popcorn episode.
Speaker 3: I just listened to it on refeat at night and
Speaker 3: over heart dreaming of what.
Speaker 1: Could be.
Speaker 3: All right if you if you did listen, or if
Speaker 3: you listen every night, you might remember that corn kernels
Speaker 3: contain a mix of proteins and starches that, when heated
Speaker 3: with a little bit of moisture under pressure, will gelatinize. Yeah,
Speaker 3: they turn into this kind of kind of fun goo.
Speaker 3: If you release the pressure, the goo will rapidly expand
Speaker 3: into a foam that cools at room temperature into a
Speaker 3: solid fluff. A kernel of popcorn is its own little pressure
Speaker 3: cooker when it's heated up. But when you've got corn meal,
Speaker 3: you've got to provide the pressure along with the temperature
Speaker 3: in order to create this puffing scenario. So therefore, cheese
Speaker 3: puffs are extruded. Extrusion is a scary sounding word, but
Speaker 3: it just means that you've got a machine that lets
Speaker 3: you push dough through a tube with a dye or
Speaker 3: a mold on the end to create different shapes, like
Speaker 3: a playdough machine. Oh yeah, except in this case, your
Speaker 3: playdough machine is filled with corn meal and just a
Speaker 3: little bit of water, and it heats this mixture up
Speaker 3: to just about the boiling point of water, and there's
Speaker 3: this screw on the inside of the pipe that shears
Speaker 3: the hot corn meal against the sides of the tube,
Speaker 3: creating enough pressure that the water boils and the corn
Speaker 3: meal gelatinizes. So when it goes through that die at
Speaker 3: the end into the relatively cool and low pressure environment
Speaker 3: that we call normal air, the goo expands into foam
Speaker 3: and cools to a solid in a split second. And
Speaker 3: the shape of the dye and the way that you
Speaker 3: cut the dough as it comes out will determine the
Speaker 3: shape of your cheese puff. And I'm actually somehow downplaying
Speaker 3: how completely rad this is. That the machine is moving
Speaker 3: fast enough and at high enough pressure that when the
Speaker 3: puffs come out, they actually fly three feet through the
Speaker 3: air and hit this net or cage that drops them
Speaker 3: down onto a belt to go on through the rest
Speaker 3: of the process.
Speaker 1: Ah, I see a video of this so badly.
Speaker 2: Yes, but we're not done yet.
Speaker 1: There's more.
Speaker 2: Yes, there's more for flavor and crunch and to reduce
Speaker 2: the amount of moisture left in the puffs. You know,
Speaker 2: you don't want a soggy Cheeto. The puffs will move
Speaker 2: through either a fryer or an oven. Cheetos are generally
Speaker 2: fried unless they say baked on the package, and then
Speaker 2: they're probably baked.
Speaker 1: Yeah, weird.
Speaker 2: Then they're ready for flavor.
Speaker 1: Oh.
Speaker 2: They'll either be spritsed with oil and then tossed with
Speaker 2: dry seasonings, or, in the case of Cheetos, sent into
Speaker 2: this tumbler drum that simultaneously tosses them and also sprays
Speaker 2: them with this pre mixed oil plus seasonings kind of stuff.
Speaker 2: This drum is called a flavor reel. By the way,
Speaker 2: our e favor Our e e L flavor reel.
Speaker 1: Hmmm.
Speaker 2: I love everything about this. The coated puffs are allowed
Speaker 2: to dry out, and they're packaged, and the entire process
Speaker 2: of creating this packaged product takes like less than twenty minutes.
Speaker 1: I have some kind of weird desire to just like
Speaker 1: stand and fill the net and be pelted with ga Almost.
Speaker 2: That is slightly strange, but.
Speaker 1: I want to be in like a beekeeping soup. I
Speaker 1: don't know what this says about.
Speaker 4: Me, Lauren, I don't know.
Speaker 2: I can't deny that it sounds delightful. I just want
Speaker 2: to spread my arms wide and just receive, receive the
Speaker 2: corn puff goodness.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, as wacky as it all is, it is
Speaker 3: this highly scientific process. You have to get the just
Speaker 3: the right moisture content in the original corn meal itself,
Speaker 3: and also once you add the water, and also throughout
Speaker 3: the whole process, and also when you're packaging it. Cheetos
Speaker 3: has an in house lab that analyzes the chemical composition
Speaker 3: of their product once every thirty minutes wow, and then
Speaker 3: once every four hours, a panel of four tasters will
Speaker 3: inspect a sample, comparing it to reference Cheetos that are
Speaker 3: flown in by the powers that be. It is so scientific,
Speaker 3: fantastic reference Cheetos. Who gets to be the tasters? It's
Speaker 3: just like a job you chained for your whole life.
Speaker 2: I think it is.
Speaker 1: The rocky theme is planning and you're like dinner, dinner,
Speaker 1: eating cheetahs.
Speaker 2: I didn't ask. There's no one that I could ask.
Speaker 1: Okay, if you know right in yes please.
Speaker 2: There's also a recipe for making your own up on
Speaker 2: splendid Table. It involves steaming tapioca and corn flour dough
Speaker 2: for an hour, dehydrating pieces of it for up to
Speaker 2: ten hours, and then deep frying them.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 2: I was almost scared to link this because I feel
Speaker 2: like you're gonna go do it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, and I suspect it won't go well for me,
Speaker 3: but you know, I won't know until I try exactly
Speaker 3: like a very big, broad shruggy gesture.
Speaker 2: In terms of nutrition, mm hmm, baked baked cheese puffs
Speaker 2: aren't too bad for you, but the fried one's uh,
Speaker 2: nutritionally speaking, you know, they're mostly oil and simple carbohydrates.
Speaker 2: You know, it's just fat and like the specific type
Speaker 2: of sugars that carb sugars that get you like a
Speaker 2: little bit high. Oh, I mean, not like high high,
Speaker 2: but they just perk you up real quick.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: So it's a very pleasurable thing to eat along with salt,
Speaker 2: which you know also gives you a little bit of
Speaker 2: a that's delicious. Some of the other ingredients listed on
Speaker 2: your typical cheese puff package are vitamins and minerals that
Speaker 2: actually get leeched from the corn meal during processing and
Speaker 2: thus are added back in so that your snack isn't
Speaker 2: like completely nutritional avoid So that's nice. Yeah, yeah, But
Speaker 2: what I'm saying is that you know, they feel like
Speaker 2: a treat, and they should be treated as.
Speaker 3: Treats, treated as a treat all right around the world.
Speaker 3: There are all kinds of brands of cheese puffs, like
Speaker 3: Twisties and what's Its, But the leading brand of cheese
Speaker 3: puffs I keep wanting to call them cheeseyproofs is Freedo
Speaker 3: Laths Cheetos, which boasted four billion in annual sales in
Speaker 3: twenty thirteen. And to make a year's supply of Cheetos
Speaker 3: pepsi co needs five thousand cows to get the eleven
Speaker 3: million gallons of milk two hundred gallons per cow to
Speaker 3: make the ten million pounds of cheddar cheese for that
Speaker 3: cheesy powder.
Speaker 2: More and how that cheesey powder is made. In the
Speaker 2: middle of our history section.
Speaker 3: Yeah, twenty two countries produced Cheetos, making all kinds of flavors,
Speaker 3: from pepsi to peanut butter.
Speaker 1: Oh No.
Speaker 3: Drillis did a rather in death look into the serving
Speaker 3: sizes of nine types of chip snack things and found
Speaker 3: that Cheetos regularly gives customers more than the serving size
Speaker 3: on the back indicates. One hundred and eighty nine is
Speaker 3: what it probably says in the back, but what you're
Speaker 3: more likely to get is something closer to two hundred
Speaker 3: and thirty seven and a half, and Cheetos was declared
Speaker 3: the vale winner of all the others at point zero
Speaker 3: zero eight dollars I guess cents per chip. Uh.
Speaker 2: Interestingly, baby boomers are the first generation whose intake of
Speaker 2: snacks did not decline as they hit middle age, but increased.
Speaker 1: Interesting.
Speaker 2: Indeed, I think it has something to do with our
Speaker 2: snack habits overall.
Speaker 3: Probably twenty sixteen is sometimes known as the year of
Speaker 3: the Cheeto. It appeared in loads of fast food items
Speaker 3: like casadas, burritos, or as the coating on chicken tenders,
Speaker 3: the scientific marvel.
Speaker 1: That is Burger Kings, mac and Cheeto's.
Speaker 3: They were hailed as the new Torito, which I love
Speaker 3: that because I don't know what that means.
Speaker 2: What oh wars peace, I don't know.
Speaker 1: Is the doo.
Speaker 3: Nothing makes sense anymore, but the cheto speaking of making
Speaker 3: sense or not as a very perhaps a surprising history,
Speaker 3: it does.
Speaker 2: And we will get into that just as soon as
Speaker 2: we get back from a quick break for a word
Speaker 2: from our sponsor.
Speaker 1: And we're back. Thank you, Spencer, Yes, thank you. All right,
Speaker 1: So we owe our thanks.
Speaker 3: For cheese curls cheese puffs puffs to an animal feed
Speaker 3: manufacturer in Wisconsin in nineteen thirty.
Speaker 1: Five animal feed, animal feed. Mm hm, yep. I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna explain more. I'm gonna let you wonder about it.
Speaker 2: Perfect.
Speaker 1: No, I have to explain everything because I love it. Okay.
Speaker 3: So, when this manufacturer is making the feed, and grinder
Speaker 3: flaked the corn, and in order to clean the grinder
Speaker 3: works would feed the machine damp corn, which made these
Speaker 3: poofy corn things aka corn puffs. One of the employees
Speaker 3: took them home and dried them out, and when he
Speaker 3: didn't die, he found the flavor and texture quite pleasing actually,
Speaker 3: and he suggested that the company sell them for human
Speaker 3: consumption under the name corn curls with ks, which they
Speaker 3: did after changing the name of the company to you
Speaker 3: know shake. The history of you know, animal feed Yeah,
Speaker 3: we're an animal feed company, but now we're feeding you humans.
Speaker 3: The Elmer Candy Corporation lays claim to creating the first
Speaker 3: cheese curl, the cheeweese as well, and the cheese doodle.
Speaker 3: Cheese with the Z was a popular snack produced in
Speaker 3: New York and it came onto the scene in the fifties.
Speaker 3: But when it comes to Cheetos, they were the invention
Speaker 3: of Ce Doolan in nineteen forty eight. Doolan was born
Speaker 3: in Kansas City, Kansas, in nineteen oh thirty, but his
Speaker 3: family moved to Texas when he was quite young. His
Speaker 3: father was an inventor, and the young Dulan worked at
Speaker 3: his father's auto repair shop and the confectionery that the
Speaker 3: family owned. He was looking for a new snack and
Speaker 3: he responded to an ad in the San Antonio Express
Speaker 3: for a fried corn chip recipe an adapted potato riser
Speaker 3: and that's not all nineteen retail accounts too, and Dulan
Speaker 3: got all of this for a cool one hundred bucks.
Speaker 3: Then massa was pushed through the riser and then snipped
Speaker 3: into ribbons and fried in oil.
Speaker 1: These chips were named.
Speaker 3: Frido's and in nineteen thirty two, the Freedo company got
Speaker 3: its start. It grew relatively quickly, five plants by nineteen
Speaker 3: forty seven, and they made other snacks as well.
Speaker 1: Friedo wasn't the only thing. Doulan was behind innovations.
Speaker 3: And practices like store door delivery or having the company
Speaker 3: salespeople do the stocking of their product clip racks who
Speaker 3: was behind that. He experimented with canned foods and toes
Speaker 3: and fast food, opening one of the first tex mex
Speaker 3: fast food places in the country and the first place
Speaker 3: in Dallas to have a microwave as it was.
Speaker 2: Called at the time raidar range Wow.
Speaker 3: He came up with cup shaped fried tortilla shells. Another
Speaker 3: thing he did was invest in Disneyland in its early stages.
Speaker 3: When it opened in nineteen fifty five, Disneyland featured a
Speaker 3: restaurant of Doolands called Cosasa.
Speaker 2: Free Does.
Speaker 3: Kind of ironically, I guess he was a big health
Speaker 3: nut and kept up to date with health advancements and trends,
Speaker 3: and he tried to translate that into his products. He
Speaker 3: went on to join the Texas Department of Agriculture, which
Speaker 3: later developed a corn hybrid that was used in Freedo's.
Speaker 1: Both he and his.
Speaker 3: Father did so much more like this is very very condensed,
Speaker 3: but reading it was one of those times where I
Speaker 3: was like, what you did this much stuff?
Speaker 1: Really?
Speaker 2: Also, and how did you You must have gotten up
Speaker 2: very early in the morning.
Speaker 3: Exactly, But that's kind of the gist Cheetos, though, Dulan
Speaker 3: was looking to make a snack that wouldn't ghost stale,
Speaker 3: and he got his inspiration from corn chips, and he
Speaker 3: conducted several experiments with his kids as the test subjects.
Speaker 3: That's a theme that we're seeing coming up a lot.
Speaker 3: And he did first come up with the recipe for
Speaker 3: Fredo's and then later Cheetos. He got inspiration for an
Speaker 3: adaption to dairy preservative technique from the US Army's dehydrated cheese,
Speaker 3: so in a way, US.
Speaker 2: Army is also responsible for Cheetos.
Speaker 3: Yep. The Army placed a huge order for World War One,
Speaker 3: buying twenty five million quarter pound tens of processed cheese
Speaker 3: from Craft, and this is what catapulted Craft to what
Speaker 3: it is now at least one of the big things.
Speaker 3: Point being, the Army was big cheese fans and was
Speaker 3: always looking for a way to do more with less.
Speaker 3: In nineteen forty three, a USDA dairy scientist by the
Speaker 3: name of George Sanders came up with the first cheese powder.
Speaker 2: At the time, the military was a little mad with
Speaker 2: the powers of dehydration. You know, water is heavy, heavy,
Speaker 2: is expensive to ship. If you dehydrate your food, you
Speaker 2: can ship way more of it, be it vegetables, potatoes, eggs,
Speaker 2: or cheese. So they were funding all kinds of people
Speaker 2: who were working on all these dehydration technologies at the time,
Speaker 2: including the aforementioned craft and the USDA, and cheese for
Speaker 2: a long time was considered impossible to dehydrate because the
Speaker 2: heat used in dehydration would melt the cheese and separate
Speaker 2: the fats from the milk solids. But Sanders developed a
Speaker 2: method of drying shredded cheese at low temperatures to create
Speaker 2: this protective crust not just around the shreds of cheese,
Speaker 2: but around the molecules themselves within the shreds. The shreds
Speaker 2: could then be ground and dehydrated at closer to a
Speaker 2: usual temperature. And this, obviously, like getting a packet of
Speaker 2: dehydrated cheese, wouldn't really be the same thing as you
Speaker 2: know sending a soldier like a hunk of cheese to
Speaker 2: eat like with your hand, But it was useful for
Speaker 2: cooking and flavoring.
Speaker 3: And when the war ended, the Army had all of
Speaker 3: these wartime contracts and excess food to figure out in
Speaker 3: a way that wouldn't calls companies to collapse or maybe
Speaker 3: even industries. One of the things they did was sell
Speaker 3: back dehydrated cheese at like a third of the price,
Speaker 3: and a lot of companies snapped it up. It was cheap,
Speaker 3: we'll find a way, We'll find something to do with
Speaker 3: it later, including the Freedo Company, which debuted the Cheeto
Speaker 3: Dusted with Army Dehydrated Cheese in nineteen forty eight.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and meanwhile, during the war, Freedo was a supplier
Speaker 2: of chips to the military, which sort of like craft,
Speaker 2: helped increase the band's reach and positioned it as a
Speaker 2: national business.
Speaker 3: In nineteen sixty one, the Freedo Company merge with Hwla
Speaker 3: and Company, and in nineteen sixty five they merged with
Speaker 3: Pepsi Co.
Speaker 1: A couple of.
Speaker 3: Different flavors were tried, but really none stuck around at first,
Speaker 3: apart from the Cheesy. In nineteen seventy one, no new
Speaker 3: flavors until nineteen ninety two, and Flaming Hot Cheetos.
Speaker 2: All flaming Hot Cheetos.
Speaker 1: They are a favorite around the office.
Speaker 2: I don't necessarily understand it, but Dylan looks like he's
Speaker 2: dreaming right now, and.
Speaker 3: The story behind them is pretty great. Richard Montagnees was
Speaker 3: a janitor at the California Plants, a Freedo plant. He
Speaker 3: had dropped out of high school in part because he
Speaker 3: spoke little English at the time, and when he got
Speaker 3: a job at the Frido lay plant, he took the
Speaker 3: advice of his grandfather, quote, make sure that floor shines
Speaker 3: and let them know that A. Montaignes mopped it, and
Speaker 3: Montagnees did. As he was working, he started to notice
Speaker 3: that there were products catering to Latinos, and one day,
Speaker 3: due to a breakdown in the machinery, Montagnez procured some
Speaker 3: Cheetohs before they got that coating of cheese powder, and
Speaker 3: he took them home and added chili powder in its place.
Speaker 3: He got the idea, I believe he saw some elotes
Speaker 3: and he was like, Aha, let me try this. Oh yeah,
Speaker 3: and this habit was adopted by his friends and family,
Speaker 3: who encouraged him to share the idea of this idea
Speaker 3: of his with the CEO, and Montaignees did calling up
Speaker 3: the CEO directly.
Speaker 1: He didn't realize that wasn't really a thing you did.
Speaker 3: But the CEO heard him out and gave him two
Speaker 3: weeks to prepare for a presentation. And Montagnez wasn't sure
Speaker 3: what a presentation to a CEO should be sure, but
Speaker 3: with the help of his wife, they checked out library
Speaker 3: books on marketing, They designed bags and manually made one
Speaker 3: hundred packages, and during the presentation, when he was asked
Speaker 3: about how much market share they could get, Montaigne says
Speaker 3: he sort of spread his arms wide and said this.
Speaker 1: Much, which I love.
Speaker 3: The CEO was like, okay, yeah, sure, And now it's
Speaker 3: a best selling flavor. And Montagnees is the executive VP
Speaker 3: of Multicultural Sales for PepsiCo North America. He's been named
Speaker 3: one of the most influential Hispanic leaders in America by
Speaker 3: Fortune five hundred and Newsweek, and he teaches NBA classes
Speaker 3: at a college close to his home. When a student
Speaker 3: asked how he was teaching without a PhD, Montagnees responded,
Speaker 3: I do have a PhD.
Speaker 1: I have been poor, hungry and determined.
Speaker 4: Aw and last I heard Fox Searchlight was.
Speaker 3: Is making a movie about him? Yes, yeah, and yes
Speaker 3: these things have a huge following.
Speaker 2: Half flamanhat cheetahs.
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, Katie Perry dressed is one for what I'm
Speaker 3: guessing Salloween, but you know it could have been anything.
Speaker 3: There's a rap song about them, school kids love them,
Speaker 3: and they qualify as smart snacks here in the US,
Speaker 3: the whole grain kind with a less salt and less
Speaker 3: oil do anyway, So that's the flaming hot Cheetos and
Speaker 3: their success reopen the door to new flavors and a
Speaker 3: lot of interesting ones.
Speaker 1: I have to say.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there are twenty one flavors in North America, like salsa, conquiso, bacon, cheddar, alapino,
Speaker 3: extra flaming Hot Cheetos. In Japan, you can are could
Speaker 3: get pepsi flavored, like we mentioned at the top, Mountain
Speaker 3: dew flavored cheetos. Pepsi might sound like an odd flavor
Speaker 3: of chips, but despite this, or maybe because of it,
Speaker 3: Americans rushed to eBay for samples. One review read quote
Speaker 3: it created a carbonated sensation when you eat them, kind
Speaker 3: of like pop rocks. If pop Rocks came in blindingly
Speaker 3: citrus like flavor. China wasn't big into Cheeto It's probably
Speaker 3: because of the general lack of cheese and Chinese diet.
Speaker 3: So six hundred flavors were tested in focus groups before
Speaker 3: a sort of pop corny flavor called Savory American Cream
Speaker 3: was declared the winner. Okay, Savory American Cream. In nineteen
Speaker 3: seventy one, Cheeto's debuted their mascot to the public.
Speaker 2: A mouse, A mouse, A mouse.
Speaker 3: Yes. The first mascot was the Cheeto's mouse. You can
Speaker 3: still find old commercials with him online. Cheese that Goes
Speaker 3: Crunch was the slogan. He was very like calm. He
Speaker 3: was just like, you know, don't you want to try
Speaker 3: some cheese that goes crunch? Very different than the current mascot,
Speaker 3: Chester the Cheetah. And he was introduced in the mid eighties.
Speaker 3: And we have to talk about Chester for a second.
Speaker 3: I'm sorry we have to because it ain't easy be
Speaker 3: and cheesy.
Speaker 1: And he's dangerously cheesy and we can relate. He was
Speaker 1: cool that we can't really do well.
Speaker 3: He had sunglasses, he had lace up sneakers. Daffy Duck
Speaker 3: was his stunt double one cool dude, cool enough for
Speaker 3: Pepsi Coo to want to give him his own Saturday Morning.
Speaker 4: Cartoon the proposed name Yo It's the Chester Cheetah Show, but.
Speaker 3: Groups were worried about the impact of essentially a commercial
Speaker 3: on kids' brains, and they fought successfully to keep it
Speaker 3: off the air.
Speaker 1: I do still, I mean Transformers, Gee.
Speaker 2: Joe, Oh yeah, my Little Pony. I mean like the
Speaker 2: Super Mario Brothers Super Show. Like come on, guys, Like,
Speaker 2: if you guys let all of that through. What could
Speaker 2: have possibly gone wrong with Yo It's the Chester Cheta Show.
Speaker 1: Nothing, Nothing could have come wrong and kind of unrelated
Speaker 1: the name of the craft brand Mac and Cheese.
Speaker 3: The mascot is Cheese a source Rex and he too
Speaker 3: also had a show at the same time that was
Speaker 3: shot down.
Speaker 2: Oh I'm just picturing like a super group, oh Cheese mascots. Sure,
Speaker 2: Maybe Chuck E Cheese could yes, yeah, oh man picturing
Speaker 2: something very like adventures.
Speaker 1: Or yeah, yeah, I think that.
Speaker 3: For our our other side project that will one day happen,
Speaker 3: the Dunker. Perhaps they could be a like boy band
Speaker 3: cheat because Cheese as sores drugs has got the oh
Speaker 3: sure jazz thing happening. Yeah, Chester seems like he'd sing.
Speaker 2: I think he could play guitar. He seems like the
Speaker 2: kind of cat, one cool cat.
Speaker 1: Who's there for the ride. That is a young Hercules reference.
Speaker 3: Probably don't seen that show, but there were a lot
Speaker 3: of Cheeto's commercials in the breaks of that show.
Speaker 1: I remember, And some of these commercials.
Speaker 3: Might have been for things like Cheeto Pause, which I
Speaker 3: kind of remember, but they were discontinued in nineteen ninety three,
Speaker 3: or maybe the X's and O's they were discontinued in
Speaker 3: two thousand, or the Pizza Puffs were discontinued in two
Speaker 3: thousand and six, the Twist discontinued in twenty twelve.
Speaker 2: Are the Mystery colors? Do you remember the Mystery I don't,
Speaker 2: and I'm sort of glad they're like bright green I'm
Speaker 2: picturing like Skittles colors but on Cheetos.
Speaker 1: Kind of perfect.
Speaker 3: Kind of yup that all of those probably not that
Speaker 3: won't surprise anyone, but all of them have Facebook groups
Speaker 3: trying to bring them back, like petitions come back. Especially
Speaker 3: I think the X's and O's or the Pause, one
Speaker 3: of those two has like a really big Facebook group
Speaker 3: in two thousand and nine, a Cheeto that allegedly looked
Speaker 3: like Michael Jackson moonwalking was available on eBay, and the
Speaker 3: seller claimed he found it the week before Jackson died
Speaker 3: and that this increased the value. Allegedly, it sold for
Speaker 3: thirty five dollars Wow. That same year, which seemed to
Speaker 3: be a big year in finding oddly shaped cheetos, a
Speaker 3: couple in Texas found a Cheeto shaped like Jesus, which
Speaker 3: newspapers dubbed Jesus There you go, I nod in approval.
Speaker 3: In twenty twelve, a Colorado governor brought up Cheetos when
Speaker 3: trying to keep the public from getting their hopes up
Speaker 3: when it came to cannabis legalization. Quote, the voters have
Speaker 3: spoken and we have to respect their will. This will
Speaker 3: be a complicated process, but we intend to follow through
Speaker 3: that said. Federal law still says marijuana is an illegal drug,
Speaker 3: so don't break out the Cheetos or goldfish too quickly,
Speaker 3: and voters in Colorado sent cheetos to his office when
Speaker 3: cannabis was legalized in the state. And also in twenty twelve,
Speaker 3: a flying bag of Cheetos caused a bra at a
Speaker 3: high school in indianatudents were waiting outside to get into
Speaker 3: the school and a bag of Cheetos hit the assistant
Speaker 3: principle in the head, and the assistant principal accused a
Speaker 3: student and the student denied it, and things escalated from there.
Speaker 3: The student attacked the assistant principle and the superintendent described
Speaker 3: it leslie. Cheetos went flying everywhere. As to whether or
Speaker 3: not the bag was thrown at them or white was
Speaker 3: thrown in that general direction, we're looking into cheeto mysteries.
Speaker 3: In twenty thirteen, the world's largest cheeto, the product of
Speaker 3: what Freedo Lay called a seasoning accumulation, went on eBay
Speaker 3: with bids of over a million dollars before eBay shut
Speaker 3: it down for fraudulent bidding. The Cheeto of discoverer donated
Speaker 3: it to a small town in Iowa where tourists could
Speaker 3: look at it through plexiglass. I don't know if it's
Speaker 3: still there, but if it is and you've seen it, listeners,
Speaker 3: please send in pictures.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: In twenty fourteen, a Colorado man stabbed his brother in
Speaker 3: an argument that started with cheetos getting dumped onto a bed.
Speaker 3: This sounds a lot like an argument my siblings would
Speaker 3: have without the stabbing. But yeah, you put something on
Speaker 3: my bed, we're gonna get in a fight. Both are
Speaker 3: okay and claim that the fight was over stupid stuff.
Speaker 2: Is Cheetahs stuff ever? Stupid stuff?
Speaker 3: I don't know or in one of the philosophical questions
Speaker 3: of our time, kind of an aside, Sweetoes, which are
Speaker 3: cinnamon sugar sweet Cheetos came out in twenty fifteen, and
Speaker 3: this is when the Cheetoh's store opened, where one of
Speaker 3: the items available is a makeup bronzer, so you can
Speaker 3: achieve that vibrant Cheetos glow.
Speaker 1: Oh boy, that's a lot. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Another fun thing about Cheetos they are a good fighter,
Speaker 3: fire starter or tender.
Speaker 2: Not because of anything to do with the cheese powder.
Speaker 2: Like I think that the assumption is that there's some
Speaker 2: like weird chemical the cheese coating that makes the extra flammable. No,
Speaker 2: it's the fact that they're fried in oil. They have
Speaker 2: a lot of oil in them, and oil is a
Speaker 2: little bit flammable, just a little bit. Yeah.
Speaker 3: But now you know, if you're ever in the woods
Speaker 3: you start a fire, be careful, don't do it unless
Speaker 3: you know what you're doing. But if you have a
Speaker 3: bag of Cheetos.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it can't hurt. Oh, it can hurt.
Speaker 3: Hurt.
Speaker 2: Never take my advice. We have a little bit of
Speaker 2: Cheetos marketing science for you. But first we've got one
Speaker 2: more quick break for a word from our sponsor, and
Speaker 2: we're back. Thank you, sponsor, Yes, thank you. Also special
Speaker 2: things to producer Dylan who during the ad break, because
Speaker 2: we do frequently talk during the ad break as though
Speaker 2: we need to literally take one that although there was
Speaker 2: no there was no Chester Sheeta cartoon, there was a
Speaker 2: video game called Too Cool to Fool.
Speaker 3: Yes, and there were no mentions of Cheetos in the
Speaker 3: game because it's too cool to fool.
Speaker 2: Yeah. But speaking of fooling people, yeah, with snacks. Okay,
Speaker 2: So there's there's a term in the snacks market, and
Speaker 2: that the getting people to eat more market at large,
Speaker 2: which also includes, for example, the military when it's you know,
Speaker 2: trying to make sure that soldiers actually eat. There's a
Speaker 2: term called sensory specific satiety, and basically this means that
Speaker 2: when a particular flavor or sensation that you get from
Speaker 2: a food is big enough, it overwhelms your brain and
Speaker 2: at first that's a cool thing. You're like, cool, yes,
Speaker 2: I like I like this, but quickly your brain goes, oh, okay,
Speaker 2: enough of that. And so what processed food manufacturers are
Speaker 2: doing when they design a food is trying to make
Speaker 2: their foods interesting enough to crave, but not so exciting
Speaker 2: that your brain feels full of that thing. They'll test
Speaker 2: different formulas with like normal human taste testers, and record
Speaker 2: what recipes folks don't like versus what they like okay
Speaker 2: versus what they like the most, and it's often a
Speaker 2: bell curve where some formula in the middle is that
Speaker 2: bliss point of flavor.
Speaker 3: Oh.
Speaker 2: When researching for The New York Times circa twenty thirteen
Speaker 2: an article that would become the Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk,
Speaker 2: food writer Michael Moss consulted with a food scientist by
Speaker 2: the name of Stephen Witherly and about Cheetos like out
Speaker 2: of a whole bag of snacks, Werly picked out the
Speaker 2: Cheetohs and said, this is one of the most marvelously
Speaker 2: constructed foods on the planet in terms of pure pleasure.
Speaker 2: And this has something to do with with a balanced
Speaker 2: flavor formula, but also with the way that Cheetos melt
Speaker 2: in your mouth. After that initial crunch, it tricks your
Speaker 2: brain into feeling like there's nothing to it and that
Speaker 2: it's okay to keep eating more.
Speaker 1: Very chicky.
Speaker 2: Indeed, that New York Times article, by the way, makes
Speaker 2: it sound like a lot of the food scientists who
Speaker 2: are involved with these companies experience like kind of a
Speaker 2: lot of guilt over their work and its impact on
Speaker 2: the health of the general public.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I remember when this was first coming out and
Speaker 3: a lot of people were talking about it and hearing
Speaker 3: some of the people involved expressing so much guilt about it.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: But on a related note, hope is not totally lost
Speaker 2: because researchers are always looking at ways to make these
Speaker 2: craveable foods healthier, you know, from the type of food
Speaker 2: coloring used, to the types of oil used, to the
Speaker 2: actual physical batter. There was one study out of Washington
Speaker 2: State University that added to the corn meal in an
Speaker 2: extruder dried carrot pulp, which is a waste product left
Speaker 2: over from juicing carrots. Once extruded, the puffs were even
Speaker 2: puffier than usual and the taste was unchanged and the
Speaker 2: pulp added a little bit of like fiber vitamins. So
Speaker 2: could the future hold healthier cheese puffs.
Speaker 3: I like to think so me too. Thanks science, First,
Speaker 3: you make this what marvelous construction of on health. Now
Speaker 3: perhaps perhaps you make it healthier healthier. Yeah, but that's
Speaker 3: our Cheetos cheese puff but mostly Cheetos episodes. Yeah, I
Speaker 3: would love to know the different brands from different countries.
Speaker 3: I know we mentioned that two at the topic, and
Speaker 3: those are from the UK and Australia. But yeah, in
Speaker 3: other countries, if you have different flavors of Cheetos one
Speaker 3: or different types.
Speaker 4: Of oh yeah puffs.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and if they've got terrific brand names like the
Speaker 2: woltz It. Yeah, it's so good.
Speaker 1: Yeah, let us know, yes, please let us know.
Speaker 3: And that brings us to the end of this classic episode.
Speaker 3: We hope that you got as much joy out of
Speaker 3: listening to it or re listening to it as we did.
Speaker 1: It's such a fun one.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, oh yeah, And like y'all, like we are
Speaker 2: going to have to do a whole episode about Flame
Speaker 2: and Hot Cheetos. The movie that we mentioned was produced.
Speaker 2: It came out in twenty twenty three. It was Evil
Speaker 2: Longoria's feature film directorial debut. It's called Flame and Hot
Speaker 2: and is available on Hulu Slash Disney Plus if you
Speaker 2: want to go watch it. I have not, but it
Speaker 2: received an OSCAR nomination for Best Original Song. But Barbie
Speaker 2: beat it, which happens.
Speaker 1: I suppose.
Speaker 2: There's also been layers of investigation into the whole story,
Speaker 2: like questioning its exact veracity, And I just want to
Speaker 2: say that in this deeply confusing time, I am here
Speaker 2: for the Cheeto discourse. Me too.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we must get to the bottom of this. We
Speaker 1: need to save your team as symbol. We've got to
Speaker 1: get to the bottom.
Speaker 2: So yeah, future future episode, future flame and hot episode
Speaker 2: cut forthcoming.
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, well, listeners, let us know if you've got
Speaker 3: tips anywhere. We should look at any cheese curl Cheetos recipes.
Speaker 3: But yes, if you would like to email us, please do.
Speaker 3: You can at hello at savorpod dot com.
Speaker 2: We're also on social media. You can find us on
Speaker 2: Blue Sky and Instagram at savor pod and we do
Speaker 2: hope to hear from you. Savor is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, you can visit the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 2: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Thanks,
Speaker 2: as always to our super producers Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard.
Speaker 2: Thanks to you for listening, and we hope that lots
Speaker 2: more good things are coming your way.