Something to snack about.
I love Libra season. One reason why I love it: I get to share it with a young pal, my friend's daughter, who has a birthday two days before mine. She is a toddler, and I am in my thirties. Celebrating our birthdays together has become a tradition, and this year (after getting a tip from her mom), I wanted to mark it by giving my young pal her first bag of Cheetos.
Yes, Cheetos. That iconic snack that turns our fingers orange and makes our tastebuds go, hell yeah. When I went from what we’ll call standard Cheetos to Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, my life was forever altered. When a close friend of mine told me she likes to mix standard Cheetos and Flamin’ Hots together, it was a revelation. I can’t put them away like I used to (heartburn is real, and it is annoying), but Cheetos will always have my 🧡.
Thank you, Marc Summers, for showing us how standard Cheetos are made.
What I learned
This is that an uncooked standard Cheeto is a colette. Isn’t that beautiful?
Did you know?
These are just some of the magical but terrible-for-you ingredients that make standard Cheetos so delicious:
Enriched Corn Meal (Corn Meal, Ferrous Sulfate, Niacin, Thiamin Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid)
Vegetable Oil (Corn, Canola, and/or Sunflower Oil)
Cheese Seasoning (Whey, Cheddar Cheese [Milk, Cheese Cultures, Salt, Enzymes]
Canola Oil
Maltodextrin [Made from Corn]
Those ingredients are poetry. At the end of the list, you get a statement: CONTAINS MILK INGREDIENTS. I read that and feel like a bag of standard Cheetos is yelling at me.
I’m a passionate snacker. Crunchy, chewy, sweet, salty. I’m here for it all (though I don’t eat meat, and I don’t love nuts in candy/dessert. Sorry!), and snacking is honestly a core part of who I am. I’m sort of joking when I say that, but I’m also deeply serious. When I meet someone new, one of my go-to icebreaker questions is, “What’s your favorite snack?” because I truly want to know. Snacks are the real window to the soul.
My friend’s daughter shared her first bag of standard Cheetos with all of us. To the surprise of no one, she loved them, and it delighted me to see her fingers and face covered with that bright orange cheese dust.