REVIEW: Lay’s Flavor Swap Cheetos, Cool Ranch Doritos, and Wavy Funyuns Potato Chips

Lay s Flavor Swap Bags

Looks like Frito-Lay is taking a cue from the entertainment industry and rebooting some of its classics.

Now before you start whining about your “ruined childhoods” or your disdain about swapping Chester Cheetah from corn to potato, just take a step back and admit that you’re intrigued. You know you are. You can’t tell me the entire idea of Frito-Lay Flavor Swaps isn’t exciting. I won’t believe you.

In my opinion, this is the most exciting thing it’s done in years. I was way more pumped to try these than the usual “Do Us a Flavor” releases. I mean, I already know I love the flavors. I’ve been eating them my entire life. My only question is, will said flavors translate in a potato chip form?

I figured the best way to attack the review was to tackle each flavor one at a time, then obviously compare them to the iconic snacks that inspired them.

Cheetos

Lay s Flavor Swap Cheetos Bags

First off, I’m shocked these weren’t kettle chips. Usually, when Frito-Lay does one of its gimmicky multi-chip rollouts, each style of chip is represented. I’d imagine most people think of the Crunchy Cheetos when they hear the name, so a crunchier chip would have made sense.

Whatever, I’m more of a puff guy anyway, so I’m fine with the decision to just make these Cheetos-flavored normal(?) chips. #PuffGang sound off in the comments!

Lay s Flavor Swap Cheetos Swap

Initially, these just had a generic cheese flavor. If you told me they were some kind of fancy “sharp” cheddar without showing me the bag, I wouldn’t have ever guessed “Cheetos.”

Once I tried them side by side with the actual Cheetos, I got it. I had to jog my flavor memory, but they definitely taste like Cheetos.

So yeah, they deliver. These chips taste like Cheetos dust, but they’re a little weaker. Of course, therein lies the problem – they taste like Cheetos dust, not necessarily Cheetos. More on that topic when I review the next flavor.

Lay s Flavor Swap Cheetos Bowl

Purchased Price: $1.99
Size: 2.63 oz bag
Purchased at: Wawa
Rating: 5 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (about 17 Chips) 160 calories, 10 grams of fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 1.5 grams of saturated fat, 0 mg of cholesterol, 200 milligrams of sodium, 15 grams of total carbohydrates, 2 grams of total sugars, 1 gram of fiber, and 2 grams of protein.

Cool Ranch

Lay s Flavor Swap Cool Ranch Doritos Bags

Cool Ranch Doritos might be one of the ten greatest flavors to ever grace the Earth. How could they possibly mess this up?

Well, as it turns out when Cool Ranch dust isn’t on a triangular tortilla chip, it just kinda tastes like a remixed sour cream and onion. Actually, I’d say it’s more like 1/4 ranch and 3/4 sour cream and onion.

Lay s Flavor Swap Cool Ranch Doritos Swap

Lay s Flavor Swap Cool Ranch Doritos Specks

I think you could be fooled into thinking that’s what they are. The chips do have that classic Cool Ranch speckle to them, but it’s not nearly as caked-on as the Doritos you’re used to. It’s kind of a bummer.

I mean, once you know what they are, you’re definitely gonna taste the Cool Ranch, but these are more like a Diet Cool Ranch if that makes sense. These suffer from the same thing as the Cheetos chips – thin potato chips are not an ideal delivery system for these flavors.

To be fair, I’m accustomed to the norm, so that might be clouding my scoring. That being said, I just think this flavor needs the crisp of a tortilla chip to really shine.

Cheetos and Doritos are as much about texture as they are about flavor. Sure, I knew what I was getting into, but when you take away that key corn-based component from both of them, the flavors really don’t pop as much.

Lay s Flavor Swap Cool Ranch Doritos Bowl

But look… it’s still Cool Ranch. Even if they lean sour cream, they’re still delicious. They’re just nowhere near the 10 out 10 Cool Ranch Doritos they’re mimicking.

Purchased Price: $3.00
Size: 7.25 oz bag
Purchased at: Dollar General
Rating: 6 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (about 17 Chips) 150 calories, 10 grams of fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 1.5 grams of saturated fat, 0 mg of cholesterol, 200 milligrams of sodium, 16 grams of total carbohydrates, 1 gram of total sugars, less than 1 gram of fiber, and 2 grams of protein.

Funyuns

Lay s Flavor Swap Funyuns Bags

Now we’re talking!

For everything I just said about the texture of Cheetos and Doritos, Funyuns are the opposite for me. I love the flavor of Funyuns, but I absolutely hate the texture.

Lay s Flavor Swap Funyuns Swap

For all the crap Cap’n Crunch gets for shredding your palate, Funyuns should get double. They always taste stale and salty, so my mouth feels like the Sahara after chomping about seven rings.

These Funyuns-flavored chips are easily the best of the three, even though they probably have the most diminishing returns.

Whereas the Cheetos flavor bloomed as I went on, the onion flavor faded as I ate them, but Funyuns is the most lowkey flavor of the three, so it didn’t bother me. I ate the most of these in one sitting, and the first few chips were incredible.

Lay s Flavor Swap Funyuns Bowl

The choice to make these wavy was also brilliant. Even though I don’t like the rings’ texture, I still appreciated a bit more crunch than the usual thin chips.

Purchased Price: $3.00
Size: 7.75 oz bag
Purchased at: Dollar General
Rating: 8 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (about 15 Chips) 150 calories, 9 grams of fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 1.5 grams of saturated fat, 0 mg of cholesterol, 200 milligrams of sodium, 15 grams of total carbohydrates, 1 gram of total sugars, less than 1 gram of fiber, and 2 grams of protein.

So, I have to say Funyuns was the overall victor here. Can’t say I expected that. Maybe if Cool Ranch and Cheetos were wavy or kettle chips, they would have won out, but I guess we’ll never know.

Don’t get me wrong, these are all good, and I love the Flavor Swap concept, but two of the three suffer from the old “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” adage.

One thing that really excites me about this release is that we might be one step closer to finally getting Frito-Lay-flavored dusts in the spice aisle. I’ve been calling for that since I was a kid. If you can sprinkle a potato chip with Cool Ranch, I should be able to sprinkle a piece of chicken with it. Let me put Cheetos dust on my burgers! Is that too much to ask?!

Maybe.

In the meantime, check these out. You know you’re probably gonna anyway. Cheetos and Doritos can’t be beat, but apparently, Funyuns can.

If these do well, we might even get some more swaps in the future. Please, keep ruining my childhood.

14 thoughts to “REVIEW: Lay’s Flavor Swap Cheetos, Cool Ranch Doritos, and Wavy Funyuns Potato Chips”

    1. BTW…no pun intended, above. (Get it? Onions? Stink? heh heh) Seriously…I only realized that, after the fact!

  1. ….okay..once I realized that this was not a late April Fools joke I immediately thought that these would fail just by the fact that we already have snacks with these flavors.

    Have we truly gone full circle now with snack companies reinventing other snacks?

  2. i guess it sorta answers my initial question when i read about these a few months ago. i wondered (in the case of the doritos, for example) if the chips would simply have the cool ranch flavor applied or if there was additional flavoring to bring in the corn chip taste to the potato chip. sounds like they did the former.
    thanks!

  3. Nice review!! So agree with you re: the Doritos one! I had a good feeling about the Funyuns but haven’t been able to find it! Now I’ll know they’re worth the treasure hunt!

  4. Years ago they had Doritos with Cheetos cheese on them and they were awesome! They were only around for a very short time, but they need to bring those back.

  5. I agree with you that they should sell the seasoning dust by itself. Call it Lay’s Shakers. Include the BBQ seasoning for sure.

    1. If they actually do this, but don’t sell a shaker with cooler ranch Dorito flavoring, I’m afraid I may have to kill someone. I’m kidding, of course, but still… Those damn CR Doritos NEVER have enough flavor!!!!! It’s why I quit buying them long ago, even though I loved the flavor so much! THERE WAS NEVER ENOUGH OF IT!!!

  6. I think this makes a great argument for going the other way; create a barbecue Dorito so that the incredible barbecue dust can adhere prolifically.

  7. Hard disagree on the Cool Ranch ones. I absolutely loved the tangy ranch flavoring on a potato chip, rather than the corn chip it normally has. I thought it was everything I used to love about Cool Ranch Doritos, but none of the too hard, too sharp crap I get with Doritos. I wish they would get rid of the bland, tasteless “ranch” lays and keep these forever.

    Also, fwiw, our bag was generously dusted whereas the Funyons ones were barely there.

  8. So happy that a fellow nerdy coworker found us the Cool Ranch chips the other day. I believe that they improved our work flow tremendously!!!

  9. Really been wanting to try these. Found the Funyuns & Doritos flavors at Target today. The Funyuns flavor easily beats the Cool Ranch Doritos one. Now we just need Lays BBQ flavored Doritos and Nacho Cheese Doritos flavored Fritos. Chipception!

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