Funyuns—or “Funyums,” as generations of elementary schoolers have called them—are a pretty perfect snack. The bold onion flavoring pairs so nicely with the toasty cornmeal taste of those crispy, airy hoops—and you couldn’t really improve on that, right? Wrong, my dudes. Frito-Lay has found a way to make even better Funyuns, with a little help from their signature potato chip—along with a few other Frankensteined snacks.
Earlier this year, Frito-Lay released four new Lay’s flavors inspired by other Frito-Lay snacks: Cheetos Cheese Flavored Lay’s, Doritos Cool Ranch Flavored Lay’s, Funyuns Onion Flavored Wavy Lay’s, and Frito’s Chili Cheese Flavored Kettle Cooked Lay’s. We sourced three of the bags (where are you, Fritos Lay’s??) to find out if these new versions could live up to their snack inspirations—or maybe even exceed them.
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These were our least favorite of the bunch, but you know what? They’re still pretty damn good. I was worried they’d taste too similar to Cheddar Sour Cream Lay’s to make much of an impression, but these serve as a good reminder that the flavor of Cheetos cheese is super specific and delicious. These were docked some points because, ultimately, we think Cheetos cheese just tastes better on the crunchy little corn knobs it was formulated to enhance. These chips are good; Cheetos are still better.
Honestly, even thinking about these chips makes my mouth water. The already bold flavor of the tangy, buttermilky Cool Ranch of Doritos fame (the best Doritos flavor) somehow tastes even bolder and better on a thin, crispy potato chip than it does on a corn chip. No one in the office could keep their hands out of this bag. An absolute chip revelation.
I think I ultimately prefer a regular Lay’s to a Wavy Lay’s, but Wavy Lay’s are more suitable for dipping—and we decided that pairing these Funyuns-flavored Lay’s with some French onion dip would be so good it might kill you. In terms of flavor, these reminded me of Wise Onion & Garlic, my absolute favorite potato chip, and made me wonder why there aren’t more straight-up onion flavored chips on the market. We have sour cream and onion chips coming out of our ears—give us more onion chips!
These are all limited time flavors and, Lay’s, we demand an explanation. I know scarcity creates demand and all that (McRib, blah, blah, blah), but if you truly love the potato chip-buying public, you’ll make these a permanent release.
Howdy! I’m Gwynedd, Sporked’s managing editor. I live in Los Angeles and have access to the best tacos the U.S. has to offer—but I’m a sucker for a crunchy Old El Paso taco night every now and then. I’ve been at Sporked since 2022 and I’m still searching frozen mozzarella sticks that can hold a candle to restaurant sticks.
Why you should trust me: I’ve been a journalist for 20 years (yikes), a consumer of food for 40-plus years, and I’m truly hard pressed to think of foods I don’t like (or that I can’t tolerate at the very least). Oh and one time I cooked my way through Guy Fieri’s cookbook and wrote about the journey through Flavortown.
What I buy every week: Trader Joe’s Original Savory Thins. Fat free plain yogurt (usually Fage or Nancy’s). Honeycrisp apples. Sweet cream coffee creamer for my at-home Americanos. A frozen cauliflower crust pizza and some jarred mushrooms to top it with. Old El Paso Stand ‘N Stuff taco shells and Gardein Ground Be’f, even though I think “be’f” is a nightmarish contraction.
Favorite ranking: Stouffer’s frozen dinners. I don’t own a microwave (I get my cancers the old fashioned way!), so I love taste testing things that I don’t really buy to eat at home.
Least favorite ranking: Soy sauce. Don’t get me wrong, I love soy sauce—but consuming that much sodium in one sitting is probably illegal in some countries. Our frozen enchilada taste test was a close second; the smell of microwaved corn tortillas still haunts me.
Thoughts? Questions? Complete disagreement? Leave a comment!
Gwynedd Stuart
Tyler Bowers
Joe Rumrill
Justine Sterling
Thoughts? Questions? Complete disagreement? Leave a comment!