Cheetos Brings Back ‘Iconic’ Fan-Favorite Flavor After 20 Years

The classic brand of Cheetos and its cool-cat mascot, Chester, are bringing back a beloved flavor from 20 years ago.

Once made popular in the early 2000s, Cheetos is revisiting their Puffs Cheese Pizza flavor just in time for your Super Bowl party. Quite possibly, the most popular dish at a Super Bowl party would be pizza, so Cheetos executives are hoping their customers will open a bag or two of the re-released product on game day to compliment your delivery order.

“Combining elements of a classic cheese pizza-cheese, tomato flavor and herbaceous notes of oregano and Italian seasoning-Cheetos Puffs Cheese Pizza Flavor gives fans a new way to enjoy this iconic dish,” the Cheetos brand said in a statement.

The Cheetos brand has long been keen on great marketing for its product and is still on top of its game regarding branding. Their most recent collaboration with singer J. Balvin proves to be the right combo of funny and relatable.

In the commercial, Balvin gives a mock interview during an award show, and instead of focusing on his designer fit, he shows off five orange-tinted fingertips and his Cheetos bag of snacks. Balvin has won six Latin Grammy Awards and his song Ay Vamos is the first reggaeton song to reach a billion views on YouTube.

Before Balvin, the company leaned heavily into the fact that their product, albeit messy, leaves behind an orange-tinted powder on your fingertips. Even Chester is seen on their Instagram showing off his cheese-stained paw. Chester Cheeto was introduced as the mascot nearly 40 years ago and has since been the image associated with the brand. His catchphrase “Dangerously Cheesy” has been a staple since 1997.

One may think of Cheetos as the perfect pairing with a deli sandwich or a mid-day snack, but the company suggests otherwise. They want their snackers to think outside the box, or bag, when it comes to their product and their unique suggestions of a fancy wine with their Cheddar Jalapeño or Flamin’ Hot Baked goes well with a sauvignon blanc or chilled merlot, respectively.

Their Instagram page makes snacking fun again with posts from Chester’s screenshot of text messages about their products to recipes to challenges like “Build a Cheetos snowman with your other hand” and a unique experiment of challenging their followers to leave a comment that earns zero likes from other Instagram users.

The corn-cheese puff snack was developed by Frito-Lay in 1948 and has expanded to 21 different types of Cheetos, from their classic crunch with flavors like Mexican Street Corn to their Puffs line and the newly released Cheese Pizza flavor. The brand also ventured into a healthier snack option with the Simply line featuring no artificial flavors, colors, or preservatives. You can even find your favorite Cheetos in a mac and cheese. In 2017, Cheetos was the top-selling cheese snack brand, with sales of over a billion dollars. Some four million bags of Cheetos are produced daily.