This Is The Hands-Down Best Bag Of Fritos Sitting On Shelves Right Now

Fritos on paper might seem like a pretty boring fried corn chip to some. But you've still got to admit that they have their rightful place in the snack food hall of fame, and we recently decided to rank all seven varieties of Fritos we could get our hands on. We sampled everything from the lightly salted version to the chili cheese flavor of our youth. But try as we might, it turns out nothing can dethrone the comfort and pure corn flavor of the original Fritos.

Our taste tester wrote, "They might be considered basic by today's standards, with switcheroos, reverse collabs, and unconventional chip flavors being so popular. But there's something pure about grabbing a yellow and red bag of these slightly curled fried rectangles."

It turns out the original Fritos do have nuance, as well. First you get that hit of irresistible salt, but a subtle sweetness follows. And our taste tester felt something that you don't get with all snack chips: nostalgia. They said, "Eating more than one coats your tongue with corn oil, and your mouth becomes like a wax melt burner, giving off fumes of family picnics and toasted corn without the wasps." (We say this affectionately, in case you couldn't read between the lines.)

Based on its classic flavor, it's probably no surprise to you that Fritos has been around since the Great Depression. Its first recorded sale was on March 27, 1932; you can thank Charles Elmer Doolin, who was 28 when he purchased a recipe for fried corn chips via an ad posted by a man named Gustavo Olguin. Doolin wanted to add a savory snack to his family's confectionery business and started making the original Fritos out of his family's kitchen using a modified potato ricer. 

The rest of the family pitched in (mother, father, and brother), and the group of four eventually became the original board of directors for the brand. Later, in 1961, the Fritos company merged with another household snack brand, H.W. Lay and Company, to eventually become what we know now as Frito-Lay. 

It's pretty fascinating that the world has been enjoying this same snack for nearly a century, and that nostalgia we enjoy is almost fried into the chips themselves. Despite innovations in snack flavors (like the rainbow of seasoned Doritos flavors), you can't beat the original Fritos for their simplicity, saltiness, and all-around deliciousness, even in a taste test nearly 100 years later.