The Cheetos Alternative You Need In Your Life

"It's not easy being cheesy," claims Chester Cheetah, and we're going to make his life a bit harder now by bringing your attention to a must-have Cheetos replacement. Don't get it twisted, though, these cheese curls aren't some newfangled youngin' brashly challenging the big cheese. No, this Cheetos alternative has been around perhaps even longer than Cheetos themselves, remaining criminally overlooked for ages.

Cheese puffs in general have been a thing since the 1930s, as documented by Mel Magazine. At the time, animal feed manufacturer, the Flakall Corporation, based out of Wisconsin, was regularly grinding up corn kernels to make little snacks for livestock. Adding liquid to the machinery alongside the corn to stop it all from jamming up would produce puffy, popcorn-esque ribbons of food. Flakall added cheddar cheese and salt and called the result Korn Kurls. Thus, cheese curls were born.

That same decade, the foundations were being laid for the Frito-Lay company, the maker of Cheetos. Frito began selling homemade corn chips out of a Model T car in '32, and Lay started delivering food in Nashville the same year, but it wasn't until 1948 that Frito first unveiled Cheetos, and it wasn't until 1962 that the two businesses merged. Now, the snack is practically synonymous with cheese puffs and curls. Cheetos even got famous enough to open their own Cheetos Museum and Cheetos Restaurant in the 2010s. Still, Cheetos aren't the only game in town.

Just because Cheetos are the most mainstream doesn't mean they're the best cheesy snack around. Bachman Jax Cheddar Cheese Curls could give Cheetos a run for their money, at least, if more people become aware of them. Curly and puffy, this dusty, dairy snack has fans licking their fingers for extra cheesy flavor after each and every crunchy bite (as an added plus or two, they're also certified Kosher and free of gluten). Over 95% of the reviews on the official page for this product give it five out of five stars. "As far as cheese curlz go," comments one verified buyer, "these are top of the line." Reviews at sites like The Takeout agree, calling them saltier, crunchier, and all around a better cheese puff than Cheetos; the extra savoriness, light interior, and tangy buttermilk aftertaste all go a long way towards making this possible.

Strangely, though, the company behind these cheese curls claims the Jax crunch has been around since 1884, roughly a half-century before cheese puffs were invented. So, how is that possible? Utz, the company that owns the Bachman brand, has existed since 1921. What began as a simple family-owned potato chip venture is now a publicly traded company with a whole range of snack brands: Boulder Canyon, Golden Flake, Snikiddy, TGI Fridays Snacks, Zapp's, and more! Yet, many of these brands have been acquired over time, Bachman included. For Jax's true origins, we should look to the original Bachman Company.

Unfortunately, there's not a ton of info about the Bachman Company floating around on the web anymore. Per Snack Food & Wholesale Bakery, the Bachman Co. sold its brands, distribution rights, and some other assets such as a foodstuff plant to Utz Quality Foods Inc. in 2012. Bachman's Jax line was, of course, included in this. Afterward, Bachman Co. changed its name to Savor Street Foods Inc., and although that business still exists, it's undergone a makeover, concealing its past and burying the time-traveling secret to creating the Jax crunch five decades before cheese puffs were ever invented. 

Savor Street Foods, Inc.'s Linkedin page explains that "Savor Street by Suzie" is now a narrative-driven and mission-focused snack brand. In addition to its autism awareness efforts, the business champions grain-free foods like its "No Grainer" pretzels. The Savor by Suzie pretzel flavors include dark chocolate, lil' bit spicy, milk chocolate, roasted garlic & herb, and sea salt, but cheese no longer seems to be a primary factor in what's left of the Bachman Co. Nevertheless, these pretzels' distant relative, Jax Cheddar Cheese Curls, are still a Cheetos alternative worth trying.