Cheez Doodles

Last updated
Cheez Doodles
Cheez Doodles packaging.jpg
A large bag of Cheez Doodles.
Product type cheese puff
Owner Wise Foods
CountryUnited States
Introduced1964 (1964)
MarketsNorth America
Previous owners
Website cheezdoodles.com

Cheez Doodles are a cheese puff produced by Wise Foods. Originally developed and manufactured in 1964 by King Kone Corp. of the Bronx, New York, [1] it became the prevalent cheese puff snack on the East Coast.

Contents

Description

Cheez Doodles are a cheese-flavored baked cheese puff made of extruded cornmeal and are similar to Frito-Lay's Cheetos and Herr Foods Cheese Curls. The snack was created by Morrie Yohai and is produced by Pennsylvania-based snack foods producer Wise Foods. [2]

History

Originally developed and manufactured by King Kone Corp. of the Bronx, Cheez Doodles were developed by the company's owner and operator, Morrie Yohai (1920–2010). King Kone had been founded in the 1920s and manufactured ice cream cones, cheese crackers, popcorn, and Melba toast. [3] In the early 1960s, the company had a machine which could be used to produce three-inch lengths of extruded cornmeal. These were then baked with orange cheddar cheese powder and other flavorings to produce a new snack food. [1] According to Yohai, the name "Cheez Doodles" came to him while he and other employees were sitting around a table sampling alternatives for the cheese flavoring of the new snack. [4]

In the mid-1960s, the company (by then known as Old London Foods) [5] was acquired by Borden and assigned to its Wise potato chip division. [1] In 1997, KKR & Co. acquired a majority interest in Borden; in 2002, Palladium Equity Partners purchased Wise Foods. [6]

Today, Wise Foods is owned by Arca Continental, the second-largest Coca-Cola bottler in Central and North America, who bought Wise in 2012. [7] Cheez Doodles remain one of the strongest brands marketed by Wise with 15 million pounds of the product produced in 2010. [2]

Varieties

Close-up of Cheez Doodles Cheez Doodles.jpg
Close-up of Cheez Doodles

Cheez Doodles are produced in many varieties. Varieties available as of February 2022 were: [8]

Formerly available varieties included:[ citation needed ]

In the comic strip Big Nate , Cheez Doodles are protagonist Nate Wright's favorite snack food. [9]

Cheez Doodles are prominently featured in George R. R. Martin's short story, The Pear-shaped Man . [10]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Doritos</span> American brand of flavored tortilla chips

Doritos is an American brand of flavored tortilla chips produced by Frito-Lay, a wholly owned subsidiary of PepsiCo. The concept for Doritos originated at Disneyland at a restaurant managed by Frito-Lay.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cheetos</span> Brand of corn puff snack food

Cheetos is a crunchy corn-cheese puff snack brand made by Frito-Lay, a subsidiary of PepsiCo. Fritos creator Charles Elmer Doolin invented Cheetos in 1948, and began national distribution in the United States. The initial success of Cheetos was a contributing factor to the merger between The Frito Company and H.W. Lay & Company in 1961 to form Frito-Lay. In 1965 Frito-Lay became a subsidiary of The Pepsi-Cola Company, forming PepsiCo, the current owner of the Cheetos brand.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bugles (snack)</span> Corn snack food made by General Mills

Bugles are a corn snack produced by General Mills and Tom's Snacks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tostitos</span> American brand of snacks

Tostitos is a brand of Frito-Lay that produces different tortilla chips and a range of accompanying dips.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cheez-It</span> Baked cheese crackers

Cheez-It is a brand of cheese cracker manufactured by Kellanova through its Sunshine Biscuits division. Approximately 26 by 24 millimetres, the rectangular crackers are made with wheat flour, vegetable oil, cheese, skim milk, salt, and spices.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fritos</span> American brand of corn chips and dipping sauces

Fritos is an American brand of corn chips that was created in 1932 by Charles Elmer Doolin and has been produced since 1961 by the Frito-Lay division of PepsiCo. Fritos are made by deep-frying extruded whole cornmeal, unlike the similar tortilla chips, which are made from cornmeal and use the nixtamalization process. It is one of two brands representing Frito-Lay along with Lay's. The Fritos brand also appears on a line of cheese sauces and bean dip.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Combos</span> Brand of manufactured snack

Combos, officially called Combos Stuffed Snacks, are cylindrical tubes of cracker, pretzel, or tortilla, available with various fillings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Goldfish (cracker)</span> Fish-shaped cracker

Goldfish is a brand of fish-shaped cracker with a small imprint of an eye and a smile manufactured by Pepperidge Farm, which is a division of the Campbell Soup Company. The brand's current marketing and product packaging incorporate this feature of the product: "The Snack That Smiles Back! Goldfish!", reinforced by Finn, the smiling goldfish mascot with sunglasses. The product is marketed as a "baked snack cracker" on the label with various flavors and varieties.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cheese puffs</span> Puffed corn snack

Cheese puffs, cheese curls, cheese balls, cheese ball puffs, cheesy puffs, or corn curls are a puffed corn snack, coated with a mixture of cheese or cheese-flavored powders. They are manufactured by extruding heated corn dough through a die that forms the particular shape. They may be ball-shaped, curly, straight, or irregularly shaped. Puffcorn is a similar food, without cheese flavoring.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chex Mix</span> Snack mix

Chex Mix is a type of snack mix that includes Chex breakfast cereal as a major component.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pirate's Booty</span> American snack food brand developed and produced by Robert Ehrlich

Pirate's Booty is a puffed corn and rice snack food developed and produced in 1987 by Robert Ehrlich. B&G Foods acquired Robert's American Gourmet Food in June 2013.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cheezies</span> Brand of cheese puff snack food

Cheezies are a brand of cheese puff snack food made and sold in Canada by W. T. Hawkins Ltd. The snack is made from extruded cornmeal covered in powdered cheddar cheese, and sold in distinctive red-and-white bags.

The Weaver Popcorn Company, based in Van Buren, Indiana, is one of the largest popcorn companies in the United States.

Morrie Robert Yohai was an American food company executive best known for his creation of Cheez Doodles, a cylindrical baked cornmeal puff most often with a cheddar cheese flavor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Old London Foods</span> American baked foods brand

Old London Foods, a subsidiary of B&G Foods, is a company best known for its Melba toast products. Originally based in the Bronx and called the King Kone Corporation, the company changed its name to Old London Foods in May 1960 to match their best-known brand of food products, Old London, which had been in use for nearly 25 years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chip (snack)</span> Snack food made of a crispy bite-sized units

A chip or crisp is a snack food in the form of a crisp, flat or slightly bowl shaped, bite-sized unit. Some chips can be made into dishes and served as an appetizer, side, hors d'oeuvre, etc.

Frito-Lay Canada, Inc., formerly the Hostess Frito-Lay Company, is a Canadian division of the U.S.-based Frito-Lay owned as a subsidiary of PepsiCo that manufactures, markets and sells corn chips, potato chips and other snack foods. The primary snack food brands produced under the Frito-Lay name include Fritos corn chips, Cheetos cheese-flavored snacks, Doritos and Tostitos tortilla chips, Lay's and Ruffles potato chips, Smartfood flavored popcorn and Rold Gold pretzels. The company is headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario and has four production plants in Cambridge, Ontario; Lévis, Quebec; Kentville, Nova Scotia; and Taber/Lethbridge, Alberta.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cheese cracker</span> Type of cracker

The cheese cracker is a type of cracker prepared using cheese as a main ingredient. Additional common cracker ingredients are typically used, such as grain, flour, shortening, leavening, salt and various seasonings. The ingredients are formed into a dough, and the individual crackers are then prepared. Some cheese crackers are prepared using fermented dough. Cheese crackers are typically baked. Another method of preparing cheese crackers involves placing cheese atop warm crackers. Cheese crackers have been described as a "high-calorie snack", which is due to a higher fat content compared to other types of crackers.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Hevesi, Dennis (2010-08-02). "Morrie Yohai, 90, the Man Behind Cheez Doodles, Is Dead". New York Times. Archived from the original on 2013-12-20. Retrieved 2011-10-17.
  2. 1 2 Fernandez, Manny (2010-08-04). "Cheese Whatevers, City Has Them by the Handful". New York Times. Archived from the original on 2021-01-25. Retrieved 2022-02-21.
  3. "Cheez Doodles snack inventor Morrie Yohai dies in US". BBC News. 2010-08-04. Retrieved 2024-07-05.
  4. Barrios, Jennifer (2010-08-01). "Cheez Doodle co-creator dead at 90". Newsday . Archived from the original on 2022-02-21. Retrieved 2022-02-21.
  5. "A Product Name Brands Producer; King Kone Corp. Becomes Old London Foods, Inc., in an Unusual Shift". New York Times. 1960-05-29. Archived from the original on 2018-07-23. Retrieved 2022-02-21.
  6. McKay, Betsy (2000-09-06). "Palladium Affiliate Agrees to Buy Wise Holdings for $96 Million". Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on 2022-02-21. Retrieved 2022-02-21.
  7. Williams, Trevor (2017-09-21). "A Wise Move: Coke, Snacks and a Mexican Merger in Atlanta". Global Atlanta. Archived from the original on 2022-02-21. Retrieved 2022-02-21.
  8. "Wise Cheezdoodles". Wise Cheezdoodles. Archived from the original on 2022-02-22. Retrieved 2022-02-22.
  9. "An Ode to Cheez Doodles". GoComics. 2016-03-05. Archived from the original on 2022-02-21. Retrieved 2022-02-21.
  10. "October's Library: A Short Story a Day for the Halloween Month". Daily Kos. 2019-10-01. Archived from the original on 2023-07-15. Retrieved 2022-02-21.