Ah, the chip aisle. A land of many treasures to be sure. I took a stroll through it the other day, and the newest booty is Cheetos Mighty Zingers, the specific flavors being Ragin’ Cajun and Tangy Ranch. Cajun is a relatively unused flavor for chips, and definitely not a flavor of Cheeto I was expecting to come across, but ranch is kind of an obvious choice. What is not relatively unused is the adjective “Ragin’” to describe cajun flavor. Can’t somebody think of a new one already? How ’bout Brazen Cajun, or Dazin’ Cajun? Or are all Cajuns just violent and prone to attacking?

The actual cheetos are shorter than normal crunchy cheetos. It’s kind of like they just took all the cheetos that were rejected for being too small or strangely shaped, slapped some flavor on, and packaged ‘em. For the most part, these are too small to (want to) eat with your hands, unless you pour a few into your palm. That way you end up eating a random assortment of both tastes, getting the full effect of the flavors, but not being able to enjoy the subtleties of each one.

The thing is there isn’t much subtlety to them. They’re called zingers for a reason – they pack in a lot of flavor, and the flavors are exactly what you’d expect them to taste like. The cajun flavor tastes mostly like flamin’ hot cheetos but a little sweeter and less spicy, almost like a hot Old Bay flavor. The ranch flavored guys rely more on the natural flavor of the corn meal poof. For these, it tastes like they lightly sprayed them with water and then sprinkled on Hidden Valley ranch packet powder.

When you eat them together they’re at their best. The flavor is full and festive and the 9.5 oz bag I got was really full. The cajun flavored zingers are surprisingly spicy, but they don’t reach the levels that Flamin’ Hot Cheetos do, and the ranch ones are zesty and complement the spicy cajun zingers wonderfully. It’s great, because now I don’t have to eat the spiders of the sea to get a good cajun flavor!