Every SunChip Flavor, Ranked
The name SunChips has been around a lot longer than one would think. Frito-Lay first used the name in 1976 to introduce the light and thin corn chip to test markets with a little help in the promotional department from the Lone Ranger and Tonto. Frito-Lay revived the name again for a corn chip in 1982 that hung around other test markets for at least three years. In 1990, hoping that the third time using the name would be a charm, Frito-Lay let the fine people of Minnesota and Wisconsin have a wheaty sneak preview of what company spokesman Marty Heirs told The San Bernardino County Sun was "something totally different. We think the multi-grain product is going to appeal to people."
That latest iteration was good enough that SunChips were green-lit for national distribution in 1991, with two flavors hitting shelves: Original and French Onion. After impressive first-year sales of over $100 million, SunChips proved it was here to stay over the last three decades, branching out into new flavors and winning over new tasters. It even managed to get name-checked on television shows like "Weeds" and "Jessica Jones" and in songs from Lupe Fiasco and Lil Wayne.
To rank existing SunChips flavors (as of July 2023), the Daily Meal put together a diverse taste-testing group, from ages 3 to 75, with a heavy concentration of expert snack food purveyors — teenagers and college students. Here are the unscientific results of a lot of crunching and munching.
7. Black Bean Spicy Jalapeño
In 2022, Frito-Lay felt so strongly about using black beans as an ingredient in SunChips that it released what it believed was a solid one-two punch with the flavors Black Bean Spicy Jalapeño and Black Bean Southwestern Queso. However, besides sharing a launch date, a parent name, and an aim to spice up one's life, there's a real gulf between the two flavors. One is a true revelation, and the other, while it's a solid chip (as all SunChips are), isn't nearly as great as the brand's other flavors.
What keeps Black Bean Spicy Jalapeño from succeeding is that it's too dedicated to being a jalapeño flavor, making it comes off as one note. The jalapeño here is so heavy-handed that it engulfs the other ingredients, including onion powder, sour cream, and garlic powder, which means there's no balance in the flavor profile. These SunChips are certainly bold, as the bag proclaims, but they need something to take the edge off. Try tempering their tense temperament by dipping these sandpaper-looking chips into actual sour cream ... or just skip this flavor and try something listed below instead.
6. Chili Lime
Chili Lime SunChips look as if they were burned by the actual sun and smell like they were birthed in a paprika bottling factory. This definitely isn't a winning description for these lightly smokey SunChips, or one that Frito-Lay would sign off on for the product it dropped in 2021. The company told AdForum that Chili Lime SunChips had "a flavor bursting with heat and citrus that delivers a full-flavored snacking experience." It added, "With this new product, we saw the opportunity to tap into the growing consumer demand for spice and heat, especially among younger Millennials."
What's interesting is that these particular SunChips are built up to be something they really aren't — super spicy, citrusy, or hot. Yes, chili powder, chili pepper spice, and lime juice are all active ingredients listed on the bag for Chili Lime SunChips, but your tongue will be hard-pressed to find those flavor profiles in full effect on the chip. Chili Lime SunChips are decent little chips, dusted with a hard-to-place, spiced sweetness that neither offends nor begs to be savored. As a middle-of-the-road chip, it was a bit surprising that our test panel would often reach back into this bag for a second or third try. Perhaps they were perplexed about what to make of it, what was missing, or what exactly its flavor was. Maybe squeeze a little lime juice on them and go from there?
5. Harvest Cheddar
If one SunChip flavor best exemplifies the brand image-wise — physically capturing its name and embodying its essence — it would have to be eaters' long-time favorite: Harvest Cheddar. With amber waves of wheat grain, gorgeous tequila sunrise hues of orange, yellow, and a touch of red, the Harvest Cheddar is a piece of chip art. While it's sometimes mistaken as one of the initial SunChips flavors released, Harvest Cheddar joined slightly older pioneer brothers Original and French Onion on shelves a year later in 1992.
Harvest Cheddar has been a crowd-pleasing catch ever since (and a welcome sight on Delta flights), with no intentions of being anything other than a super cheesy chip, akin to what Nacho Cheese Doritos do for their own line. This SunChip is even cheesier than its "Cheddar" name, as Romano and Parmesan are also in on the fun, and, when mixed together, create a super aroma of cheesiness. It's hard to imagine how SunChips could even improve upon Harvest Cheddar for another cheesy flavor, but the folks at Frito-Lay really outdid themselves with a new product in 2022 (spoiler alert — keep reading until the very end!).
4. Original
When SunChips had its official coming out party in 1991, it only came in two flavors: French Onion and Original. As SunChips evolved over time, the Original has stayed true to its name, and, in a way, proved itself to be a true original in the chip industry. The flavor has always been a bestselling SunChip. And even when Frito-Lay misfired attempting to save the earth with biodegradable bags that proved to be a bit too noisy for its customers, the Original was the last of the family to try and keep that composting dream alive.
The definition of an actual SunChip lies in the simplicity of its naked Original flavor. And as other more robust, zesty, and spicy flavors have joined the line-up, this standard bearer has often felt like a forgotten older sibling collecting chip dust. It doesn't even smell like anything in particular, and its appearance resembles dried-out fruit. When comparing the Original's ingredient list versus its brethren, it might seem like something is missing — but what more does a SunChip need than whole corn, sunflower or canola oil, whole wheat, brown rice flour, whole oat flour, sugar, salt, natural flavor, and good old Maltodextrin? Well, one thing that is missing in the Original flavor — but is present in all other flavors — is milk, which makes it the only dairy-free SunChip. However, you can still add any dairy product or topping imaginable to these blank canvas Originals to create your own homemade chip recipe!
3. French Onion
As one of the two introductory SunChips flavors, French Onion has long been a favorite amongst snack lovers. A year after its release in 1991, Newsday conducted a poll with 100 kids pitting this flavor against the Original, and by a ratio of 4 to 1, French Onion was the clear winner. This dependable flavor continues to garner favor today and counts multi-hyphenate star Chrissy Teigen as one of its biggest fans — she's even used the chips to make a crunchy and flavorful coating for baked chicken.
With all the other SunChips flavors, an eater can't get a clear picture of what the actual flavor is by name only — but with French Onion, the name spells out the taste expectations pretty clearly and comes through perfectly in its delivery. Lightly camouflaged in a chives-looking spice, containing sour cream, parsley, skim milk, cheddar and mozzarella cheeses, brown sugar, onion powder, and green onion powder, these chips smell exactly how they taste: Like chips slathered in an invisible, creamy French onion dip. Long may this French "Sun" king reign.
2. Garden Salsa
After 14 years of just three flavors in its stable — Original, French Onion, and Harvest Cheddar — SunChips went bold on its fourth offering, releasing Garden Salsa back in 2006. Capitalizing on the popularity of the condiment salsa, Frito-Lay created an instant knockout that wasn't of just any garden variety, but of its own range of spices, including onion powder, jalapeño pepper, and paprika.
Unlike the other spiced-up flavors that followed in its wake over the past 17 years, Garden Salsa excels at finding the proper balance between its spices and its dairy elements, which run the farm from cheddar cheese to buttermilk to Romano cheese. It's comparable in taste to Cool Ranch Doritos, although one's hands wouldn't get as messy eating these Tuscan, sun-dripped-looking chips as they do with Doritos. Garden Salsa doesn't actually taste like roasted garden salsa, since it's not a pile of wet tomatoes, but it certainly makes for a nice alternative to tortilla chips for dipping into the condiment. Just don't tell that to Frito-Lay's sister chip, Tostitos. Shhhhhh!
1. Black Bean Southwestern Queso
Like its brother Spicy Jalapeño, Black Bean Southwestern Queso is, as promised, made from actual black beans. Upon its launch in 2022, Frito-Lay told Thrillist the new product "brings the mouthwatering zest of chipotle peppers paired with creamy queso." That was a decent attempt to pin down the almost indescribable magic that lies within a bag of Black Bean Southwestern Queso SunChips, which is currently, and easily, the best flavor in the brand's line. The folks at Good Housekeeping Magazine agree: The flavor was a 2023 Snack Award winner in the "Crunchy Chips & Crackers" division.
These Southwestern Queso chips are packed with a wallop of saucy spices, including cheddar, chipotle pepper, onion powder, buttermilk, tomato powder, paprika (what it smells most like when taking a whiff), and sour cream, creating a combined flavor that leaves mouths watering for more (and for water in general). These mighty SunChips hit all the right levels of being tangy, peppery, cheesy, spicy, and just plain awesome, all at the same time. Not even their appearance — which resembles arid dirt or perhaps a brick wall — can stand in the way of their greatness. So tear open a bag of these babies, and feel free to get creative — melt some actual queso on top of them for some really intense cheesy nachos. Our only question is, what took Frito-Lay — one of the parent companies making almost everything we eat and drink — so long to introduce this flavor?