Pizza-Flavored Food Smackdown: Taste-Testing Four Pie-Inspired Snacks

By Emily Rothchild

It’s Pizza Week, and we've shared with you everything from the best pie joints in the U.S. to our junk food frozen pizza guilty pleasures, but what discussion would be complete without shining the light on some of the most authentic pizza-inspired food around? We’re talking, of course, about pizza-flavored snacks. Serious foodies that we are, we hit up our nearest 7-11 (plus two drug stores and a supermarket) to find the best American snack companies had to offer, and we were surprisingly underwhelmed.

It seems like not too long ago faux pizza snacks were everywhere. Cheetos Cheezy pizza-flavored puffs shared shelf space with Doritos Pizza Supreme, pizza hummus and Pizza Hut popcorn (yes, really). But these days, all that pizza flavor is out and HOT! is in. Everything is chipotle this or jalapeno that, and even products like Funyuns and Fritos, snacks generally popular for their original flavor only, are getting in the “flamin’ hot” action. We’re not sure what’s behind this trend (any ideas, commenters?), but it left us, sadly, with only four pizza-flavored snacks to sample. Which were worthy? Read on to find out.

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