All language subtitles for Modern.Marvels.S21E05.Food.Snacks.1080p.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H264-BTN_track3_[eng]

- What better place to
smarten up on snacks

than right here at Wise,
in Berwick, Pennsylvania.

(upbeat music)

Their 600,000 square
foot facility

delivers nearly every size,
shape, and style of salty snack

that you can imagine,
and they have big plans

to create even more.

With the salty snack
industry ballooning

into a $28 billion business,
we've turned snacking

into a science, or
maybe an art form.

Today, we are going to dive
into some of the salty snacks

that Americans love the
most, like potato chips

and tortilla chips,
jerky, cheesy snacks,

popcorn and pretzels.

(upbeat music)

Then we'll also go
behind the scenes

at the first pretzel
company in America,

where we'll see the
secrets of pretzel making.

- The barley malt was kind
of a secret ingredient,

for him at the time.

It gave it the flavor
that nobody else had.

- [Adam] And we'll not only
learn all there is to know

about the invention
of potato chips,

but also the
surprising origin story

of the Flamin' Hot Cheeto.

Plus, with every
flavor imaginable,

how do potato chip companies

still innovate new
flavors each year?

Watch as I get exclusive access

to try unreleased Cheez Doodles.

Oh, boy.

Well, it's time for you to
take a break, treat yo'self,

because this is "Modern
Marvels: Snack Food,"

and hopefully, he'll
have a few free examples.

(upbeat music)

(potatoes thumping)

- [Adam] Oh my Gosh!

It smells amazing in here,
and as a Wise lover,

seeing all these chips, I
just want a giant bowl of dip.

I'm going to get a firsthand
look at the process

of how Wise takes
potatoes and turns them

into the golden goodness
we know as potato chips.

Wise has 300 different
snack products.

Combine these with others
like Frito-Lay, Utz,

Nabisco, Pringles,
the list goes on,

you can imagine how serious
Americans are about snacking.

Wise is a big player in the
local community, as well.

Some employees have worked here

for three, four,
even five decades.

Today, I'm going to
meet one of those loyal,

longtime employees, Operation
Manager Terry Boyer,

who has been here for 45 years,

and Terry's dad worked
here for a half century.

Terry is gonna show me the
secrets of how they make, pack,

and ship millions of salty
snacks every single month.

Potato chips alone,
you guys are selling

23 million bags per
year, is that right?

- Per month.

Per month.

Between our potato chips
and our corn-based snacks,

we sell almost a half
a billion bags a year.

- [Adam] In 1921, Earl Wise
brought home some extra potatoes

from his family's delicatessen
and started making

potato chips by hand,
in a copper kettle.

A year later, he bought
his own truck to deliver

the potato chips,
and within four years

of that first batch of chips,

Earl Wise built his first
factory on the grounds

where the current
plant is located.

And today, the company Earl
Wise founded 100 years ago,

now ships its snacks
to all 50 states,

and 13 different countries,
all across the globe.

- To celebrate our
100th anniversary,

we're coming out with
some different flavors.

I have two here on
the table for you,

if you would like to try them?

- [Adam] These are brand new?

- Yep.

- I believe that I'm
probably the first outsider

to try them.

Terry is challenging me
to identify these flavors,

and am I up for this challenge.

Mmmm.

I get a bit of heat,
a bit of tanginess.

It's reminiscent of the
classic barbecue chip,

but there's a little
bit more to it.

Oh man.

I've never had anything like it.

It's sweet and heat.

That is awesome.
(upbeat music)

These mad-flavor
scientists are geniuses.

- [Terry] Okay.

- Mmm.

This one's a little
more difficult.

Delicious.

I give up, you stumped
me, what is it?

- This is--

- [Adam] Hickory barbecue.
- [Terry] Hickory barbecue.

Peach Habanero is for more
for the millennial consumer.

This is our
traditional consumer.

You can't get any
more traditional

than a barbecue
flavored potato chip,

but we added some zesty
spices to it.

- Will you show me
how we make these?

- Yep, let's continue
through the factory,

and we'll start at the
beginning and show you

how the process and how
the product is made.

- [Adam] After you.

(upbeat music)

- Here, Adam, is where
step one of the process is.

- [Adam] This glorious
process of making potato chips

starts with getting the
potatoes into the building.

- [Terry] We'll get between
12 and 15 trailer loads

of a potatoes a day,
50,000 pounds per trailer.

We'll literally be digging
potatoes in the morning

and frying them and putting
them in the bags at night.

- That's how fresh they are?

So right here in this truck,

that's 50,000
pounds of potatoes?

- [Terry] That's correct.

- What does that translate
to in terms of potato chips?

- In finished product, 80% of
that weight of those potatoes

is water, so we're
only getting 20% solid,

so that 50,000 pounds will
equate to about 12,000 pounds

of finished chips.

- [Adam] Okay, so
what do we do first?

- [Terry] I'll let you
unload this trailer.

- [Adam] That's cool.
- [Terry] So you can

hit the two buttons here.

- [Adam] All right, here we go.

(upbeat music)

That's so cool.

If I wasn't seeing this,

I'm not sure I's
believe what's happened.

When I pushed those
buttons, I had no idea

that the entire truck was
getting hoisted up into the sky,

to shake potatoes
out of the back.

There's the whole truck.

I'm just shaking it out.

This is so cool.

This little, tiny button
is taking an entire trailer

and just kept tipping
it like a box of cereal.

So all these will get fried,
by the end of the day?

- [Terry] By the end of the
day, these will all be fried.

- [Adam] That's nuts.

The potato is everywhere.

These starchy spuds are
actually the fourth largest crop

in the world, behind
rice, wheat, and corn.

In the 16th century,
Spanish Conquistadors

brought potatoes to
Europe from Peru,

but for 200 years,
nobody would eat them.

People actually thought
they were poisonous

or only worthy to
feed livestock.

That is until a French
pharmacist

named Antoine Parmentier

saw the potato as something
that could feed a nation.

And just like we were today,

he turned to the ultimate
influencer of public opinion

- He got King Louis XVI
and Marie Antoinette

to wear potato flowers
on their clothes,

as a way of enticing people
to see potatoes in a new way.

- [Adam] And starting with
that royal endorsement,

potatoes soon became one of the
top food sources for Europe,

then America, and then
the rest of the world.

There are a few different
accounts of how the potato

went from feeding
European nations

to becoming the
almighty potato chip,

but for one of the
most common stories,

we have to fast forward to
Saratoga Springs, New York,

in the year 1853.

During a crazy dinner rush,
at a restaurant called

Moon's Lake House, a picky
customer sent his French fries

back to the kitchen, saying the
potatoes were cut too thick.

The chef, a part
African-American

part Native American man

named George Crum,
was less than pleased,

and his reaction made history.

- George Crum
decided to shave them

as thin as he could
get, fried them,

and sort of turn them
into potato chips.

- [Adam] The legend continues

The customer loved
the crispy snacks,

and he wasn't the only one.

These new Saratoga chips
became an instant hit

in Saratoga Springs and
spread throughout the country.

Between the 1920's and 1930's,

thanks to innovations like
the automatic potato peeler

and continuous fryer,
companies like Wise, Lays,

and Utz were born.

Now, America consumes
1.5 billion pounds

of potato chips every year.

So where do the potatoes travel?

- [Terry] The potatoes
you've unloaded outside

are then transferred
by conveyors.

(potatoes thumping)

They're traveling on an
overhead belt, right above us,

and then diverted right
into this bin here.

- [Adam] So this is
full of those potatoes?

- [Terry] Of those potatoes,

Each one of these bins
that are in here will hold

a whole truck, which is the
50,000 pounds of potatoes.

This is where
they'll get a wash,

before they go into
the peeling area.

- [Adam] So this water
is doing two jobs in one.

Not only is it
cleaning the potatoes,

it's transporting them to
the next stop in the process.

So we have trucks, to this
conveyor system hopper,

to being washed,
pipes, to peeling?

- To peeling.

- All right, let's go peel them.

After you.

- In this area here
is where we'll do

the peeling of the
potatoes, before the frying.

- [Adam] Okay.

After they're cleaned, the
potatoes ride up the belt

and get dumped into
these big hoppers.

- [Terry] The potatoes come in
the tube, into a hopper here.

From that hopper, they're
fed into a peeling mechanism,

and this is what's inside
those peeling drums,

where we actually
peel the potatoes.

This apparatus is inside
both of those small drums.

- [Adam] Does it get like
full all the way to the brim?

- No, it won't be full
all the way to the top.

About 80 pounds of potatoes
will be in the drum,

for each of the batches.

- What does that translate
to in terms of bags?

- It would give you 40 bags
of finished potato chips.

- [Adam] It feels
like sandpaper inside.

- That's exactly what it is.

It's 24-grit sandpaper.

Inside there, this
bottom piece spins,

as these potatoes go around,

- [Adam] Uh-huh (affirmative).

- [Terry] you can
see what's happening.

- [Adam] Oh, and because
they've gone through the flume,

it's wet--
- [Terry] It's wet--

- [Adam] And it's
easier to peel.

- [Terry] And helps
remove this skin.

- [Adam] So as the potatoes
rotate around inside the drum,

they rub against the
abrasive bottom and sides,

and the peels get sanded away.

It's just the slightest
bit of pressure,

because it's already moist.

I was actually wondering,
if it wouldn't be too weird,

if I could try and then see
if I could see the flavor

in the final chip.

Is that cool?
- Sure.

- All right.

- [Adam] Last year salty snacks
like chips, jerky, pretzels,

and popcorn reported more
than $19 billion in sales,

in the U.S. alone.

Here at the Wise factory,
we're following the process,

as potatoes become potato
chips, and I'm curious

how a slice of one of
these spuds tastes,

in its raw form compared
to the eventual chip.

They're really delicious.

Tastes like a green bean but
like starchy, a little sweet.

This slices like an apple.

It actually has a
lot of body to it.

So when you make this into
a chip, it's gonna have

a lot of flavor because
more starch, more sugar,

and it's gonna preserve
that earthiness.

Really, really good.

Potato chips are an
undeniable classic,

but there's another salty
predecessor that's been

in the pantheon of snacks,
for more than 1400 years.

The legend says that pretzels
were born in Northern Italy,

in the year 610, a.d.,
and today they are

a more than $1.3
billion global industry.

The average American eats two
pounds of pretzels each year,

but in Pennsylvania,

they eat six times as many
pretzels as the rest of us.

So we're going to
Julius Sturgis,

in Lititz, Pennsylvania,

Family owned and operated,

this historical company
established early recipes

and pretzel-making methods
that they still employ today.

- Julius, as a 15 year old,
began an apprenticeship

at a local bakery,
just down the street.

Most bakers, they would
leave bits of pieces of dough

in the cooling ovens overnight.

- [Adam] Julius had the
idea to twist these pieces

of leftover dough
into a pretzel shape

and sell them on the side.

He saved his money for 11 years

and opened up his own bakery.

- [Kurt] We are stepping
back into history,

over 150 years old.

- [Adam] The original ovens
built by Julius remain on site.

Their soft pretzels
are made fresh daily

and twisted by hand, using the
original recipe, from 1861.

- I use water, yeast,

and I have a little bit
of barley malt in there.

The barley malt is kind
of a secret ingredient.

It gave it the flavor
that nobody else had.

Right now, we're working
with a stand-up mixture.

Julius Sturgis didn't use that
when he made pretzels here.

He used a barrel, a wooden
paddle, and worked it by hand,

and a lot more dough than
what is in here, at that time.

Okay, we'll check this out.

- [Adam] According to the
legend, pretzels were created

more than 1400 years
ago, when an Italian monk

used a piece of twisted bread

to reward his students, for
learning of their prayers.

It's said that the
crossed pattern

represents the folded arms
of the praying children,

and the three holes
represent the Holy Trinity,

the Father, Son,
and the Holy Spirit.

At the historic shop where
Julius Sturgis operated,

they continue his legacy,

baking pretzels
just the way he did.

But at the Julius Sturgis
plant, about 30 miles away,

they make between one to
five million hard pretzels

every single day.

(upbeat music)

Back at Wise, we're jumping
back into the process

of potato chip production.

We've seen them delivered,
washed, and peeled.

Now Terry is gonna
show us how they

get to look like potato chips.

Just up a few steps is where
the potatoes get sliced

into that classic
potato chip shape.

You guys gotta see this.
(potatoes thumping)

Potatoes here,

chips here,

that's how fast that
process happens.

Terry's removed the blades
from the huge slicers

to show me how they work.

Whoa, show me one second.

Can you see how thin that is?

- Precision 60 thousandths of an
inch is what these are sliced,

and they'll be within
two to three thousandths,

when they're sliced.

- [Adam] That thin.

Oh my gosh, I never thought
of potato chip making

as this precise science.

It's pretty incredible.

How many blades are in each?

- There are eight blades
in each of the heads,

and those blades are changed
every two hours of production.

- Because they get dull?

- [Terry] They will get dull.

The best thing for
quality chips is to have

the sharpest blade you can,
to get that precision cut.

This actually is
300 pound batches--

- [Adam] What?
- that we will do.

- Turning 300 pounds of these

into 300 pounds of
these takes how long?

- 30 to 40 seconds.

With two of these
heads, the 300 pounds

will be sliced into the
60 thousandths inch slices.

- [Adam] Wait, can I try one?

- [Terry] Uh-huh (affirmative).

- [Adam] That way, right?

- [Terry] Yep. Towards me.

- Yep. Ready?

And now I'm barely
using any force.

If I just do this,

time and time again
I'm gonna keep getting

the most exact slice.

- So to make our
ridge-style chip--

- No way.

- The cutter is
actually different.

This blade right here.

- [Adam] Yeah.

- Slide that just like
we did the other one.

- Come on.

(upbeat music)

After they've come out of
the slicer, the potato slices

travel along a belt, to this
area, where they'll be fried.

These are the fryers?

- [Terry] These are the fryers.

You can see a batch going
right into the fryer now.

- Oh, I see it.

Can we go check that out?

- Yes, if you want to, walk
down, Geno Caporaletti's there.

He'll be glad to show you
how this process works.

- All right. Thank you.

Let's go get Geno.

One of the world's
favorite snacks

comes in tasty the
little triangles,

Doritos, and
wouldn't, you know it?

These chips that make
so many people happy

come from the happiest
place on earth.

- 1955 Disneyland had just
opened in Anaheim, California,

and a few years later,
the Frito-Lay Company

opened their restaurant Casa
de Fritos on the grounds.

- [Adam] One day a delivery
person from their tortilleria

noticed the kitchen
staff at Casa de Fritos

discarding all their
stale tortillas.

He suggested they cut them
up, fry them, and season them,

and you can probably
guess what happened next.

- People loved it.

They enjoyed these, doraditos,
which is what they call them,

and that translates to little
golden things, in Spanish.

The marketing execs at Frito-Lay
also started hearing about

what was happening
in their restaurant,

and the name will eventually
shrink down to Doritos

and they're a huge success.

(upbeat music)

- [Adam] When Doritos
launched in 1966,

they were almost like
plain tortilla chips.

Two years later, they
gave them a taco flavor.

The original flavor of nacho
cheese didn't debut until 1974.

(dramatic music)

Back at Wise, I'm heading
to an essential part

of the chip making process.
(laughing) Oh, baby.

The frying.

I didn't realize it would
look like a swimming pool.

Look at this.

I can't tell you how
great it smells in here.

These gigantic fryers
magically turn potato slices

into potato chips,

and fry manager Geno is
gonna show me how they do it.

So tell me a little
bit about the fryers.

- [Geno] These are batch fryers.

We run around 500 pounds an
hour, on each one of these.

- [Adam] As someone
who's actually

fried my own potato
chips at home,

I can tell you this,

the way they do it here
at Wise is truly amazing.

A huge batch of potato
slices swims in this

hot tub of cholesterol
free sunflower seed oil

for about nine minutes,
and when they come out,

they've magically transformed
from potato slices

into crispy potato chips.

By constantly churning
them up, they don't stick,

they don't sink, and you
get those beautiful folds

that make them all crunchy.

Remember, Terry said that
a potato is largely water,

so we're cooking
a lot of that out.

So there's a lot of steam,
but not a lot of grease,

which is really amazing.

I'm resisting the urge to
reach in very, very, very hard.

(upbeat music)

Besides chips and Cheez Doodles,

there's another salty
snack we all love.

It started as a
sustainable food source

hundreds of years ago,

and today it's nearly a $4
billion global industry.

I'm talking about jerky.

Jack Link's is by far

the largest jerky
brand in the world,

with more than a billion
dollars in annual sales.

We're heading to New Glarus,
Wisconsin, where Steve Jobe,

the Jack Link's plant manager,
is going to walk us through

how they make their
iconic meat sticks.

They start the process by
taking truckloads of raw meat

and grinding it into a form
that they can work with.

Each year, this plant goes
through about 17 million

pounds of beef that's ground
up and run through this

3000 pound mixer, in order to
create a homogenous meat blend

called an emulsion.

- They're combined with
spices, water, salt,

and other ingredients
to create the emulsions

that will eventually
go into the kitchen

and be put in the casing.

- [Adam] Then that
emulsion is pressed through

a 1/8th of an inch hole plate,

to stuff it into
a collagen casing.

These meat sticks get
loaded onto these racks

they call trucks.

They will load up to 180
of these trucks a day.

That is a lot of meat sticks.

Next step is to load them
into their gigantic ovens

to be smoked.

- Most of these ovens will hold
14 trucks, so they're large.

You could park a couple cars
in them, if you wanted to.

Then smoke anywhere from
20 minutes to two hours.

- [Adam] You might like
the modern chili lime

or sriracha flavored jerky
as a road trip snack,

but jerky has a long
history in America.

- Jerky comes from
the Conquistadors

in Central America,

- One in three forms a jerky
came out of the Incan Empire.

The word jerky comes
from the word charki.

- As European settlers
adopted the method of

smoking and drying meat, the
word charki became jerky,

and to many early Americans,
jerky wasn't just a snack.

- These days we really
think of jerky as something

that you might just
have on a whim,

but really in early America,
it was a matter of survival.

- [Adam] Jerky has
come a long way,

from sustaining early
Americans through the winter,

to the modern day traveler
through a road trip.

Clearly, jerky is here to stay.

(upbeat music)

Jack Link's meat sticks come
out of the smoker cooked,

and then they head over to
be cut into 15 inch sticks,

20 at a time.

Then they're vacuum sealed
and boxed up by hand,

and they're ready to be
sent out into the world.

Back at the Wise factory,
Terry is showing me

another side of their
epics snack lineup.

Whoa.

Where have taken me?

- [Terry] This is where we're
making our famous onion rings.

- [Adam] Man cannot snack
on potato chips alone.

Sometimes you need to shake
it up with something crunchy,

something savory,
something oniony.

In 1969, Wise started making
their amazing onion rings,

and they have become one
of the most popular snacks

that Wise produces.

Instead of slices of onion
that are dipped in batter

and then deep fried, like
you'd get at a restaurant,

these onion rings snacks
start as an O-shaped pellet

made out of corn, seasoned
with onion flavor.

Here at Wise, they make the
pellets and season them,

before they even
get to the fryer.

Where is the oil, down that way?

- Inside that fryer.

- [Adam] The smell of oniony
goodness in here is incredible.

These little onion ring
pellets take a quick dip

in this hot oil and
magically transform,

puffing up into the onion
rings we know in love.

Whoa.

That's amazing.

- Would you like to try
to finished product?

- Hell yeah.

Who am I kidding.

(dramatic music)

I mean...

Light, crispy.

It's more savory
than just onion.

That's the misconception.

I bet a lot of people
think just onion.

You're welcome America.

I eat deliciousness for you.

- [Adam] Americans eat
almost 2 billion pounds

of potato chips each year.

That equals about six pounds
of potato chips per person,

and one of the most famous
purveyors of potato chips

is the legendary Wise snacks,

where Terry is taking
us to the next step

in the potato chips process.

So what is this?

- Adam, this is our
opti-sort machine.

It's an optical picker that
actually picks any of the

defect chips out, that has a
brown spot or a black spot.

- [Adam] Wait, how does it
separate all those chips?

- It has a high speed
camera inside here.

The belt is running at
600 feet per minute,

and the camera will take a
picture of every individual chip

as it passes underneath.

Let me show you what
that camera is seeing.

That's the chips on the belt.

- And so I'm looking here,
black, brown, green, and other.

- The black, brown, and green

are the chips that
would pick out.

- [Adam] And it's
looking for the colors

black, brown, or green?

- [Terry] Correct.

- [Adam] The way it works is
the camera takes a picture

of every single chip that
shoots past on the belt.

If it sees a black,
brown, or green chip,

it signals one of 128
air jets that will blow

that individual chip out of
the stream, into a reject pile.

- [Terry] The good
ones will go over.

The bad ones will get separated.

- [Adam] So after sorting,
where do we head?

- [Terry] Then they
go to packaging,

where they get
salted and seasoning.

Follow me. I'll take you there.

- You got it.

Besides potato chips, there's
another crunchy salty snack

that Americans eat
tons of, literally.

Popcorn.

Americans eat 17 billion
quarts of popcorn a year.

That's enough to fill the Great
Pyramid of Giza seven times.

Can you even imagine
going to a movie theater

without smelling that
wonderful smell of popcorn?

- One of the biggest draws of
popcorn was how cheap it was.

For just for a few
cents, you could have

enough of a meal to last
you for an hour of viewing.

Movie theaters realized
that people were

And as it turned out,
popcorn is so cheap per pound

that the movie theater owners
could actually make more money

off the popcorn they
would sell their patrons

than off the tickets
to their movies.

So theaters really
fully embraced popcorn,

with Gerard W. Dickson in 1938,
when he actually installed

popcorn poppers in the
front of his movie theater,

and so that meant that
when patrons came in,

they were sort of accosted
by the smell of hot oil

and butter that made them
want to have to get popcorn,

before they went in
to watch the movie.

* Let's all go to the lobby

* Let's all go to the lobby

* Let's all go to the lobby

* To get ourselves a treat

- [Edward] So there was a period
when popcorn sales

started to decrease, and this
was in the 1970's and 1980's,

when viewership went from
being sort of a communal,

going to the movie
theaters affair,

to staying at home
and watching on TV.

- [Adam] By the 1980's, two
inventions went mainstream

into every house in
America and kept popcorn

as part of the movie
watching experience.

- By the 1980's,
America's love affair

with mass marketed popular
culture is at an all time high.

We even have VCRs.

Films you could see
at the movie theater,

you could then see six
feet in front of you,

on a television.

And of course,
microwave popcorn.

Makes all the
sense in the world.

- [Adam] In the 1940's,
a Raytheon scientist

was experimenting with a
magnetron, when he felt

the candy bar in his pocket
melt, by the microwaves.

He got the idea to expose
popcorn to the microwaves,

and boom, it immediately
popped all over the lab,

and the rest is history.

Popping popcorn was even
included in the original patent

for the microwave oven.

Since then manufacturers
continue to make new flavors

and products, to keep the
popcorn industry popping.

(upbeat music)

(upbeat music)

- [Adam] Back at Wise,

Terry is showing me how
they make popcorn,

as well as another
finger-licking favorite snack.

Do you just have like the
biggest popcorn popper

in the world?

- We actually have
two popcorn poppers

that will go through
that popcorn.

This is a cooling area,
before this product

is actually packaged, so
it's coming down to conveyors

being fed into the
different conveyors

that will weigh that
product, then package it.

And that's our famous
white cheddar popcorn.

- [Adam] Now we're looking at
two cheese-flavored products.

So I obviously recognize these.

Those are the classic
Cheez Doodles.

- [Terry] Cheez Doodles.

- [Adam] I've discovered
the Cheez Doodle river.

I've heard fables of this.

Can I try these?

- You sure can.

- [Adam] It's like
we're panning for gold.

You can imagine they can't
just let anyone reach in

and scoop these pure, perfect,
still warm Cheez Doodles

fresh out of the
Cheez Doodle River.

These are the most
sought after snack

at every birthday
party growing up.

It's better than I remember it.

It actually reminds me of
sharp cheddar cheese spread,

like it's a strong cheddar note

and a little bit
of yellow American.

- [Terry] Try that.

- Oh hell yeah.

The popcorn is light,
fluffy,

top notch.

Who develops the
cheese flavorings?

- [Terry] We will introduce
you to Mike, our flavor master,

in a little bit.

- Wait, they're called
the flavor masters?

- He is our flavor master.

- That's the coolest damn
title I've ever heard.

In today's snacking industry,
flavor is a big business,

and there is a hot new
flavor trend sweeping through

all brands of snack
foods all over the world,

and it all began with a janitor
at the Frito-Lay company.

- Richard Montanez was the
son of Mexican immigrants,

and in 1976, he was 18 years
old, and he had just been hired

at the Frito-Lay plant, in
Rancho Cucamonga, California.

- [Adam] After years
of working as a janitor

at the Frito-Lay
factory, Richard noticed

that a flavoring machine on the
Cheeto line had broken down,

leaving a pile of
unflavored Cheetos.

The proverbial light bulb
went off, and he decided

to take some of the plain
Cheetos home to experiment.

- Richard Montanez
was inspired by

the flavors that
he grew up eating,

particularly of the
Mexican street corn,

or the Mexican Elote, with
flavors of chili powder,

and cheese, and of
course, lots of lime.

- [Adam] When he got a
flavor he was proud of,

Richard mustered up the
courage to call the CEO

of the company and pitched his
new spicy flavor of Cheeto.

What happened next
changed his life

and the world of
snacking forever.

The head of Frito-Lay
invited Richard Montanez

to pitch his new flavor
of Cheeto to the board.

Of course, they were blown away,

and Flamin' Hot
Cheetos were born.

By 1992, they were introduced
to the snack world,

and it has never
been the same since.

- Today, the flaming hot concept
is a big marketing driver

for the Cheeto brand, with all
sorts of flaming hot ideas.

I mean, you got
flaming hot everywhere,

and they all do very, very
well, for the Frito-Lay company.

- [Adam] As for Mr.
Montanez, he was promoted

from his position as a janitor

and eventually became an
Executive Vice President.

- His story is
absolutely inspiring.

People throw around the term
American Dream quite a lot,

but that is exactly it.

(upbeat music)

- [Adam] Here at Wise, we're
following the potato chips

as they go through the
process of being made.

After they're fried and sorted

through the high-tech
optical sorter,

they travel up here, to
the flavoring section.

In 1954, the first flavored
potato chip was born in Ireland.

It was cheese and onion flavor.

Today, there are hundreds of
flavors, ranging from barbecue

to maple bacon, from pickle
flavor to prawn cocktail.

- [Jose] Here's the gate
for the chips.

They have to go through here,

and here the scale that
regulate the seasoning.

This is zesty jalapeno.

- Oh yeah, it's a
little spicy up here.

I was hoping Jose would
let me try one of these

zesty jalapeno samples
right out of the hopper.

- [Adam] Whoo.

- [Jose] I hope you like it.

- Spicy.

You can smell the spice.

(coughing)

Oh my Gosh.

They're spicy but
not like too much.

They are so crunchy,
so crunchy, spicy,

but a little bit more like
tangy, like a real jalapeno.

What's happening here?

What does this machine do?

- [Jose] Okay, this is now
we call the packing machine.

- [Adam] Okay.

- This will dump the
product and fill the bags,

down at the bottom.

At the bottom, we
have another system

that will start making the bags.

- Raw potatoes, washed
them, peeled them,

sliced them, fried
them, seasoned them.

Packaging next?

- Yes.

- Vamanos.

We've gone from
unloading the potatoes

to flavoring the chips.

The next step of the
process is to see how Wise

gets these chips out the
door and into your hands.

- There's 14 buckets
that you saw upstairs.

- [Adam] Right.

There were five that
work independently.

- [Terry] The computer will
pick the best combination.

We'll hit the target
weight of this bag

within 1/10th of a gram.

- So the actual role
of bags is where?

It's on the back?

- From the back.

It actually looks like
a roll of paper towels.

- [Adam] Oh, I see, so
it's a continuous channel.

- [Terry] Continuous channel.

- [Adam] Now, is there
a heating element

to solder it closed?

- [Terry] Yes, there's a
heating element in the back

that runs vertical here,

to actually seal that
and make the tube.

Then there's heating
elements in each of the jaws

that will crimp that bag
shut and cut the bag off.

- [Adam] This whole process
hinges on perfect orchestration

and coordination, so
it seems to be like

that dance between
human ingenuity

and the reliance on the
state-of-the-art technology.

- That's correct.

- [Adam] Here they come.

And if you think I'm letting
one more bag go in front of me

and not try these things,
you are sorely mistaken.

Aw, they are still warm.

Believe me, I understand
how lucky I am

to be tasting these
chips here at Wise,

that were potatoes that
I dumped out of a truck

just a few hours ago.

So amazing and so delicious.

What? Don't judge me.

They're so good and spicy.

I love them.

(upbeat music)

When we get back, the
man, the myth, the legend,

Flavor Master m m m Mike.

- Sir.

- [Adam] Flavor Master Mike

is gonna let me taste
is latest inventions.

One is a sneak peek of a new
flavor about to be in stores.

The others will never
be tasted again.

Oh boy.

Wise has been kind enough
to show us how they make

their magical potato chips,
Cheez Doodles, and other snacks.

As a final treat, Flavor
Master Mike is going to give me

an exclusive
tasting of a product

that is going to hit the
shelves, later this year.

Okay, what do we have in
the mystery bags of love?

- Okay, these are our new
Cheez Doodle, three flavors.

This is a progression.

As we whittle down the
flavors as we went along,

these three were the finalists.

- [Adam] So this is still not
yet hit the shelves, right?

- Yeah, this one never will

because it didn't
make the final cut.

- Really?
- [Mike] Right.

- So this is like
limited edition.

This is like a hyperstrike.

This is like a streetwear
drop that you can't get to.

This is friends and family only.

Bright red, I always
associate with heat.

Oh boy.

That's a humdinger, whoo.

Wow, there's like this
black pepper in there

'cause I feel this little
bit of a sneeze coming on.

So what was the reason
these didn't make it?

- We thought there
was a little bit

too much smoke in that flavor.

- [Adam] Smoke?

- You were right
about the pepper.

It's a chili pepper lime.

These are the two finalists.

It's like the first runner
up and the second runner up.

- Oh, these look awesome.

They almost look
like chicken fingers.

Look at that.

Oh, again, a sour note, a
little bit of a heat note,

but also a faint sweet note.

- It's basically a heat.

It's called a lava heat,
and you were right.

It has less heat
than the other one,

and that's the reason
it was rejected.

It didn't have enough heat.

- And this is the winner.

This is the one that we
are gonna be launching.

(Adam laughing)

We're back to red again.

- Whoa, fire engine red.

Do not attempt to
adjust your dial.

This is a sneak preview, people.

I hope you're appreciating
what you're getting.

These are delicious.

(upbeat music)

They're not as, they're
hot but they're not as

aggressively hot as number
one and not as sour.

What I like about these,

it hasn't lost the
cheese element of it.

The other flavors I got
the sour, I got that heat.

Here, I got the heat, but
it's still a Cheez Doodle,

but do not approach lightly.

I am salivating like a
Rottweiler looking at a T-bone.

I am...

No joke, delicious
but don't rub your eyes.

Secure the bag, people.

Extreme Cheddar, boom,
coming your way, summer 2021.

Flavor Master Mike, the
great people here at Wise,

bringing you literally
the new hotness.

Who doesn't love a good snack,
and who could possibly resist

all the deliciousness,
here at Wise?

These good people literally
work 'round the clock

to make sure that your
senses are satisfied

and your palette is pleased.

(upbeat music)

So the next time you're
tearing into some

marinated, mouthwatering
jerky, or a sinking your teeth

into the pillowy softness
of a fresh baked pretzel,

or crunching your way
through the savory, spicy,

cheesy crackling
perfection of your favorite

crispy snack chips, remember,
it takes a lot of hard work

to make snacking so easy.

So when your hunger
has your hankering,

and your taste buds are
tingling, and you're in the mood

for some comfort food,
take a break, sit on back,

and treat yourself to a snack.

See you next time.
(upbeat music)