New Cheetos Duster lets you add that unique flavor (and color) to all your food

Instead of licking Cheetos dust off your fingers, you could be sprinkling it on your food.

December 20, 2022 at 11:00AM

If your food has been tasting a bit bland lately, maybe you need a new spice. Have you considered Cheetos dust?

The people behind the famously orange snack food are now suggesting that a sprinkling of ground-up Cheetos can be a flavor enhancer for everything from ice cream to Brussels sprouts to lobster tails.

They've even introduced a new mini kitchen appliance to promote the idea. The Cheetos Duster is basically a Cheetos-branded, cordless mini-food processor designed to grind Cheetos into a fine powder.

Cheetos-flavored broccoli, anyone? (Richard Chin/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

When the device was put on sale for $19.95 on Amazon.com on Black Friday, it sold out in minutes. It's since shown up on the secondary market at sites like eBay where sellers have been asking up to $100 for the Cheetos Duster.

We managed to snag one for a test drive.

We can report that the Cheetos Duster — with its traffic-cone-orange paint job, chrome accents and Cheetos dust fingerprint decals — is a triumph of form. If you could find one, it would make a good stocking stuffer for that special snack-food foodie who already has an electric s'mores maker, a countertop dog treat cooker, or a Millennium Falcon waffle maker.

As far as function goes, well, you could probably get the same results or better by whizzing your Cheetos through a food processor, kneading a bagful of the snacks with your hands or smashing them with a frying pan.

As far as taste? Pulverized Cheetos can add a salty, crunchy accent to soft foods like mashed potatoes or macaroni and cheese. But we wouldn't recommend sprinkling ground-up Flamin' Hot Cheetos on lime Jell-O again. That did not work at all.

about the writer

about the writer

Richard Chin

Reporter

Richard Chin is a feature reporter with the Minnesota Star Tribune in Minneapolis. He has been a longtime Twin Cities-based journalist who has covered crime, courts, transportation, outdoor recreation and human interest stories.

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