What I found at Burger King: Flamin’ Hot Mac n’ Cheetos

Is this as lit as Burger King says?

December 14, 2017

Kelli Shiroma Braiotta,

What I found at … is a series that tests and vets intriguing store-bought foodie finds. It’s the wide-angle parallel to KaSnack attack!, our series reviewing made-in-Hawaii snacks.

What: Flamin’ Hot Mac n’ Cheetos

Where: Your local Burger King

Cost: $3.59 for a pack of five Cheetos

Q: Is this as lit as Burger King says?

I never eat fast food. The rare exception: $1 hot coffee from McDonald’s (because it’s cheap) and a once-in-a-blue-moon McFlurry (which I tell myself doesn’t count).

Then I saw this Instagram post from one of my favorite SoCal food bloggers and poof! my fast-food snobbery disappeared:

Burger King debuted its new Flamin’ Hot Mac n’ Cheetos on Nov. 29.

Flamin’ Hot is basically the 2.0 version of Burger King’s former Mac n’ Cheetos, which came out last June. Anything fried + mac and cheese is worth checking out, so I Google Map the closest Burger King.

This is described as “a unique portable snack of creamy mac n’ cheese coated and dusted with the flavor of Cheetos crunchy Flamin’ Hot cheese snacks.”

Let’s see how accurate Burger King’s description is.

First impression: These look a little stale. Not quite the “fresh outta the fryer” appeal I had imagined, but that’s okay. I know better than to judge a book by its cover (or in this case, a Cheetos Puff lookalike by its exterior).

These Puffs are bigger than your average Cheetos Puff, since they’re filled with mac ‘n cheese.

Moment of truth: I take my first bite.

Inside my first bite of the Flamin’ Hot Mac ‘n Cheetos.

It’s actually not very spicy. The aftertaste leaves a slight tingle on my tongue, but nothing that’s too hot to handle. The mac and cheese reminds me of Kraft, which I don’t mind since I grew up on those blue boxes. It’s nice and warm, and aptly cheesy. Not molten by any means, but comforting. Cheetos is one of my favorite chips, so maybe I’m a little biased, but the fried casing adds a great crunch. This really does remind me of deep-fried mac and cheese balls. And I know I like them because five of these tasty morsels aren’t enough — I want more.

A: No. It’s even better.

So the Cheetos shell was not full of gooey mac and cheese like in the food blogger’s picture. But they’re good. I’d get them again. And since they’re only available for a limited time, I’ll hunt down these addictive, fried cheesy bites a few more times before they disappear from BK’s menu.