There’s nothing like a good puff. A puff has what is arguably the best shape (easy to grab) and texture (airy, light) of all the salty snacks, the two qualities that make it so addictive once you pop open a bag. In recent years, dozens of iterations of puffs have been crowding grocery store shelves, offering healthier alternatives to the beloved chip, versions that are gluten-free or low in calories.
What I loved so much about my initial encounter with Ffups (like “puffs backwards, but wrong,” as the brand’s website states) was the straightforward challenge it presented: a chip that was Not Healthy and so proud of this triumph that it dared to label its bag with those two words and a smiling, goading Ffup.
What In The World Is A Ffup?
Put simply, a Ffup is a playful counter argument, a rebuttal, to the snack world’s health renaissance. It’s a “tasty tube” that doesn’t pretend to be anything more than a snack you’d blissfully eat before you were old enough to care about nutritional labels. The brand maintains a pretty minimalistic website full of sarcasm, jokes, and straightforward facts about the composition of each chip.
Ffups are made from processed corn, oil, and flavor dust, and shoppers are warned about the absence of anything healthy, though the snack is gluten-free. And, if you’re at all confused about how best to enjoy a Ffup, there are helpful instructions right on the site’s homepage:
Credit: ffups.com
Ffups In The Wild
I recently brought the entire collection of Ffups to a birthday gathering for two reasons: I wanted to get honest feedback that I would be collecting through a highly technical method called eavesdropping and though I knew I could put away five bags of chips if I really wanted to, I figured it wasn’t the best idea to go at it alone. As I laid the five flavors of Ffups out on the snack table—Grocery Store Cheddar, Semi-Historic Sour Cream & Onion, Professional Salt & Vinegar, Instant Hot Chocolate, Unambiguous Cinnamon Toast—and slowly walked away, I was tickled by the comments people made about my Ffups. I heard things like “This advertising is so honest,” “These look like props on a movie set,” and “I love that you can mix and match the salty and sweet flavors.”
After no more than fifteen minutes, everyone wanted to know what was up with the Ffups and who had brought them to the party. That’s when I realized that Ffups aren’t just a delicious snack to munch on while making small talk at a party, they’re a conversation starter, a curiosity, a way to make new friends.
Credit: Khiara Ortiz
Five Kinds of Ffups
These tasty tubes come in five different flavors, three savory and two sweet. Though they can each stand up to a puff craving on their own, I learned it’s a good idea to pair a sweet and savory Ffup, hold them side-by-side, and pop them both into your mouth at the same time for a more sublime snacking experience. Ffups offers several different bag bundles on its site, which you can build on your own. If you’re feeling lucky, you can let the brand “Ffup you up” and randomize your selection.
Professional Salt & Vinegar
Obviously, we all know that the potato chip has been the gatekeeper of Salt & Vinegar for some time, which is why it felt absolutely groundbreaking to enjoy this flavor on a different vehicle, one with a lighter texture that didn’t steal the spotlight from the real stars of the show—the salt and the vinegar. This was probably the crowd favorite (it was the first bag to empty out at the birthday party) and because nothing about it is overpowering, I’d say you could even pair it with a dip.
Grocery Store Cheddar
Nothing feels more natural than cheese dust on a puff, and Grocery Store Cheddar over delivers on this classic, nostalgic flavor. I particularly enjoyed the Ffups version of this childhood snack because the company’s corn and oil formula creates a chip with a uniquely satisfying crunch. You’ll even get that dusty residue everyone loves on your fingertips after diving into a bag of these.
Semi-Historic Sour Cream & Onion
These are just as delicious as the other two salty Ffups flavors and perfect for anyone who has ever been tempted to snack on sour cream and onion dip by itself (you’re not alone!). However, we do need to include the following warning: make sure you have some gum or mints on hand for after, which Ffups does not provide.
Unambiguous Cinnamon Toast
At first, I was a little dubious of Ffups’ sweet flavors, sure I wouldn’t be a fan. Boy was I wrong. The Unambiguous Cinnamon Toast bag transported me to Saturday mornings of eating Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal in front of my family’s living room television, and I found myself craving a glass of milk. Would it be so crazy to eat these as a cereal one day? Others might be reminded of churros or cinnamon rolls, but there’s no denying these are quite the treat.
Instant Hot Chocolate
The name says it all. If you’re in the mood for hot chocolate but you’re nowhere near a microwave, a source of water, and you forgot your marshmallows at home, Instant Hot Chocolate Ffups are here to save you.
As touted on the Ffups site, I can confirm that these puffs are “a great way to spend time.” I dare you to order them for your next social event and watch with delight as they charm anyone and everyone that comes across them on the snack table.
5 more reasons to love Ffups:
1. If you’re feeling blue because you’ve put your Ffups order in and now have to wait to get them in the mail, you can dress up a Fffup right on ffups.com. Costume options include a hula skirt, earmuffs, and a donut floatie.
2. Fffups currently only offers a large party-size bag for each flavor (with four servings per bag), meaning you have to call your friends over to enjoy these tasty tubes.
3. The fact that there’s nothing healthy about Ffups is not a bad thing—sometimes you need a break from all the salads in your life and these are the perfect way to live a little.
4. The Ffups Instagram account has even more jokes and memes waiting to make you laugh.
5. All of the ingredients that go into making Ffups are sourced domestically, and the company currently ships to every state (except Alaska and Hawaii).
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