Open Letter to Frito-Lay: Bring Back Jumpin’ Jack Doritos, Please and Thanks

The early '90s were a great time to be experimentative. Kids who grew up in the '80s were looking to evolve and expand their creativity and were looking for companies and brands to do the same. Right on the cusp of the grunge revolution and shock-shows on TV including Jerry Springer we started noticing our food having attitude, too. Purple ketchup, jars that contained both peanut butter and jelly, candy that was either too hot or too sour flooded our store shelves. It was always fun and exciting to see what they were going to come out with next.

Enter Jumpin' Jack Doritos.

I don't know what makes these better than the other Doritos but they just hit differently. During this era we only had few options for Doritos including nacho cheese and cool ranch varieties along with basically plain and taco may have been a flavor back then, too.

Now, sure, we look for Doritos and we have several varieties to choose from but one fateful day Jumpin' Jack Doritos mysteriously vanished, seemingly gone forever...

...until 2012.

Lo and behold from the corner of my eye at a local gas station I spotted these on the shelf again. I knew in my heart they'd only be back for a limited time but I couldn't wait to try them again. They tasted as good as I remembered whisking me back to a time when I had a sweet, sweet mullet playing my Nintendo and drinking Mountain Dew (Surge wasn't out, yet). As expected, they were only back for maybe 3-6 months and never really saw them at other stores outside of gas stations but it was fun to see, even if for a short while.

So my please, please, Frito-Lay and anyone involved in Doritos marketing, please bring back Jumpin' Jack Doritos again. I miss them dearly.

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