Velveeta Is Launching New Queso In 3 Classic Flavors
Some things make so much sense in hindsight that it's hard to believe it never occurred to us beforehand. That's how we feel about the new Velveeta ready-to-eat queso products that are set to hit shelves nationwide this May. This will be the very first time the cheese company has tried its hand at a ready-to-eat queso dip and it's coming in strong with three new flavors all at once: Queso Con Salsa, Queso Blanco, and Jalapeño.
People have been making queso with Velveeta for a while now, so it makes sense that the company would eventually skip the middleman and offer a quick jar of the stuff to anyone looking to chow down on a time crunch. Without having tried the new queso yet ourselves, we're still partial to our Velveeta pumpkin queso-smothered nachos. That said, the convenience factor is real and we're excited to see how these products stack up against our homemade versions.
The nice thing about it is that you can always add more ingredients to jarred queso if you're looking for a specific flavor. This is also a great way to cut down on portion size and food waste if you only need a small amount since making queso at home with a big Velveeta cheese loaf typically results in enough dip to feed a small army.
A big step forward for Velveeta products
The three flavors that Velveeta has chosen for its queso debut are pretty standard, but that's exactly what you would want to see from a debut lineup. If you start off with more unique offerings, you muddy the waters, making it hard to tell if customers are uninterested in those specific flavors or in Velveeta queso more generally. This way, the company has a chance to test the market and see if there's an audience for this type of product.
If these flavors do well, there's a chance we'll see new variations on the theme further down the road. While we are excited to try these new cheesy dips out, there is reason to remain a little skeptical of this lineup's success. Although there is already a huge market of Velveeta lovers out there, you still have people who are thrown off by the fact that Velveeta isn't real cheese. It's technically a "pasteurized process cheese product," which is legal jargon for "not cheese, but close enough."
But Velveeta doesn't need to win over its haters so long as its legion of fans are interested, and we think the new queso products are going to perform just fine. And it's worth noting that queso isn't the only new product Velveeta is experimenting with, either. Fans of Velveeta Shells and Cheese have something to celebrate with the first new flavors in 12 years, Pizza and Buffalo. The company is also releasing its very first gluten-free Shells and Cheese product for all the cheese lovers out there who are intolerant of or avoiding gluten.