A frozen French fried potato product possessing unique taste characteristics is manufactured by producing potato pieces having a desired shape, frying the potato pieces, freezing the potato pieces, and applying a topical addition to the frozen potato pieces. The topical addition is preferably an encapsulated topical addition in which a water soluble ingredient other than salt is encapsulated in an encapsulation material. To impart sweet taste characteristics to the frozen French fried potato product, the topical addition is an encapsulated sugar. The resulting frozen French fried potato product is constituted by potato pieces that have been fried and frozen, with the topical addition such as encapsulated sugar applied to the outer surface of the frozen French fried potato pieces.