Sunday, December 14, 2008

Spicy Cheese Cratz


One of the things that you often see on Japanese food is a claim that a particular food is from another country or prepared in the style of another country's cuisine. I can't tell you how many times I've seen something say "American" which was in no way American. Many of those items also sport American flag motifs.

One of the strangest claims of origin I ever saw said that a particular brand of spicy chips was "Ethnican flavor." I don't know where those Ethnicans are located on the globe, but I salute them and their cuisine, wherever they may be. On this package of Cratz, is says "German style pretzels", but I have no idea if they are actually in any way German, though they are thick and bready like you'd expect a Bavarian-style pretzel to be.


Like the previously reviewed chicken and Alpen salt flavor of Cratz, these are very flavorful pretzels with a few almonds tossed in for good measure. I counted and there were about 5 almonds in the 144 gram (1.5 oz.) bag. They smell taste cheesy, but also carry a spicy heat as part of the finishing taste. The spiciness comes from a plethora of powders and pastes including onion powder, green onion powder, paprika, chicken extract powder, 2 types of cheese powder, vegetable powder, and tomato paste. The texture is super crunchy without being too hard.

I could eat these everyday, but I won't because they're not exactly great for you and I have a whole country's worth of junk to review. They may have too much of a hot bite for some people, but they suit my tastes quite well. The only problem is that the small portion carries a heavy load of calories at 222 calories and it's easy to put away the whole bag in no time.

1 comment:

Kelly said...

Spicy cheese sounds good, i'll keep my eyes open for some. These are nice with an alcoholic beverage and i'm with you they are very easy to eat! A little too expensive for every day though. :)