My sister is an experienced extra-toasty-Cheez-It-hunter, and since I've been so busy with house related stuff, I asked her to help me out by writing this guest review. Will these toasty little squares meet her extra-toasty expectations?
I see that on this box of Cheez-Its, it's noted that this extra toasty variety is their #1 requested flavor. I am unsurprised. While I have never submitted any formal flavor requests, I've spent many years sifting through bags inside of boxes, all in the hopes of encountering the rare and elusive toastiest of Cheez-Its. I had even considered toasting them in a toaster oven myself. Perhaps those days are over. Maria – Santa Maria (gratia plena) of Sometimes Foodie – has blessed me with this box of special, extra toasty Cheez-Its.
I had heard about these special Cheez-Its, and I've been wanting to try them for a while. It's well known in my family that I covet the extra dark Cheez-Its, so Maria hooked me up knowing my expectations were high. Right before she opened the package to take photos, she asked me how I'd feel if I was disappointed by a product that had appealed to me so strongly. Nonsense! How could I be?
My first impression...I am underwhelmed. I was expecting some hella toasty Cheez-Its. Like, yeah, they're darker than normal. But, in my opinion, they didn't take it far enough. I still find myself digging in the bag, hunting for the really dark ones, like some kind of Cheez-It snob. I mean, I'm probably a toasty Cheez-It expert, after years of chasing the dragon in search of the perfect Cheez-It. I'd say the majority of the Cheez-Its in this box are above average quality. A good toasty Cheez-It has nice, darkly tanned surface bubbles, which most all of these do have. But a great toasty Cheez-It needs to have dark edges.
Essentially, these Cheez-Its are only medium well, not well done. Many of these “extra toasty” Cheez-Its don't have the dark edges I want. Most of the undersides are the exact same color as the regular Cheez-Its. If I pull the bag sleeve out of the box to examine it, they're only barely distinguishable as darker than average. Maybe this was a dud batch? I'm still sifting through looking for the really dark ones. Sure, there's more of them than in a regular bag. But I want a whole bag of them!
While overall I'd say this is a very good product, and I'm happy with it, I do think it could be better. I admittedly had very high expectations. My cheesy ambitions flew too close to the sun, and these Cheez-Its obviously did not (or else they would be more properly toasty). While I would surely purchase these in the future, I'd like to see them take it a step farther. You are so close to perfection, Cheez-Its. I believe in you!
© Maria Smith http://poison-and-antidote.net
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Thank you for echoing my sentiments! I was thinking the same thing, I was underwhelmed - they just don't have the same burn like the ones I've hunted over the years! You're spot on it's the edges that give you that perfect burned taste. I'm the person that likes my cheese to drop off the pizza on to the pan and burn so I can peel it off and enjoy the partially carbonized remains that resemble that of Han Solo. Oh Sunshine can we please get Burn't to a crisp Cheez-it's for the true fantics!?
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting that "batches" vary -- I had some VERY toasty boxes with an expiration date in Feb. 2018, but then the boxes with expiration dates in March are back to the regular, so-so toasty ones. Vintage cheez-its?
ReplyDeleteThey're really hit or miss. Two out of three boxes of extra toasty are simply regular cheesits. There's a couple in there that have some brown edges but they're simply regular. I don't want regular. Bought a box last night. Opened it and they were again regular NOT TOASTY at all. I simply dupmed them out the back door for the animals. Very frustrating. Every so often you get a box that has a couple handfuls of extra toasties but those boxes are few and far between. Silly advertising scam.
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