Appropriately Cheesy: Whisps Cheddar Cheese Crisps Blurs The Lines Between Cheese And Crackers!

The Good: Wonderful aroma, Great taste, Decent amount of Calcium
The Bad: Not overly healthy, Expensive.
The Basics: Whisps Cheddar Cheese Crisps are flavorful and interesting, though a little pricy for what they are.


I am very interested in how snacks have been evolving in recent years. When I was younger, there were cheese flavored crackers; now there are snacks that are basically baked cheese! The first of these snacks that I am trying are the Whisps Cheddar Cheese Crisps. These snacks remind me of what happens when I toast an asiago cheese bagel and the cheese on it falls onto the grate and gets baked there. I've scraped plenty of hot cheese off toasters like that; it never occurred to me to sell them as a snack!

That said, Whisps Cheddar Cheese Crisps are quite good and when my wife got a bag of these for me, they turned out to be quite delightful.

Basics

Cheddar Cheese Crisps Whisps, for those who are not familiar with them, are baked cheese snacks. Cello has marketed their Whisps chip line as a high quality, cheese alternative to cheese-flavored crackers. The Cheddar Cheese Crisps are a light yellow and look like little waffle crackers with quite a bit of texturing to them.

Cheddar Cheese Crisps Whisps come in a 2.12 oz. bag that is resealable The cheese crisps are round, approximately 1 1/4" in diameter and 3/16" thick

Ease Of Preparation

Whisps Cheddar Cheese Crisps are simple to consume; all you need do it open the bag and remove the crisps from it! There is no trick to eating Cheddar Cheese Crisps Whisps; they are a snack that is ready to go from the package to the mouth.

Taste

Whisps Cheddar Cheese Crisps smell mildly of cheddar. The scent is recognizable, but simple. The cheese scent is not overly powerful; it lacks the sharpness of most cheddars - it is potent-enough to be recognizable, but not much more than that.

In the mouth, Whisps Cheddar Cheese Crisps are greasy and salty and they taste like a fairly mild cheddar cheese. The flavor has the distinctive sourness of a good cheese and the sour cheddar flavor is increased as the crisp melts in the mouth. The salty, greasy flavor is enhanced as the sourness fades; the Whisps Cheddar Cheese Crisps taste exactly like what they are supposed to; actual cheddar cheese with a little crispiness to them.

The Whisps Cheddar Cheese Crisps leave a slight sour aftertaste in the mouth for a few minutes after the last of them is consumed.

Nutrition

Cheddar Cheese Crisps Whisps are all-natural, but they are not particularly healthy. The Whisps Cheddar Cheese Crisps are made entirely of cheddar cheese.

Each twenty-eight gram (23 crisp) serving of Whisps Cheddar Cheese Crisps has 170 calories, one hundred thirty of which come from fat. There is no dietary fiber. While there are 14 grams of fat and 10 grams of protein, there is an excessive 330 mg of sodium, which represents 14% of one's RDA of sodium. There is a smattering of Vitamin A and an impressive 35% RDA of Calcium in a serving. There is a dietary note that the Cheddar Cheese Crisps crackers includes milk ingredients, which prevents them from being Vegan compliant.

Storage/Clean-up

Kept in their bag, Cheddar Cheese Crisps Whisps will remain fresh for almost a year and as long as the bag is resealed, one suspects they will last for a few weeks before getting stale. I've never had to deal with issues of freshness for my Cheddar Cheese Crisps Whisps; the bag my wife got me last month had an expiration date of November 24, 2018.

Cleanup is simple as well. Cheddar Cheese Crisps Whisps are a dry food and they leave crumbs. Interestingly, these do not leave a greasy residue. Once done with consuming, simply wash your hands, because that’s a good idea no matter what. When one is done, throw out the bag and cleanup is done!

Overall

Cheddar Cheese Crisps Whisps are fun on their own or used as an augmentation to soups or salads, but they are a bit pricey for what they are.

For other cheesy snacks, check out my reviews of:
Cheez-It Cheddar Cheese Crisps Snack Crackers
North Country Cheese Garlic Dill Cheese Curds
Hippeas Vegan White Cheddar organic chickpea puffs

7.5/10

For other food and drink reviews, please click here to visit my index page!

© 2018 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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An Impressive Accent Cheese: Yancey's Fancy Chastinet!

The Good: Good flavor, Good ingredients
The Bad: Very hard - a little difficult to work with, Not incredible on its own (works better as an ingredient than its own cheese).
The Basics: Yancey's Fancy Chastinet cheese is interesting and makes other foods better, but not exceptional on its own.


I am so used to Yancey's Fancy cheeses being filled with additional (non-cheese) flavors that it seems like such a surprise when I find one that is just a cheese on its own. In the case of Yancey's Fancy Chastinet, this is my first encounter with the Asiago-like Chastinet. This is a Chastinet, unadulterated by added meats or wine flavors or onion pieces and it was a pleasant surprise. But while the Chastinet is an intriguing and good cheese, it seemed to work better as an additive to augment other dishes and foods than it was a good cheese on its own.

Basics

Yancey's Fancy is a manufacturer of Artisan Cheeses in upstate New York and they make some very creative cheeses. The intent of most Yancey's Fancy cheeses is that they will be cheeses that hold their own as snacks that may be served to consumers in fancier settings, though the Chastinet appears to be a cheese intended as an accent piece. Yancey's Fancy specializes in cheddar cheeses that have different flavors infused into them: champagne, jalapeno, various nuts, etc., as well as more exotic cheeses like gouda with bacon. Yancey's Fancy cheeses come in wheels and most stores chop the wheels into blocks.

The Chastinet cheese is a cheese that is hard, much like Asiago.

Ease Of Preparation

Yancey's Fancy Chastinet cheese is a cheese, so more often than not, it is used on its own or as an ingredient in a recipe. This is a very hard cheese, intended to be more of an accent than a cheese consumed on its own. Preparation of the cheese is pretty simple, starting with removing the plastic wrap it is sealed in. When that is done, one may simply shred the hard cheese using a decent cheese grater. I only discovered that the outer rind might be wax after more than half my block of cheese was already gone!

When the cheese is grated or shredded, it is able to melt nicely, though with its low moisture, it has a tendency to flake off things like bread when it is melted as a sandwich topper. This does not bond to other foods, it seems, but it does melt nicely.

Taste

On its own, the Yancey's Fancy Chastinet cheese smells salty and tangy. This smells like a Parmesan or Asiago and its bouquet distinctly implies something salty.

On the tongue, the Chastinet cheese is sharp and tangy, but much more moist than a Parmesan. Salty and flavorful, the Chastinet marries the sourness and saltiness of a Parmesan with the more milky qualities of a mild cheddar. The result is a flavorful cheese that is not as sharp as a sharp cheddar, but has a range of flavors akin to a blend of cheddar and Parmesan.

Melted, the flavor does not fundamentally change; this is a salty and tangy cheese that accents all it is put upon.

The Yancey's Fancy Chastinet, surprisingly, has virtually no aftertaste to it.

Nutrition

Yancey's Fancy New York Artisan Cheeses are not intended to be all that one lives on. But for those who try, the Chastinet cheese is not incredible. A serving size is considered a one inch block (1 oz.). In that, there are 123 calories, 99 of which are from fat. This cheese has 30% of one's daily recommended saturated fat intake and 7% of the RDA of sodium. On the plus side, it does have 15% of the RDA of calcium and has six grams of protein.

The Yancey's Fancy Chastinet cheese is a dairy product, so those who are lactose intolerant will have problems with it. This cheese is made primarily of milk, cultures, and salt. The Chastinet appears to be all natural. This Yancey's Fancy cheese is not marked as gluten free and, obviously, it is not suitable for Vegans!

Storage/Cleanup

As a cheese, Yancey's Fancy Chastinet cheese should be kept refrigerated. So long as that happens, it ought to stay fresh for several weeks. I am utterly unable to write about shelf-life as our 8 oz block was gone within a month of being opened! So long as it is kept in an airtight, cold environment, it ought to remain fresh and hard.

Chastinet is a cheese, so it is not going to stain or ruin anything unless it is ground into a fabric. Baring that, cleanup of nonporous surfaces is as easy as wiping them with a damp cloth. This is so light a cheese that it is hard to imagine it staining anything.

Overall

Yancey’s Fancy Chastinet cheese is a wonderful hard cheese that augments all that it is put upon!

For other Yancey's Fancy cheese reviews, please check out my takes on:
Grilled Bacon Cheeseburger Cheddar
Steakhouse Onion Cheddar
Peppadew Cheddar

7.5/10

For other cheese reviews, please visit my Cheese Review Index Page!

© 2018 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Perfect! Yancey's Fancy Grilled Bacon Cheeseburger Delights!

The Good: Wonderful flavor, Easy to work with, Good ingredients
The Bad: Nothing that I can find!
The Basics: Yancey's Fancy Grilled Bacon Cheeseburger cheddar cheese is a perfect cheese for anyone who loves being able to taste the cheese and meat flavors a cheese embodies!


I love Yancey's Fancy cheese. I love Yancey's Fancy cheese so much that on my last trip through New York, I bought a bunch of flavors of the cheese that have not yet made it out to the midwest where I live now. One of the flavors I picked up that I was most eager to try was the Yancey's Fancy Grilled Bacon Cheeseburger. And it was worth the wait!

The bacon in the Yancey's Fancy Grilled Bacon Cheeseburger Cheddar pops and the cheese tastes like a much sharper cheddar than I would have guessed given how soft it is. But given my love of well-aged cheddar cheese, this was not at all a detraction for me!

Basics

Yancey's Fancy is a manufacturer of Artisan Cheeses in upstate New York and they make some very creative cheeses. The intent of most Yancey's Fancy cheeses is that they will be cheeses that hold their own as snacks that may be served to consumers in fancier settings. They specialize in cheddar cheeses that have different flavors infused into them: champagne, jalapeno, various nuts, etc., as well as more exotic cheeses like gouda with bacon. Yancey's Fancy cheeses come in wheels (usually ten or twenty pounds each) and most stores chop the wheels into blocks. Online, it is fairly easy to find the cheese in one pound blocks, though this new flavor seems to have limited availability and quantity.

The Grilled Bacon Cheeseburger Cheddar cheese is exactly as its name implies. This is a weirdly colored sickly brown-yellow cheese with giant bacon bits in it. Mixed throughout the cheddar block are the actual chunks of red, cooked bacon which carry their flavor into every bite of the cheese. Yancey's Fancy Grilled Bacon Cheeseburger Cheddar cheese comes encased in a soft dark green wax which allows the cheese to maintain its shape and solid state. The dark green wax helps consumers distinguish it from other flavors of Yancey's Fancy cheese.

Ease Of Preparation

Yancey's Fancy Grilled Bacon Cheeseburger Cheddar cheese is a cheese, so more often than not, it is used on its own or as an ingredient in a recipe. Preparation of the cheese is pretty simple, starting with removing the plastic wrap it is sealed in. When that is done, simply peel back the wax coating on the outer edges. This happens with remarkable ease. The Grilled Bacon Cheeseburger Cheddar cheese seems to not adhere to the wax. This makes it a very easy cheese to separate from the wax coating and it may be placed on a cutting block or plate ready to be cut!

More than most cheeses with other things embedded in them, Yancey's Fancy Grilled Bacon Cheeseburger Cheddar cheese is very easy to work with. I just picked up a new cheese plane and maybe it is because of that, but this cheese sliced exceptionally easily! This cheese is not so hard to fracture or otherwise fall apart. It is very easy to work with on its own or as an ingredient.

When the cheese is sliced, it melts beautifully with wonderful evenness and liquidity, making it an ideal ingredient to make flavorful omelets or to replace cheddar cheese in dishes like macaroni and cheese. It is delicious when melted into sandwiches, eggs or even a cream sauce (to make a cheese sauce). The first time I tried this cheese was in a grilled cheese on fresh rye bread and it is not an understatement to classify that dish as "orgasmic."

Taste

On its own, the Yancey's Fancy Grilled Bacon Cheeseburger Cheddar cheese smells like a delightful blend of bacon and cheddar. The aromas from this cheese are distinct and inviting, living up on the scent front to the promises of two of the three promised flavors.

In the mouth, Grilled Bacon Cheeseburger Cheddar cheese has all the tang of a cheddar cheese sharper than this one and the salty, meaty flavor of bacon. The flavors are delightful and full, making for an instantly flavorful cheese that tastes like what one would expect from eating a bacon cheese burger! The cheesy, meaty flavors make for a well-rounded intriguing taste when enjoyed on its own or as an ingredient.

Melted, the cheese and bacon flavors blend even better, making for a cheese that becomes the focal point of the flavor palate, not a supporting player! The Yancey's Fancy Grilled Bacon Cheeseburger is not an accent cheese, it is the cheese one uses when they want to taste a rich, meaty, cheesy flavor at the forefront of their taste experience. That makes the Grilled Bacon Cheeseburger ideal for quesadillas, omelettes, and more complicated dishes like macaroni and cheese!

The Yancey's Fancy Grilled Bacon Cheeseburger Cheddar leaves a nicely salty, slightly tangy aftertaste in the mouth after the last of this cheese is consumed and the aftertaste is not at all unpleasant.

Nutrition

Yancey's Fancy New York Artisan Cheeses are not intended to be all that one lives on. But for those who try, the Grilled Bacon Cheeseburger Cheddar cheese is not a terribly healthy choice. The bacon does not seem to add anything of note to the cheese of nutritional value. A serving size is considered a one inch block (1 oz.). In that, there are 110 calories, 80 of which are from fat. This cheese has 25% of one's daily recommended saturated fat intake and 11% of the RDA of sodium. On the plus side, it does have 15% of the RDA of calcium and has six grams of protein.

The Yancey's Fancy Grilled Bacon Cheeseburger Cheddar cheese is a dairy product, so those who are lactose intolerant will have problems with it. This cheese is made primarily of aged cheddar cheese, annato and bacon bits. That makes it mostly natural, but it does have the preservative trisodium citrate, which robs it of being considered all natural. This Yancey's Fancy cheese is not marked as gluten free and, obviously, it is not suitable for Vegans!

Storage/Cleanup

As a cheese, Yancey's Fancy Grilled Bacon Cheeseburger Cheddar cheese should be kept refrigerated. So long as that happens, it ought to stay fresh for several weeks. I am utterly unable to write about shelf-life as our 7.6 oz block was gone within three days of being opened! So long as it is kept in an airtight, cold environment, it ought to remain fresh and supple. Our package bought a month and a half ago had an expiration date of November 1, 2018.

Grilled Bacon Cheeseburger Cheddar is a cheese, so it is not going to stain or ruin anything unless it is ground into a fabric. Baring that, cleanup of nonporous surfaces is as easy as wiping them with a damp cloth.

Overall

Yancey’s Fancy Grilled Bacon Cheeseburger Cheddar cheese is flat-out perfect and it is a cheese I know I will stock up on . . . just as soon as I can get back to where it is sold!

For other Yancey's Fancy cheese reviews, please check out my takes on:
Bacon Ranch Cheddar
Steakhouse Onion Cheddar
Peppadew Cheddar

10/10

For other food and drink reviews, please visit my Food Review Index Page!

© 2018 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Yancey's Fancy Bacon Ranch Cheddar Succeeds!

The Good: Incredible flavor, Great ingredients, Surprisingly easy to work with!
The Bad: Ranch flavor is sublimated in the main flavor palate
The Basics: Surprisingly good, Yancey's Fancy Bacon Ranch cheddar delivers on its promises, especially when it is heated up!


After finally visiting the Yancey's Fancy cheese factory, it seemed like I might have hit a rut with the Ghost Pepper Cheddar (reviewed here!). Because most of the cheeses I purchased when I visited Corfu, NY were new and surprising flavors to me, I knew I was risking a lot by trying various flavors of cheese. I am, for example, not a huge fan of ranch dressing. My wife loves ranch and she puts it on almost everything. So, I picked up the Yancey's Fancy Bacon Ranch Cheddar figuring that if I didn't like it, she would gobble it up. She is not being given that opportunity as I found myself pleasantly surprised that the Yancey's Fancy Bacon Ranch Cheddar!

The bacon in the Yancey's Fancy Bacon Ranch Cheddar is delicious and the ranch flavor managed to truly pop when I made an omlette for my wife using the cheese. The Yancey's Fancy Bacon Ranch Cheddar is near perfect and for those who do not share my love of very sharp cheddars might actually find it to be an ideal representation of its promised flavors.

Basics

Yancey's Fancy is a manufacturer of Artisan Cheeses in upstate New York and they make some very creative cheeses. The intent of most Yancey's Fancy cheeses is that they will be cheeses that hold their own as snacks that may be served to consumers in fancier settings. They specialize in cheddar cheeses that have different flavors infused into them: champagne, jalapeno, various nuts, etc., as well as more exotic cheeses like gouda with bacon. Yancey's Fancy cheeses come in wheels (usually ten or twenty pounds each) and most stores chop the wheels into blocks. Online, it is fairly easy to find the cheese in one pound blocks, though this new flavor seems to have limited availability and quantity.

The Bacon Ranch Cheddar cheese is exactly as its name implies. This is a solid white cheese with real bacon bits in it. Mixed throughout the cheddar block are the actual chunks of red, cooked bacon, though none of them are bigger than a 1/8" in diameter, which makes it all the more surprising how flavorful the bacon is in the cheese. Yancey's Fancy Bacon Ranch Cheddar cheese comes encased in a soft green wax which allows the cheese to maintain its shape and solid state. The green wax helps consumers distinguish it from other flavors of Yancey's Fancy cheese.

Ease Of Preparation

Yancey's Fancy Bacon Ranch Cheddar cheese is a cheese, so more often than not, it is used on its own or as an ingredient in a recipe. Preparation of the cheese is pretty simple, starting with removing the plastic wrap it is sealed in. When that is done, simply peel back the wax coating on the outer edges. This happens with remarkable ease. The Bacon Ranch Cheddar cheese seems to not adhere to the wax. This makes it a very easy cheese to separate from the wax coating and it may be placed on a cutting block or plate ready to be cut!

More than most cheeses with other things embedded in them, Yancey's Fancy Bacon Ranch Cheddar cheese is very easy to work with. My cheese plane easily sliced through the block repeatedly, so the bacon bits in the cheese no way impede the cheese plane. This cheese is not so hard to fracture or otherwise fall apart. It is exceptionally easy to work with on its own or as an ingredient.

When the cheese is sliced, it melts beautifully with wonderful evenness and liquidity, making it an ideal ingredient to make flavorful omelets or to replace cheddar cheese in dishes like macaroni and cheese. It is delicious when melted into sandwiches, eggs or even a cream sauce (to make a cheese sauce). The first time I tried this cheese was in an omelet and it melted beautifully there; in fact, the flavor of this cheese reached its full potential when the cheese was melted.

Taste

On its own, the Yancey's Fancy Bacon Ranch Cheddar cheese smells strongly of bacon. The aroma of the bacon becomes much, much stronger as the cheese moves toward room temperature. The scent of the cheese itself is surprisingly mild compared to the smell of the bacon in the cheese.

Placing the Bacon Ranch Cheddar cheese in the mouth, the cheddar pops right away. The cheese flavor is strong and it augmented nicely by the bacon. The bacon in the Yancey's Fancy Bacon Ranch Cheddar is salty and flavorful in a way that is clear and delightful. The ranch manifests as a tangy aftertaste that finishes in a very complimentary way.

Melted, the ranch flavor comes to the forefront. While the Yancey's Fancy Bacon Ranch Cheddar is hot, the cheese is tangy and clearly ranch flavored. The bacon and ranch flavors coat the tongue delightfully, making the cheese feel more like a medium, as opposed to a flavor.

The Yancey's Fancy Bacon Ranch Cheddar leaves a slightly salty, very tangy aftertaste in the mouth after the last of this cheese is consumed.

Nutrition

Yancey's Fancy New York Artisan Cheeses are not intended to be all that one lives on. But for those who try, the Bacon Ranch Cheddar cheese is not a terribly healthy choice. The bacon and ranch do not seem to add anything of note to the cheese of nutritional value. A serving size is considered a one inch block (1 oz.). In that, there are 110 calories, 80 of which are from fat. This cheese has 25% of one's daily recommended saturated fat intake and 11% of the RDA of sodium. On the plus side, it does have 15% of the RDA of calcium and has six grams of protein.

Obviously, Bacon Ranch Cheddar cheese is a dairy product, so those who are lactose intolerant will have problems with it. This cheese is made primarily of aged cheddar cheese, bacon, and ranch seasoning. That makes it mostly natural, but it does have the preservative trisodium citrate, which robs it of being considered all natural. It is, however, gluten free. Obviously, as a cheese and one that contains actual bacon, this is not at all Vegan-compliant.

Storage/Cleanup

As a cheese, Yancey's Fancy Bacon Ranch Cheddar cheese should be kept refrigerated. So long as that happens, it ought to stay fresh for several weeks. I am utterly unable to write about shelf-life as our 7.6 oz block was gone within five days of being opened! So long as it is kept in an airtight, cold environment, it ought to remain fresh and supple. Our package bought two weeks ago had an expiration date of November 8, 2018.

Bacon Ranch Cheddar is a cheese, so it is not going to stain or ruin anything unless it is ground into a fabric. Baring that, cleanup of nonporous surfaces is as easy as wiping them with a damp cloth.

Overall

Yancey’s Fancy Bacon Ranch Cheddar cheese is quite good, even if it is not the sharpest cheddar cheese flavor. The cheese faithfully represents all three of the promised flavors when the cheese is melted and hot, but on its own it does not pop quite as much as it ought to.

For other Yancey's Fancy cheese reviews, please check out my takes on:
Roasted Garlic Cheddar Cheese Curds
Pepperoni Cheddar Cheese
Buffalo Wing Cheddar

9/10

For other food and drink reviews, please visit my Food Review Index Page!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Accurately Unpleasant, I Find No Justification For The Existence Of Yancey's Fancy Ghost Pepper Cheddar!

The Good: Melts well, Nothing truly bad in it, Easy to work with, Accurate flavor
The Bad: Comparatively expensive, Brutally spicy hot
The Basics: Yancey's Fancy Ghost Pepper cheddar is not much of a cheese flavor, but it acts as a perfect medium for one of the hottest peppers on Earth . . . which makes for an entirely unpleasant culinary experience.


It turns out that one of the consequences of moving just a bit out west is that I moved out of the primary distribution area for one of my favorite companies: Yancey's Fancy. I love Yancey's Fancy cheese, so when I was recently in New York again, I made a point to finally stop by Corfu, NY to visit the Yancey's Fancy cheese factory. Actually, I ended up going to their factory store there, which was quite exciting for me as it was filled with all sorts of Yancey's Fancy cheeses I had never seen before.

I picked up a bunch of new-to-me Yancey's Fancy cheeses and the first one I decided to try and review was the Yancey's Fancy Ghost Pepper Cheddar. The reason I chose to start with Yancey's Fancy Ghost Pepper Cheddar was because the moment I returned home and showed off my finds to my wife, she commented "You know 'ghost pepper' is super-hot, right?" To which, I responded honestly, "Um, no. I thought it was like peppercorns." So, my return to Yancey's Fancy cheeses begins with the one I am least likely to enjoy, whatwith me not generally being a fan of very spicy hot foods.

And the Yancey's Fancy Ghost Pepper Cheddar is as hot as anyone who knows peppers would assume it is. There's no depth of flavor, nothing one might want to use this cheddar in, it is that hot and unpleasant. My review is based on eating the 1/8th of an ounce that I could actually stand to consume before I give the rest of it away.

Basics

Yancey's Fancy is a manufacturer of Artisan Cheeses in upstate New York. The intent of most Yancey's Fancy cheeses is that they will be cheeses that hold their own as snacks that may be served to consumers in fancier settings. They specialize in cheddar cheeses that have different flavors infused into them: champagne, jalapeno, various nuts, etc., as well as more exotic cheeses like gouda with bacon. Yancey's Fancy cheeses come in wheels (usually ten or twenty pounds each) and most stores chop the wheels into blocks. Online, it is fairly easy to find the cheese in one pound blocks or in the 7.6 oz. prepackaged package.

The Ghost Pepper Cheddar cheese is exactly as its name implies. This is a solid white cheese with actual red and black pepper bits in it. Mixed throughout the cheddar block are the actual chunks of black and red mashed up ghost pepper, though none of them are bigger than a 1/16" in diameter. Yancey's Fancy Ghost Pepper Cheddar cheese comes encased in a soft black wax which allows the cheese to maintain its shape and solid state. The black wax helps consumers distinguish it from other flavors of Yancey's Fancy cheese.

Ease Of Preparation

Yancey's Fancy Ghost Pepper Cheddar cheese is a cheese, so more often than not, it is used on its own or as an ingredient in a recipe. Preparation of the cheese is pretty simple, starting with removing the plastic wrap it is sealed in. When that is done, simply peel back the wax coating on the outer edges. This happens with remarkable ease. The Ghost Pepper Cheddar cheese seems to not adhere to the wax. This makes it a very easy cheese to separate from the wax coating and it may be placed on a cutting block or plate ready to be cut!

Unlike some cheeses with other things embedded in them, Yancey's Fancy Ghost Pepper Cheddar cheese is very easy to work with. My cheese plane easily sliced through the block with ease; this cheese is not so hard to fracture or otherwise fall apart. It is exceptionally easy to work with on its own or as an ingredient. This is a fairly soft cheddar cheese.

When the cheese is sliced, it melts nicely. For those who would use it as an ingredient, it melts well onto or into other things.

Taste

On its own, the Yancey's Fancy Ghost Pepper Cheddar cheese smells fairly strongly of peppers. The pepper smell is an aroma of red and black pepper smells. There is no real scent of cheddar in the bouquet of the Yancey's Fancy Ghost Pepper Cheddar.

In the mouth, the Yancey's Fancy Ghost Pepper Cheddar is creamy, lightly salty and then it is fire in the mouth. The Ghost Pepper Cheddar loses any subtlety or flavor and the mouth is simply filled hot spicy dryness.

The heat from the Yancey's Fancy Ghost Pepper Cheddar endures in the mouth for about eight minutes after the last of the cheese is consumed.

Nutrition

Yancey's Fancy New York Artisan Cheeses are not intended to be all that one lives on. But for those who try, the Ghost Pepper Cheddar cheese is not a healthy option. The ghost pepper does not seem to add anything of note to the cheese of nutritional value. A serving size is considered a one inch block (1 oz.). In that, there are 110 calories, 80 of which are from fat. This cheese has 25% of one's daily recommended saturated fat intake and 11% of the RDA of sodium. On the plus side, it does have 20% of the RDA of calcium and has six grams of protein.

Obviously, Ghost Pepper Cheddar cheese is a dairy product, so those who are lactose intolerant will have problems with it. This cheese is made primarily of natural aged cheddar cheese, ghost pepper mash and trisodium citrate. That makes it mostly natural and it is marked Gluten Free.

Storage/Cleanup

As a cheese, Yancey's Fancy Ghost Pepper Cheddar cheese should be kept refrigerated. So long as that happens, it ought to stay fresh for several weeks. The package I picked up from the factory store just yesterday had an expiration date of November 1, 2018.

Ghost Pepper Cheddar is a cheese, so it is not going to stain or ruin anything unless it is ground into a fabric. Baring that, cleanup of nonporous surfaces is as easy as wiping them with a damp cloth. The pepper bits in the cheese might be enough to stain lighter fabrics.

Overall

Yancey’s Fancy Ghost Pepper Cheddar cheese caused an issue for me in my rating system. I could barely stomach 1/8 of a serving and I am not a fan of super-spicy things. The thing is, Yancey’s Fancy Ghost Pepper Cheddar gets the ghost pepper right, but it is not much on the cheese front. The cheese flavor is weak and quickly overwhelmed and replaced by something utterly unpleasant. So, the cheese is impossible to recommend based on the fact that it tastes terrible . . . but, that's accurate for ghost peppers. Ultimately, I settled on an 7.5/10 with a strong "not recommend." While some might argue that it deserves to be rated higher based on how well it captures the ghost pepper flavor, I kept coming back to the idea that it wasn't much of a cheese; there's no real delightful cheese flavor to it in advance of its horribly spice. Regardless of any subtleties of the reviewer in me, the cheese connoisseur knows that I will never, ever, again try even a bite of this cheese. This is a wretched example of what Yancey's Fancy can create, like a twisted mad scientist took over the factory and wanted to prove they could makes something obscenely hot and they succeeded. . . . but that does not make it worth consuming.

For other Yancey's Fancy cheese reviews, please check out my takes on:
Steakhouse Onion Cheddar
Pepperoni Cheddar Cheese
Buffalo Wing Cheddar

7.5/10 (NOT RECOMMENDED!)

For other food and drink reviews, please visit my Food Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

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Very Much More Sweet Than Cheesy, Wickedly Prime Sweet 'N' Cheesy Popcorn Mix Is Still Good!

The Good: Flavorful, Generally good ingredients, Affordable
The Bad: The caramel popcorn vastly outnumbers the cheese pieces, Comparatively short shelf-life.
The Basics: Wickedly Prime Sweet 'N' Cheesy Popcorn Mix is good, though noticeably more sweet than cheesy!


My local discount store frequently gets in products that are not usually available in stores, which is pretty cool. On one of their latest shipments, they seemed to get overstocked with Amazon and Target exclusives, which I thought was amusing (after all, if they are exclusives, how can they be stocked elsewhere?!). Given my love of flavored popcorns and good deals, picking up the bag of Wickedly Prime Sweet 'N' Cheesy Popcorn Mix was a no-brainer! The Wickedly Prime Sweet 'N' Cheesy Popcorn Mix is a bagged, pre-popped popcorn that bears a price of $4.99 on Amazon. Given that it would cost more than that to make one's own caramel coated popcorn,, that price seemed fair.

Basics

Sweet 'N' Cheesy Popcorn Mix from Wickedly Prime is pre-popped and flavored popcorn. Wickedly Prime has marketed their popcorn as an an add-on and it is a blend of caramel-coated popcorn and cheese-flavored popcorn pieces. The bag I bought was dramatically weighted toward the caramel popcorn in the mix. The Sweet 'N' Cheesy Popcorn Mix from Wickedly Prime comes in a 12 oz. bag. Inside the bag, the popcorn is exactly what one might expect of popcorn. It is popped, coated in a solid caramel coating or colored orange for the cheese pieces.

Ease Of Preparation

Wickedly Prime Sweet 'N' Cheesy Popcorn Mix is simple to enjoy; all one needs to do is open the bag and remove the popcorn from it! There is no trick to eating the Sweet 'N' Cheesy Popcorn Mix; this is a snack that is ready to go from the bag to the mouth.

Taste

Wickedly Prime Sweet 'N' Cheesy Popcorn Mix smells sweet and buttery, like caramel. The few concentrations of cheese popcorn pieces smell like cheese, but only very weakly and not like a clear, distinct cheese type. The aroma from the Wickedly Prime Sweet 'N' Cheesy Popcorn Mix is inviting.

The Wickedly Prime Sweet 'N' Cheesy Popcorn Mix is very sweet. The caramel flavor is strong and buttery and exceptionally sweet. The caramel popcorn pieces in the Wickedly Prime Sweet 'N' Cheesy Popcorn Mix are a wonderful embodiment of caramel corn. The cheese pieces of popcorn in the mix are much weaker and have a salty flavor that is good, but far less potent than the sweet pieces. When blended together, the caramel popcorn pieces completely overwhelm any flavor from the cheese popcorn.

The Sweet 'N' Cheesy Popcorn Mix has a strong sweet aftertaste.

Nutrition

The Sweet 'N' Cheesy Popcorn Mix is a flavored popcorn produced with minimal preservatives. The primary ingredients in the Wickedly Prime Sweet 'N' Cheesy Popcorn Mix are: popcorn, cane sugar and brown sugar, so it has quite a bit to it beyond regular popcorn/

Each one and a half cup (28 gram) serving of Wickedly Prime Sweet 'N' Cheesy Popcorn Mix has 130 calories, sixty of which come from fat. There is a single gram of dietary fiber and a single gram of protein. There are 6 grams of fat and 170 mg of sodium, which represents 7% of one's RDA of sodium. The Wickedly Prime Sweet 'N' Cheesy Popcorn Mix has 2% of one's RDA of Vitamin A, Calcium and Iron, but no other significant nutrients. There is a dietary note that the Sweet 'N' Cheesy Popcorn Mix has milk and soy ingredients, which prevents this from being Vegan compliant to people who make that choice. The Sweet 'N' Cheesy Popcorn Mix also has allergy warnings about tree nuts, peanuts and eggs. The Wickedly Prime Sweet 'N' Cheesy Popcorn Mix is Gluten-free and is marked as Kosher.

Storage/Clean-up

Kept in the bag, Wickedly Prime Sweet 'N' Cheesy Popcorn Mix will remain fresh for a decent amount of time. Our bag, which I picked up today, had a January 20, 2018 expiration date, though it is doubtful it will last around here that long! The Wickedly Prime Sweet 'N' Cheesy Popcorn Mix is a good snack to stock up on.

Cleanup is fairly simple. The Sweet 'N' Cheesy Popcorn Mix from Wickedly Prime is a dry food and thus leaves little mess behind. Unlike a popcorn with more cheese flavoring on it or a thicker caramel, this Wickedly Prime product does not leave any noticeable residue on one's hands. Once one is done consuming the Sweet 'N' Cheesy Popcorn Mix, wash your hands, throw out the bag and cleanup is done!

Overall

Wickedly Prime Sweet 'N' Cheesy Popcorn Mix is good, but it might as well just be caramel corn for how that element overwhelms the cheese popcorn.

For popcorn-related reviews, check out my reviews of:
Kettle Brand Maple Bacon Popcorn
Kernel Season's Milk Chocolate Caramel Popcorn Spice
Popcorn, Indiana Aged White Cheddar Popcorn

6/10

For other food and drink reviews, please visit my Food Review Index Page!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Except For Those Who Know What It Is Supposed To Be, Barilla Bacon & Cheese Sauce Satisfies!

The Good: Generally good ingredients, Affordable
The Bad: Not distinctly bacon or cheese flavored, Mediocre on the nutrition front
The Basics: Barilla Bacon & Cheese Sauce does not taste bad, but it does not taste truly of bacon or any cheese.


Lately, I've been trying some very different pasta sauces and some of them a pretty good. Others are much more mediocre than truly wonderful. Sadly, when I saw the Barilla Bacon & Cheese Sauce on my local grocery store's clearance rack, I was very excited by the prospect. Bacon and cheese are two of my favorite flavors for . . . well, pretty much anything. So, I was drawn eagerly to the Barilla Bacon & Cheese Sauce. But, alas, the Barilla Bacon & Cheese Sauce was hardly stellar.

Basics

Barilla Bacon & Cheese Sauce is a pasta sauce. It’s a traditional-looking red – tomato-based – sauce that is a little chunkier than some less-expensive pasta sauces. The Barilla Bacon & Cheese Sauce is commonly found in the traditional 24 oz. glass jar.

Ease Of Preparation

Barilla’s Bacon & Cheese Sauce is a fully-prepared pasta sauce. To use, simply unscrew the vacuum-sealed metal cap, pour sauce into a pan and heat it up. Warmed to bubbling, the full flavor of the sauce is realized. Any unused portion may be refrigerated in the jar, with the cap tightly on!

Taste

The Barilla Bacon & Cheese Sauce smells fairly powerfully of tomatoes. The slightly acidic and fruity smell completely overcomes any aroma that may have come from either the meat or cheese in the sauce.

In the mouth, the Barilla Bacon & Cheese Sauce is sweet and entirely tomato flavored. In fact, the bacon pieces and any cheese that is in the Barilla Bacon & Cheese Sauce manifest as a texture more than any type of recognizable flavor. The sweet and salty tomato sauce does not taste bad, but it is in no way distinct or remarkable.

The Barilla Bacon & Cheese Sauce has a fairly sweet aftertaste, which lasts about thirty seconds.

Nutrition

The Barilla Bacon & Cheese Sauce is properly measured out in ½ cup servings. In each serving, there are, there are 100 calories. To get the full flavor of the sauce, I tended to use about two servings with each cup or cup and a half of pasta I made. So, it’s easy to rack up the calories with this sauce!

Made primarily of Tomato Puree, Sugar, and Uncured Cooked Bacon Crumble, the Barilla Bacon & Cheese Sauce! All of the ingredients in Barilla Bacon & Cheese Sauce are recognizable and seem pretty healthy. It is unsurprising that the cheese flavor does not actually come out in the flavor given how far down the ingredients list cheese is.

The Barilla Bacon & Cheese Sauce has 70 calories per serving, 15 from fat, Barilla Bacon & Cheese Sauce could be much worse on the health front. The 1.5 grams of fat represent 2% of the RDA of fat with one of those grams coming from saturated fat. Barilla Bacon & Cheese Sauce is cholesterol free and there is a whopping 20% of one’s RDA of Sodium in each serving. With 12 grams of total carbohydrates, only 1 of them in the form of fiber, the Barilla Bacon & Cheese Sauce is not ideal for dieters. The Barilla Bacon & Cheese Sauce has 2 grams of protein and 10% of the RDA of Vitamin A and 20% of the RDA of Vitamin C. There were no allergy warnings on the label, but because it contains real meat and cheese it is, obviously, not Vegan compliant or Kosher!

Storage/Clean-up

The Barilla Bacon & Cheese Sauce comes in a 24 oz. glass jar that makes storage easy. Simply refrigerate any unused portion and try to use within a week of originally opening.

As for clean-up, red pasta sauces are notorious for staining fabrics of all kinds. If you get any of the Barilla Bacon & Cheese Sauce on a fabric, try to rinse it immediately with cold water. Consult a fabric guide for specifics on how to get stains from tomato-based products out of your clothes or tablecloths (without ruining them) should the need arise. On non-porous surfaces, Barilla Bacon & Cheese Sauce easily wipes clean!

Overall

Unfortunately indistinct, the Barilla Bacon & Cheese Sauce is an adequate pasta sauce, but not one that lives up to its promised flavors.

For other food reviews, please visit my reviews of:
Prego Bacon & Provolone Italian Sauce
Williams Smoked Cheddar
BSN Syntha-6 Protein Crisp Chocolate Crunch Bars

4/10

For other food reviews, please check out my Food Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Not Going To Wow Cheese Lovers! Better Made Cheese Waffles Disappoint.

The Good: Inexpensive enough
The Bad: Not very flavorful, Not very good, Poor nutrition
The Basics: After much waiting, I finally try and am utterly disappointed by Better Made Cheese Waffles.


Not long ago, my mother finally came out to Michigan to visit my wife and I. It was an exciting time for all three of us and my mother did a lot of shopping with and for us. My mom picked up a number of snacks and treats for us and I have slowly been working my way through them as I both savor and review what she left us with. One of the things I was quite eager to try was the bag of Better Made Cheese Waffles my mother picked up for me when we were at an awesome bread outlet we went to.

We found the 4 oz. bag on sale for $1.00 a bag, down from the $1.99 stated price on the bag and my wife eagerly encouraged my mom to pick them up. After all, it seemed like the Better Made Cheese Waffles would be a great fit for me; I love cheese and I am a big fan of cheesy salty snacks. Unfortunately, though, now that I have finally opened the bag of Better Made Cheese Waffles and started consuming them, I have discovered they were not at all worth the wait.

Basics

Made here in Michigan, Better Made Cheese Waffles are a salty snack that combines waffle chips with a cheese filling to make little cheese sandwiches. Better Made Cheese Waffles are a flour-based snack and the biggest surprise to me after consuming them was that there is actual cheddar cheese in them. The waffle chips that frame the "sandwich" are simple and floury, as opposed to cheese-infused. The only cheese aspect to the Better Made Cheese Waffles is the orange cheese filling between the waffle chip layers.

The 4 oz. package contained the Cheese Waffles that were approximately 1 7/8” long by 1 3/4” wide and 3/8” thick. Each Cheese Waffle is rounded and had a waffle-like lattice on both sides, much like one would expect from a waffle. The two waffles are connected by the cheese filling layer.

Ease Of Preparation

Better Made Cheese Waffles is a salty snack, so basically, one opens bag and starts eating them; there is no trick to eating these Cheese Waffles.

Taste

Better Made Cheese Waffles smell mildly cheesy. Opening the bag, one is not greeted with the scent of authentic cheddar cheese, though, it is more the scent of an obviouslyt artificial cheese product. The scent that comes from the bag is virtually identical to the smell of spray cheese!

In the mouth, Better Made Cheese Waffles are dominated by the flavor of the waffles. The flavor is dry and wheaty, like a crackers. The Better Made Cheese Waffles are shockingly bland; the dominant flavor is wheat, with a hint of salt. The cheese flavor - which is about as generic as spray cheese from a can - only asserts itself as a salty, slightly sour flavor in the center of the waffles. The Better Made Cheese Waffles are dry and indistinct when they are not salty, bland, and lightly sour. The two flavors do not actually blend, either; the moment the cheese filling's flavor fades, it is sublimated to the indistinct wheaty flavor of the waffle.

The Cheese Waffles do dry out the mouth and leave a fairly dry aftertaste in the mouth.

Nutrition

Better Made Cheese Waffles are a poor choice for balanced nutrition. A serving size is considered one ounce and there are four servings per bag. In the recommended serving, there are 140 calories, 60 of which are from fat. This snack has 28% of one's daily recommended saturated fat intake and 11% of the RDA of sodium. On the plus side, there are two grams of protein, but there are also 16 grams of carbs. The only other nutrients in the Better Made Cheese Waffles are Calcium and Iron (4% RDA of each).

This salty snack is not Gluten-free, nor are Better Made Cheese Waffles marked as Kosher. The Better Made Cheese Waffles are made primarily of degermed enriched flour, coconut oil, and whey. There is an appropriate allergy warning for wheat and milk on the bag.

Storage/Cleanup

Better Made Cheese Waffles have a decent shelf life; the ones my mom left us two months ago (and I finally opened as part of my binge watching experience just tonight!) had an expiration date of April 13, 2017. I imagine they would have easily stayed fresh at least until then.

Cheese Waffles are a salty snack and these are not particularly greasy. As a result, cleanup is limited to having to wipe up any crumbs one generates when they bites these treats apart.

Overall

Better Made Cheese Waffles are pretty awful - and I was excited about trying them! - and I feel terrible writing that after reading the bag and reading what an apparently decent company Better Made is. A union company that has been around for over eighty-five years, Better Made seems like a cool company. But my first experience with one of their products was just unpleasant!

For other salty snacks reviews, please check out my takes on:
Andy Capp's Cheddar Fries
Wise Butter Flavored Air Popped Popcorn
Blue Diamond Smokehouse flavor Almonds

1/10

For other food and drink reviews, please visit my Food And Drink Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Meh. Williams Smoked Cheddar Is Unfortunately Unremarkable.

The Good: Inexpensive (comparatively), Does not taste bad, Easy to work with
The Bad: Poor melting quality, Not the most vibrant flavor
The Basics: Williams Smoked Cheddar is a bit of a disappointment, especially for those looking for a vibrant and enjoyable cheese.


There is something wonderful about getting to the point where one's palate is refined enough that one may instantly tell the difference between cheese and "cheese product" or "cheese food." Sadly, I tend not to look so closely when I am buying cheese, which I discovered when my wife and I sat down to our New Year's celebration and broke out the Williams Smoked Cheddar, which we had been saving for the event. Williams Smoked Cheddar is a pasteurized process cheese food and the difference between it and cheddar cheese is unfortunately noticeable the moment one places it in their mouth. That does not make Williams Smoked Cheddar inherently bad, but when one is expecting steak and they get ground chuck . . . Williams Smoked Cheddar is, expectations aside, an underwhelming cheese food.

I found Williams Smoked Cheddar cheese at the grocery store on sale at $3.99 for the 8 oz. block right after Christmas and in retrospect, I feel like we overpaid for it!

Basics

Williams is a manufacturer of cheeses and cheese foods in Michigan. The intent of most Williams cheeses is that they will be cheeses that hold their own as snacks that may be served to consumers in fancier settings. They specialize in cheddar cheeses that have different flavors infused into them, like ranch. Williams cheeses come in 8 oz. blocks and they are fairly easy to find in that form.

The Smoked Cheddar cheese is exactly as its name implies. This is a dark orange cheese without any garnishes, additional flavors or embedded spices.

Ease Of Preparation

Williams Smoked Cheddar cheese is a cheese food, so more often than not, it is used on its own or as an ingredient in a recipe. Preparation of the cheese is pretty simple: remove the plastic wrap it is sealed in and cut into it. The Smoked Cheddar cheese is exceptionally easy to work with. This cheese handles exceptionally easily, slicing simply with my cheese plane or grating finely with our cheese grater. Unfortunately, though, it does not melt very well. My wife and I have made our rare burgers medium well by trying to get the thin slices of Williams Smoked Cheddar we have put on them to melt!

Taste

On its own, the Williams Smoked Cheddar cheese has an appropriately smoky, hickory scent to it. The smell evokes mental images of fires and warm places. The smoke scent is distinct and fairly mild, especially compared to sharper cheddar cheeses, even sharp smoked cheddars. The smoke scent dominates the cheese food's aroma.

In the mouth, Williams Smoked Cheddar is waxy and mildly cheddar flavor. The smoke flavoring dominates the flavor, just as it does the scent, but beyond the smoke, the palate is dominated by the cheese food's waxy texture. That the cheese flavor does not actually blend with the smoke flavor and allow it to breathe is a bit disappointing and leads to a somewhat underwhelming taste experience.

The Williams Smoked Cheddar is so mild that it does not leave an aftertaste in one's mouth after it is consumed.

Nutrition

Williams Cheeses are not intended to be all that one lives on. For those who try to survive on this, the Smoked Cheddar cheese food is not a terribly healthy choice. A serving size is considered a one inch block (1 oz.). In that, there are 100 calories, 70 of which are from fat. This cheese has 30% of one's daily recommended saturated fat intake and 13% of the RDA of sodium. On the plus side, it does have 15% of the RDA of calcium and has six grams of protein.

Obviously, Smoked Cheddar cheese is a dairy product, so those who are lactose intolerant will have problems with it. This cheese is made primarily of cheese (swiss, cheddar and colby, which might explain its very mild flavor), water and skim milk. That makes it mostly natural, despite including preservatives.

Storage/Cleanup

As a cheese, Williams Smoked Cheddar cheese should be kept refrigerated. So long as that happens, it ought to stay fresh for several months. I am utterly unable to write about shelf-life as our eight-ounce block was gone within a week of being opened! So long as it is kept in an airtight, cold environment, it ought to remain fresh and supple. Our Smoked Cheddar block had an expiration date of September 15, 2017, which is pretty good for a cheese purchased at Christmastime, 2016.

Williams Smoked Cheddar is a cheese, so it is not going to stain or ruin anything unless it is ground into a fabric. Baring that, cleanup of nonporous surfaces is as easy as wiping them with a damp cloth.

Overall

Sadly, Williams Smoked Cheddar is an unremarkable cheese that might be a fair garnish for a cracker, but it stands up poorly on its own or when used in recipes/on decent food!

For other cheese reviews, please check out my takes on:
Sartori Rosemary & Olive Oil Asiago
Cappiello Zesty Marinated Mozzarella Cheese
Yancy's Fancy XXX Sharp Cheddar Cheese

4/10

For other food and drink reviews, please visit my Cheese Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Cheese Lovers Won't Love The Cracker Barrel Sharp Cheddar & Bacon Macaroni & Cheese Dinner

The Good: Easy to prepare, Fair ingredients
The Bad: Not overly nutritious, Flavor is way too mild, Expensive
The Basics: Cracker Barrel Sharp Cheddar & Bacon Macaroni & Cheese Dinner is less impressive than one might expect for a premium macaroni and cheese product.


Every now and then, I try to stretch myself with my food reviews. In addition to doing the occasional restaurant review, I realized that it had been a long time since I reviewed a dinner kit or a side dish that required some measure of preparation. So, today, I figured it was time to break that streak and I broke out the box of Cracker Barrel Sharp Cheddar & Bacon Macaroni & Cheese Dinner that I've had kicking around for a few weeks. The Cracker Barrel Sharp Cheddar & Bacon Macaroni & Cheese Dinner is, sadly, a underwhelming on the flavor front which makes it a tough sell to those who love real cheese flavors.

Basics

The Cracker Barrel Sharp Cheddar & Bacon Macaroni & Cheese Dinner is a premium macaroni and cheese dinner kit that is trading on the popularity of Cracker Barrel restaurants (reviewed here!) and Cracker Barrel cheeses. Licensing the Cracker Barrel name to a home meal product is part of a current trend enjoyed by multiple restaurants, like Taco Bell and Panera Bread, which get derivations of their products into supermarkets for home consumption.

The Cracker Barrel Sharp Cheddar & Bacon Macaroni & Cheese Dinner is a 11.9 oz. boxed macaroni and cheese product which bears a comparatively steep price tag. We found ours on clearance locally for $2.00/box, but that is still at least double the price of cheap mac and cheese dinner kits and the clearance price is about par for similar premium macaroni and cheese dinner kits (like Velveeta). The Cracker Barrel Sharp Cheddar & Bacon Macaroni & Cheese Dinner is a box of pasta with a sauce packet and a separate packet of bacon bits.

When it is prepared, the Cracker Barrel Sharp Cheddar & Bacon Macaroni & Cheese Dinner is a yellow, saucy dish with little red bits in it that looks like a pretty standard macaroni and cheese.

Ease Of Preparation

One of the nice things about premium macaroni and cheese dinner kits like the Cracker Barrel Sharp Cheddar & Bacon Macaroni & Cheese Dinner is that they are remarkably easy to prepare and do not require additional ingredients. The Cracker Barrel Sharp Cheddar & Bacon Macaroni & Cheese Dinner requires only water to prepare.

Preparation of the Cracker Barrel Sharp Cheddar & Bacon Macaroni & Cheese Dinner is simple. Fill a pot with water, heat it to boiling, then pour in the pasta from the box. When the pasta is cooked to one's desired softness, strain the water out. Then, simply open the cheese sauce packet, squeeze the cheese sauce onto the pasta and stir up until the pasta is fully coated. One may either add the bacon bits and stir them in as well or garnish the macaroni and cheese with it by sprinkling them on top of the prepared dish. This is ridiculously easy to make!

Taste

When prepared, the Cracker Barrel Sharp Cheddar & Bacon Macaroni & Cheese Dinner smells only faintly cheesy. The sharp cheddar aroma is comparatively minimal - compared to fresh macaroni and cheese that uses fresh, shredded cheddar cheese as a base in a cheese sauce. The bacon bits in the Cracker Barrel Sharp Cheddar & Bacon Macaroni & Cheese Dinner do not manifest in the scent at all.

Cracker Barrel Sharp Cheddar & Bacon Macaroni & Cheese Dinner has a creamy, salty flavor that is not as sharp as those who love real cheddar cheese would expect. The bacon bits add an erratic flavor element to the Cracker Barrel Sharp Cheddar & Bacon Macaroni & Cheese; some are merely a squishy texture added into the softer pasta, others are salty and meaty and delightful, as one might hope. The pasta is simple, the sauce is not overly cheesy and for the price, one might want something truly more flavorful.

The Cracker Barrel Sharp Cheddar & Bacon Macaroni & Cheese Dinner leaves no aftertaste in the mouth after it is consumed, which only highlights the mild, fairly indistinct flavor of the dish.

Nutrition

After a few years of eating healthy foods, the Cracker Barrel Sharp Cheddar & Bacon Macaroni & Cheese Dinner seems alarmingly unhealthy to me. Each box of Cracker Barrel Sharp Cheddar & Bacon Macaroni & Cheese Dinner makes three and a half one-cup servings of mac and cheese. In each serving, there are 310 calories, one hundred of which come from fat! The eleven grams of fat represent 17% of the RDA of fat, with the 5 grams of saturated fat making a whopping 25% of the RDA of saturated fat per serving. There are 30 mg of cholesterol (10% of the RDA) and a stifling 860 mg of Sodium (36% of the RDA!!!!) per serving of Cracker Barrel Sharp Cheddar & Bacon Macaroni & Cheese. 13% of one's RDA of carbohydrates may be found in the 40 grams of carbs in each serving. While there are 14 grams of protein in each serving, the only other significant nutritional elements in the Cracker Barrel Sharp Cheddar & Bacon Macaroni & Cheese Dinner are Calcium (20% RDA), Iron (8% RDA), and Vitamin A (only 4% RDA).

The ingredients in the Cracker Barrel Sharp Cheddar & Bacon Macaroni & Cheese Dinner are not overly wonderful for those who are health conscious. Made primarily of wheat flour, niacin, and ferrous sulfate for the pasta and cheddar cheese for the cheese sauce, the Cracker Barrel Sharp Cheddar & Bacon Macaroni & Cheese Dinner turns into a list of preservatives and chemicals near the bottom of the list. There are obvious allergy warnings for wheat and milk and the Cracker Barrel Sharp Cheddar & Bacon Macaroni & Cheese Dinner is not vegan compliant, kosher or gluten-free.

Storage/Clean-Up

The Cracker Barrel Sharp Cheddar & Bacon Macaroni & Cheese Dinner is a dry food product and so long as the box does not get moist in any way, the macaroni remains fresh. The Cracker Barrel Sharp Cheddar & Bacon Macaroni & Cheese Dinner only remains fresh for a few months.

Cleaning up the Cracker Barrel Sharp Cheddar & Bacon Macaroni & Cheese is fairly easy. The cheese sauce may be wiped off any non-pourous surface it gets on and it washes out of any bowls or off any pots one uses for preparation. If the cheese sauce gets onto any fabric, it must be cleaned off quickly. Consult a fabric guide to get cheese out of the specific fabric you get it on.

Overall

Cracker Barrel Sharp Cheddar & Bacon Macaroni & Cheese Dinner is a let down for the price. The bacon does not pop, the flavor is not sharp and rich enough to impress those who loves real cheddar cheese and the lack of nutrition it provides is a real disincentive. The result is an easy-to-prepare food that is easy for consumers to pass by; it is not bad, but it is not flavorful and good in the way one might hope for the price.

For other side dishes or sauces, be sure to visit my reviews of:
Prego Bacon & Provolone Italian Sauce
Idahoan Baby Reds Instant Mashed Potatoes
Jif Mocha Cappuccino Flavored Hazelnut Spread

3/10

For other food reviews, please visit my Food Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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