Thursday, July 19, 2012

Review: Quaker "Quakes" Sweet Varieties


While these have never been a staple in my pantry, over the years I'm sure I have sampled most of the flavors. My dad is more of a salty/spicy snack kind of guy though, so I had mostly tried the varieties of these that fit that bill. Heres a link to the full line up in case you are curious of the available offerings:
http://www.quakeroats.com/products/rice-snacks/quakes (use the bottom nav bar to see them all).
Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, onto the snacks. As you may have noticed, Im big into buying things on sale, especially things I don't deem necessities (I.E. things I tend to review on this site) and low and behold, I picked these bad boys up on sale for a mere $1 a pop.  I was able to snag all but the apple cinnamon flavor that are of sweet flavored offerings, and decided to pass on all the salty ones.  


Top left: Caramel Corn
Top right: Kettle Corn
Bottom left: Vanilla Creme Brûlée
Bottom right: Chocolate




The texture on all of these is like a slightly more crispy version of a standard rice cake. they have a nice crunch to them and are perfect size for snacking. They are also the perfect vesicle for your favorite dips such as nut butters, fluff, or anything else you could think of. 

Ill go ahead and start with my favorite of the bunch, which was the caramel corn. These things have a great sweet caramel-y flavor and really live up to their name. The flavoring isn't overly sweet and the amount that is on each cake is just right.

In close second was the kettle corn. Im a huge fan of real kettle corn, and these captured the addicting "salty-sweet" aspect pretty well. It certainly isn't as tasty as the kettle corn you get in a severely oversized bag at the fair, but it was still tasty none-the-less.

Coming in third was the vanilla creme brûlée. Ive never had real creme brûlée but I'm quite certain these don't capture that flavor very accurately. They have pretty much just a sweet coating that is slightly vanilla flavored. nothing special, but certainly not unappetizing.

In dead last comes chocolate. I was really surprised how bad these were! I was expecting these to top my list when I picked up the lot, but they were really a disappointment. The flavoring they used is nothing like the one found in my earlier review of their full sized chocolate rice cakes, and is really tough to describe. It just tasted like it had a sweet coating with a faint chocolate after taste. If you are a chocolate snob, stay away from these.

The above label is from the chocolate variety, but they are all pretty similar varying only by 10-20 calories. For only 120 calories, the serving size of 13 cakes is quite generous. I have been eating one serving of these every night and have found that the 30g serving is quite enough for a decent snack. with how low cal they are, they are a perfect option to curb your sweet tooth without breaking your diet. The caramel corn ones will definitely become a mainstay in my pantry and I may even start trying the rest of the flavors I passed up on.

Ratings:

Caramel corn: 9/10
Kettle corn: 8/10
Vanilla creme brûlée: 6.5/10
Chocolate: 3/10

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