Cracker Review: Ritz Crackers

Stars: 5 out of 5

Pros: Great butter taste in a cracker

Cons: Not remotely healthy

The Bottom Line: 

No health benefits

But with a full butter taste

A great indulgence

Rich, Buttery Goodness in a Cracker

While my first weakness is sweets, I am also addicted to things that are salty.  So you can imagine who dangerous chips and crackers can be.  It's been a long time since I've bought myself a package of Ritz Crackers, but I did recently, and I remember why I love them so much.

Ritz are small, round, thin crackers.  They have a rich, butter taste to them, something I haven't notice in other crackers.  They also have quite a bit of salt on them.  As you can imagine, my taste buds love them.

My waist, not so much.  Just 5 of these little babies contain 80 calories.  That would be fine if I actually stopped at 5 crackers.  But no, I can eat one of the four sleeves that come in a typical box in one sitting.  That's probably in the neighborhood of 40 to 50 crackers.  I show better self-control with it comes to other crackers, but the individual sleeves make it so easy to justify eating the whole thing because then there's nothing to put back.

And it's no wonder that these are so bad for you.  After wheat, the second ingredient is vegetable oil.  Rounding out the major ingredients are sugar and salt.  I told you there's nothing good about them.

Well, aside from that taste.  I can eat them all day long even though they are empty calories with only a minimal amount of vitamin and nutrients that you actually need.

When I'm at home, I tend to eat them by themselves.  But I've been to plenty of parties where people put these out with small pieces of cheese or meat.  Those items are perfect additions to the flavor of the crackers.  I'm especially found of a good cheddar cheese with these crackers, although I'm partial to cheddar cheese as it is.  I can imagine just about anything would taste good on these.  How could they miss with that great buttery taste?

If I ever let actual nutrition dictate what I eat, Ritz Crackers are something I should avoid.  But as long as I practice no self-control in my diet, I'm sure I'll buy boxes of these every so often and enjoy the taste.