Cratz – Edamame
Growing up, Pretz was one of my all time favourite snacks, without a doubt. Not only were they easy to find, they were relatively cheap and were quite tasty. Part of what I loved about them was the combination of salty flavouring and crisp pretzel/bread stick like consistency. In fact, I loved the flavour so much that I sometimes found myself licking the package when the sticks were done, just to get more of that addictive flavouring. My go to flavours were salad, and if I was feeling especially fancy, the tomato flavour.
I bring this all up because it has direct relevance to today’s snack. Cratz is made by a Japanese company called Glico. For those who don’t know, they are the creative minds behind Pretz and Pocky, two long beloved Japanese snacks that become staple snacks in Asian grocery stores, and a staple in our hearts. Or mine at the very least. Cratz are sort of marketed towards a more mature audience, on account of it’s largely considered to be a beer accompaniment. Sometimes you go to a bar and they have bar snacks that are usually salty and pair well with a cold one. These are designed for a similar purpose. Based on my experience with their other popular products like Pretz and Pocky, I expect a certain texture and flavour profile from these.
The texture of these is amazing. I’m obviously biased because I love Pretz, but these things, tiny as they are, have the crunch of a Pretz stick condense into a little cylindrical shape. It’s like they took the dough used to make a Pretz stick, compressed it down, and baked that sucker up. Now in terms of flavour, these do taste like edamame, to the point that I’m curious how they did it. It almost tastes like they took dough, ground up some edamame and added it to the dough before cooking it up. The entire piece is green, and it’s not just the outside. The salt level is a bit higher than what you’d expect on a Pretz, which makes sense considering they want you to eat these with a beer or a beverage of some sort. I guess I should mention that the packs come with a few almonds, though they are few and far between. Honestly, that’s a good thing since the almonds are rather plain and serve to add a different texture, more than anything. I would be fine with just more pretzel pieces, but I guess a good bar mix has to throw in something neutral to balance things out.
They come in relatively small packages, so the odds that you overdose are quite low unless your super drunk and have multiple bags, for some reason. These are great for snacking on, and I feel a single pack is enough to satisfy any salty cravings you might have. I would highly recommend these. Keep in mind though, these aren’t cheap and you might feel like your paying a lot for a small pack. But once you try it, you’ll see what I mean.
