Cratz – Pepper Bacon

Being in the salty mood that I am lately, I figured why not do another Cratz product. This one is a slightly bigger pouch, and comes in a resealable pouch. Because apparently you’re not supposed to eat this all in one sitting, I guess. They clearly haven’t met me though.

It doesn’t smell like what my idea of bacon is. It smells more like some sort of sausage with lots of black, cracked pepper in it. Or perhaps some sort of ham-like product that has been stewing in some rub with lots of black pepper. It smells like a preserved meat with black pepper, is what I’m trying to get at.

it tastes more like a strong, cured ham than it does bacon. Or at least what I consider to be bacon. What Americans call ham, some Canadian’s call bacon, so it might just be a naming convention. Either way, this tastes more like a peppered ham, or some sort of preserved pork product. It’s got a distinct black pepper kick, but like other Cratz flavours packs a lot of salty punch, making it ideal to have with a tall frosty glass of beer or some sort of drink. I’m fairly certain if you tried to finish more than a handful of these without some water or liquid nearby, you’ll turn into a mummy. It’s also a good way to force you to pace yourself. Eat these too fast or too much at once, and you’ll probably burn your tongue with all that sodium. That’ll teach you to not snack in moderation, huh?

These things tend to come in smaller packs, and I don’t think it’s because they fill you up. It’s more likely that the size fools you into thinking you can finish it in one go, but he sodium kills you before you get there. I kind of wish this had more almonds, since they aren’t nearly as salty, and serve to balance things out a bit. The mouth feel is much less salty if you do a piece of the pretzel along with the almond.

I like Cratz largely for it’s texture. The saltiness could probably be dialed down, but what do I know? I don’t drink that much, much less snack when I do. For my purposes, I would prefer a less “in-your-face” flavour to this. That is to say, I recommend Cratz as a whole, but unless you really like black pepper, I would pass on this.