FRANK – Nibbling Snack Mix

Do you ever get confused by snack mix? Where you have a moment and think, what is going on here? Where am I? Is this real? It’s not often a snack mix triggers my existential crisis, but here we have one. To call this a mix would be an understatement. There’s so much going on here, I’m having trouble keeping up with it all. Ok so this is supposed to be a mix of unsalted peanuts, BBQ peanuts, corn nuts, mini pretzels, sesame sticks, corn chips and chipotle cheese crisps. Where to begin…

So for starters, in terms of what I can see in the bag and as I pour these out, the proportions of everything are fairly even, with a slight edge going to the peanuts, possibly because there’s two different types and they fill out the bag best.

A like a lot of these snacks, individually – I love corn nuts, corn chips are my jam, and I’ve grown into sesame sticks (and snacks) in general. The cheese crisps are something I’ve gone out of my way to buy before, and the only thing remaining is peanuts. I love peanut butter, and I like peanut based snacks in general. Oddly though, I’ve never been a huge fan of snacking on roasted peanuts in general. I know tons of people love them, but I just never really got into it, and I couldn’t really tell you why. I guess when I think of mixes, whether it’s trail mixes or snack mixes, roasted peanuts always felt like the filler item to pad out the bag. I don’t doubt that’s the case here either. That being said, the mix has all my favourite bits and pieces, so surely it should even out to at least a net neutral experience, right?

Peanuts and BBQ peanuts are the same, the only difference being the BBQ ones have some coating to them. it’s honestly nothing special and barely noticeable, so it kinds of blend in with the unsalted ones. Again, I’m not a big fan of these, but they’re relatively neutral and they seem fresh so no complaints here.

The corn nuts are what I’ve come to expect – they have a nice hard crunch to them and have a distinct fried corn flavour to them. It’s hard to go wrong with these, and this is no exception.

The corn chips are quite tasty and have the added bonus of bits of flax seed that give it a slightly nutty flavour, but add more on the texture side. They’re lightly salted, but not overpowering, so they mostly add texture to the mix. I could probably eat a bag of just these on their own as well.

The sesame sticks are something I didn’t enjoy as a kid, but as I got older I grew into them and now I’m a big fan. They have a similar texture to corn chips but they have a snappier crunch to them and have a very wheaty, taste to them with the bits of sesame adding texture as well as flavour.

Pretzels are not something I enjoy as is in it’s knotted, unflavoured form. Thankfully it isn’t a total loss in this mix. That being said, it’s very generic on it’s own and not something I would ever get on it’s own. As part of a mix though, it’s alright, as long as you make sure people aren’t specifically picking them out of the bowl. Kind of like people who pick out peas from their fried rice.

Finally, the cheese crisps. These are supposed to be jalapeno and cheddar flavoured. Oddly enough, I was expecting these to be salty, as they usually are, but these have very little saltiness to them. In fact, there’s not a lot of flavour going on in general. The weird part is while the flavour seems to be absent, the heat is not. It’s not particularly fiery heat, but it’s noticeable enough that you know it’s there. Not exactly a bull in a China shop, but maybe more like a toddler in a library with an air horn with a moderate grasp of how to use it. It comes and goes. The texture is like other cheese crisps – it reminds me of when you grill something with cheese on it and the cheese seeps out the edges and gets that crispy brown. That what this tastes like, except again, without the flavour. This one is probably the most disappointing of the bunch. Some of these pieces are also awkwardly sized, making it hard to fit into a handful while everything else is sized perfectly.

This really is one of those rare cases where the sum is greater than it’s parts. Getting a nice handful, the different snack pieces mesh together surprisingly well, and have the an interesting crunch to it. It’s generally softer as roasted peanuts are, but the sesame sticks, corn chips and corn nuts give a nice hearty crunchy every once in a while, without making you feel like you’ll lose a tooth. The mix itself also isn’t very salty, so you won’t feel dehydrated. You will feel the need for water or a drink though, if you’re like me and don’t like that weird viscous feeling in the mouth you get when you eat too many peanuts in one go. Like trying to eat peanut butter on it’s own. I don’t like that weird, thick feeling in my mouth. Blech.

All in all, I enjoyed it, and the only thing I would change is to either swap out the cheese crisps for something more cheesy, or remove it entirely. It didn’t add a whole lot in terms of texture that the corn chips and corn nuts didn’t, so it’s kind of extra, while also not being great at it.