Putting off the Ritz This week's new item from Nabisco isn't some version of an Oreo, so chances are it's some version of a Ritz cracker, right? Absolutely, if your definition of a Ritz cracker (presuming you have one) is "anything that Nabisco calls a Ritz cracker." On the other hand, if you think a Ritz cracker is, at minimum, round, bright orange and buttery, new Ritz Crackerfuls are merely pretenders to the Ritz throne.
The large rectangular items -- about 41/2 inches long and going on 2 inches wide -- are made-with-whole-grain (5 grams per serving) cracker sandwiches filled with "semisoft cheeses" (flavor choice of Cheddar or four-cheese). To picture them, think of Crackerfuls as the cheese-cracker version of ice cream sandwiches. Lots thinner, but almost equally squdgey. But the crackers are not Ritzes. They're large, rectangular, not quite as orange, and the inclusion of whole-grain wheat flour means that each Crackerfuls sandwich provides 3 grams of fiber.
The package of six individually wrapped 1-ounce sandwiches is $3.49 at one discount supermarket (58 cents an ounce). For comparison, the 10.8-ounce box of eight six packs of actual Ritz cracker cheese sandwiches -- each (1.35-ounce) six-pack providing less than 1 gram of fiber but the crackers more closely matching the bright orange Cheddar filling -- is $2.29 (21 cents an ounce).
Old Bay is old If you're a fan of Old Bay Seasoning, you might be interested to know that that blend of 12 herbs and spices (one more than the colonel's secret blend) is celebrating its 70th anniversary this year. If you're not a fan of Old Bay Seasoning, you might still be interested, but it's not as likely, is it?
On the other hand, Mr. Tidbit didn't even ask whether you're a fan of Ritz crackers, and this is that product's 75th anniversary. On the other other hand, as Mr. Tidbit pointedly noted, Ritz Crackerfuls aren't really Ritzes.
So there.
AL SICHERMAN
