YBC Vanilla Sandwich

 

 If it weren't for the letters YBC, I would have
never known what these are called

The Attraction

These cookies / crackers remind me very much or these Japanese Ritz flavored cookies, I've had before, but there's no sign of "Ritz" or "Nabisco" on the packaging, so when these became a new resident on the shelves of the grocery store I frequent, I wondered if they were as good. You know what I must do. "Must" be the operable word. 

The Review:
This is a mystery. I started seeing these YBC crackers everywhere where I used to see the Ritz Custard Crackers I reviewed previously. What was odd was that it wasn't like they were competing for customers because seemingly one week the Ritz versions of the crackers were there and the next week, these YBC versions of the same type of cookies seem to take it's place. I've never seen a store have both and as of recent, I've only seen these. No more of the Ritz versions.Are these knockoffs? Did Nabisco yank their name off the product? Maybe I will never know unless I'm in Japan...and as much as I want to know the dillyo, that's a long way to go to get to the bottom of this snacking situation.

Don't call me the "R" word

As you may have already noticed, the packaging is very similar, but will it taste the same? I've had the custard-flavored version before of these (or the original Ritz version) and was rather fond of it, but this product just produced more questions; would it taste as good? Is custard and vanilla flavors that different? If this was a competitor trying to create a similar product, would it taste inferior? Worst yet, if these were the new "Ritz" sandwich, did they lose the recipe as well as the name? All of this could be solved with a bite.

Sweet and salty goodness

Like the Nabisco version, each package comes with two individually wrapped rolls of cookies / crackers. I pull out a "sandwich" and dig in.

Then all of a sudden, it's like a movie. The savory cracker flavor of a Ritz hits my tough first and as I pull away, the crisp, slightly dull snap of the cracker screams out, "Hey, I'm a Ritz, remember me!?"

As the familiar Ritz cracker movie plays out, there is a surprise twist to this snack I've eaten dozens of times; there is a sweet cream component that cuts-in between the tango my taste buds are having with this savory cracker.

"How rude?!", instinctively I first think, almost like a reflex, however like a smooth foreign spy, it woos me and convinces me it means no harm and rather......it's better this way.....and you know what...he wouldn't be totally wrong.

The savory flavor of the crackers sandwiching the sweet vanilla cream in between compliments each other rather than competing for flavor real estate. A flavor tango indeed.

The Sweet:
These things are amazingly tasty. Scratch both the savory and sweet itch at the same time.

The Bitter:
Umm...so do these replace the Ritz version or are these a knockoff?

Conclusion:
I really enjoy these crackers, but it bugs me that I can't tell if these have replaced the Ritz version I've seen before or are these an impostor, albeit a tasty one at that.

Either way, should I come across these, I will have to proceed with caution as I've become all to aware of how quickly a package of these can disappear when within my possession.

Video of the Week

I'm not even this cool now.

I really hate when in the movies they do that cliche thing where older white people pretend to be into hip hop like here and here. In the case of this week's video, I don't think he's pretending. He looks to be living the lifestyle.