Nagaraya Hot & Spicy Flavor Cracker Nuts

Thank god there's no transfat, otherwise
this might have been the speedball of snacks

The Attraction:
I think I was strolling in the snack aisle awhile back when I saw this brightly colored package screaming at me. Hot and spicy? What are cracker nuts? I've never even heard of the brand Nagaraya before. Reason enough to try a bag.

The Review
After getting these home, I Googled around and discovered that Nagaraya is a Filipino food company that also sells corn starch and water systems? Maybe life is just a whole lot simpler in the Philippines, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. I've actually had this bag lying around at home for a while. Somehow other snacks would keep leapfrogging this offering. Well, one day I just brought them to work so I can sample them along side with some of my co-coworkers. The reaction was mixed in the office, although after putting a few in my mouth, I was pretty definite about my thoughts on this item.

These "cracker nuts" were coated with a powder of some sort when I poured them out. I put one or two of "deez nuts" in my mouth and immediately the salt on them triggered a sodium alert in my brain. I've eaten and been fond of many a salty snack in my day (pretzels, various forms of jerky, preserved seafood products, etc.), but this damn thing was super, over-the-top salty! I bit in and there was a nice crunch to the cracker nut. Once the saltiness flavor subsided, the rush of heat came on like the 2nd punch of a "1-2 boxing combination". These were pretty dang spicy as well.

This may be the first time I felt nuts kick back

The Sweet:
Texturely speaking, the cracker nut is fun to eat. There seems to be a crunchy shell surrounding a nut inside. It's fun to chomp down and crunch on. The spicy finish brings some serious heat. Frankly,more than I was expecting, but that was a good thing.

The Bitter:
Salty! Super doggone salty! Way saltier than any snack really should be. That was enough to kill any thoughts of having more than a handful at one time...unless you want to trigger a heart condition of some sort.

Conclusion:
Although there are some nice characteristics from this snack, the over-generous application of salt on this snack is enough to squash any hopes of a return engagement with these cracker nuts. Perhaps the other flavors will bring a lighter hand with the seasoning application, but I'm not particularly hopeful.

Although some co-workers said they liked the cracker nuts, at the end of the day, the bag remained about 3/4 full. I think that speaks for itself.

Video of the Week
We are wrapping up Thanksgiving this week in America, but in order to make sure we weren't totally glutinous from all of the holiday feasting, we thought it was a wise idea to put the treadmill to work. It's only the right thing to do for our bodies.

Meanwhile, at my house