Tidbits: Crackerful of what?

Rethought Ritz
It’s been almost two years since the introduction of Ritz Crackerfuls, sandwiches of crackers and semisoft cheese in several flavors, in a box that was kind of a natural-look homage to grain.

At the time, Mr. Tidbit pointed out that the crackers are large rectangular made-with-whole-grain or multigrain items (the fiber content is 3 to 5 grams per serving), and he noted that neither the regular nor multigrain version of the cracker bore much resemblance to regular Ritz crackers. Since then there have been several additional cheese-filling varieties.

Mr. Tidbit just noticed two developments, several new quite-different Crackerfuls flavors and a redesign of the Crackerfuls box, that between them seem to indicate a rethinking of what Crackerfuls are. The new flavors are peanut butter, peanut butter & chocolate and “extreme peanut butter,” plus “colossal Cheddar.” And the box is now the bright red of Ritz boxes past and present.

“OK, fine,” you are no doubt saying, “but get to the good stuff: What is ‘extreme peanut butter?’ ” Good question. Whereas the other Crackerfuls each weigh 1 ounce and come six to the box, both extreme peanut butter and colossal cheddar are Big Stuff Crackerfuls: They have 75 percent more filling than the others, weigh 11/4 ounces each and come five to the box.

By Al Sicherman, Star Tribune (Minneapolis)