Product review: Cinnamon Raisin Bagel Crisps and Orgran Crispibread with Quinoa

Reviewing these two cracker products highlighted how little I can know my own tastes. I expected to love the cinnamon raisin bagel crisps, and to find the quinoa crispibreads bland on their own.

As it turns out, I was wrong on both counts.

New York Style Bagel Crisps in Cinnamon Raisin flavour

  

These sounded great. The package looked enticing. The nutritional information showed they weren't exactly a health product, but I thought the taste might make the high-ish sugar and fat content worthwhile.

The bagel bites do smell wonderful, and the pieces are crisp, crunchy and enjoyable to bite into. There are raisins in each piece and the cinnamon is just detectable in flavour. There is nothing actually wrong with them.

For some reason, though, I found them to be simultaneously bland and too sweet. I'm not sure how.

I could blame my general dislike of fresh bagels, which perhaps doesn't translate well to liking bagel crisps.

I could blame the excess sugar (visible as a coating on the crisps) for the sweetness.

Or perhaps it's just the use of fairly refined ingredients, and what is effectively a biscuit rather than a cracker.

For whatever reason, I didn't love these. I was quite happy to get through the packet, but I don't feel the need to buy them again.

Orgran Toasted Multigrain Crispibread with Quinoa

Unlike the Bagel Crisps, these crackers looked quite plain. They sounded too healthy to be exciting. I bought them as a base for vegemite, nut butter or hummus, with the idea that they would be a change from standard crackers and provide a little more protein than their quinoa-free partners.

Somehow, they took me by surprise. The texture is chewier than normal crispbreads, and slightly denser. Although the quinoa content is only 10% (brown rice is the first ingredient), they had a slight nuttiness that was reminiscent of the grain.

I could (and did) quite happily eat them plain.

They do also work well with hummus, although not, oddly, with peanut butter.

It's a rare occasion when I like the plain product over the sweet one, but I think this time I'm happy it's the case.

Crispibread 1, Bagel Crisps 0!

Have you been taken by surprise when trying any new products? Or found you've liked something you didn't expect to?

Side note: I've compiled these sorts of posts into a Product Reviews page. (The unevenness of the categories suggests I may need to do some more savoury reviews!)

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