Review: Cheeza 77%
Best Before: March 2013
Review: October 2013
Website: http://www.glico.co.jp/cheeza/
Well, we’ve dipped back into snacks that’ve gone past their best-before date again, but considering it’s an iteration of Cheeza that:
- I haven’t covered on this site
- Is no longer available in Japan
and - Did I mention it was Cheeza?
I decided to just give it a go anyway. Just in case it’s gone off, I’ve got my limited edition STRONG Cherry Chu-Hai to wash it all down / kill the ‘active ingredients’.
To be honest, I’m actually a little shocked at how quickly Glico churns through Cheeza flavours. On my last trip, Cheeza Basil Camembert was no longer available, nor was the tomato variety, and there were only 4 months between that trip and the one before it! I guess if you wanna be a true Cheeza connoisseur, you gotta get on those flavours quick!
Packaging: I’ve been practicing my Japanese but I still don’t have much (any) Kanji, so while I could suss-out the flavour as Camembert (apparently their go-to cheese!) I needed to do a little googling to figure out what else was going on. Apparently that big 1.5 on the bag refers to the increase of “cheesiness” by a multiplication factor of 1.5, generating a powerfully delicious taste! One of those times that I wish I read Japanese, because if I read anything resembling “A Powerfully Delicious Taste!” on any bag of anything, I’d be prrrrretty likely to buy it. Oh, and that Googling also revealed that there were officially a ‘limited edition’ item, that stopped being sold in… spring 2012. So, 1.5 year old snacks here, folks!
Oh, and as always, the image, resealable bag, and dual-purpose design that allows the bag to stand up OR hang from a hook is genius. I wish other cracker companies in Japan were taking notes.
Scent and Taste: Opening the bag was like being punched in the face with rich, buttery cheesiness.
As for the taste, wow! Even a few months past their prime these crackers are FANTASTIC. You can really taste the cheese, and it really is markedly stronger and ‘cheesier’ than the standard camembert Cheeza. There’s also a buttery texture on the tongue, even though the crackers themselves snap and crunch wonderfully. It’s almost too much… It’s like eating a bag of parmesan crisps, where you just melt parmesan cheese on a griddle and then let it cool. I mean, that’s delicious as a garnish, but a whole bag of that?
Hypocritically, I am still eating them now, even as I talk about the possibility of them being ‘too much.’
Verdict: These are incredible, but they might have been the first Cheeza that I actually used the resealable package for, to save them for later. Of course, I didn’t, but I did share them with my better half who described it as “eating delicious butter,” so at least I didn’t polish off the whole bag. I think it’s a shame that these aren’t still available, they’re the strongest and most enticing cheese cracker I’ve ever had. Who knows, maybe Glico will cycle them back into production soon…?
(As for how they interacted with the STRONG CHERRY CHU-HAI, well, you’re going to have to check out the next review!)
