Cracker Jacks

Update Review, April 2024

Cracker Jacks.  Iconic American ballpark snack.  I love snacks.  I love popcorn.  I like caramel corn.  I like peanuts.  You’d think I would like Cracker Jacks.  But, no matter how many times I try it (which I do, a couple times a year), I just don’t actually like it.  But its been a while (11 years!) since my last actual review, so, an update.

Cracker Jacks.

"The CRACKER JACK® brand has been an American favorite for 120 years. The delicious blend of caramel coated popcorn and peanuts is just as good as you remember. And, as if a tasty snack weren’t enough, who can forget the thrill of opening the surprise inside?"

Sigh.  Yeah, I really don't like these.

The popcorn kernels aren’t the largest, and they don’t taste particularly fresh.  The pieces are all well coated in caramel, but that makes it overall just sweet and cloying, with no balance.  AND I don’t care for the caramel flavor itself, a somewhat burnt caramel molasses style.  I truly actively dislike this caramel corn.  But ... strangely, I *do* like the peanuts, and I'm assuming it is the same caramel used to candy those?  

Anyway, the popcorn component of Cracker Jacks is a low * for me, I just don’t like it and don't want a single bite.  The peanuts are ***+, and I gladly pluck all of them out, but most mini bags or boxes of Cracker Jacks seem to contain exactly one, maybe two, peanuts if I’m lucky.  So they lose some marks for skimping on the nuts too.  I need to stop trying to like these (and yes, I’ve tried them frozen as well, and they are no better).

Original Review, December 2013

A while ago I reviewed the latest line from Cracker Jacks, Cracker Jack'd.  You may recall that I thought they were all awful.  But Cracker Jacks seems ubiquitous, I figured their classic offering might still be tasty.  Not bad, but ... meh.

After the fairly disappointing caramel corn from Say Hey! at the ballpark, I wanted some real caramel corn.  Not knowing where to turn, I went for what I knew was a classic: Cracker Jacks.  I'm not really sure that I've ever had Cracker Jacks before.  I see why.  It isn't bad, but it surely isn't very good.

The pieces of popcorn were crunchy, and nicely coated with caramel, but the caramel had a bit of a burnt, not very good, flavor.  There weren't many peanuts.  Overall, very unremarkable at room temperature.

So then I tried freezing some.  I liked it more this way.  A bit crunchier, so more fun to eat.  But I still wasn't a fan of the burnt taste.  I ended up using chopped up Cracker Jacks as a topping for butterscotch pudding, and found that worked well.  I also mixed up a batch of half kettle corn, half cracker jacks, and liked the sweet and salty components together.  But ... overall, I still didn't find myself wanting to just devour it by the handful.  I kept wanting to like it more, since I do like caramel corn, but ... yeah, not my thing.  I did find that I liked the caramel coated peanuts more than the actual popcorn.