Junk Food Nation, as Hurricane Irene approaches my city of residence, the District of Columbia, I wanted to share some of my favorite Facebook feed posts.

What better way to spend a bunkered down day inside than by eating tons of snacks and gooey treats? Today’s junk food: Gardetto’s Chipotle Cheddar Snack Mix!

The Money Shot

You may remember I did a review of Chex Mix’s Chipotle Cheddar Snack Mix.  My conclusion was this: barely any cheese flavor, and a LITTLE bit of spice that dissolved quickly.  So when I saw another snack mix that purported to be “Chipotle Cheddar,” I had to try.  A Wisconsin based company, Gardetto’s is a snack mix, unlike Chex Mix, that focuses its snack mix on brown rye bread chips.  Delicious – perfect vehicles for flavor powder. Or at least I hope so.

Flavortown since 1932

Gardetto’s is snack mix brand that has been around since 1932.  Gardetto’s is probably the brand of snack mix that most people think of as a rival to Chex Mix. Here’s a fun fact: IT’S MADE BY THE SAME COMPANY THAT MAKES CHEX MIX!  What the EFF General Mills!? Stop trying to take over the world!!

oooo...how artsy

Chipotle Cheddar has now been used in two separate snack mixes. With this flavor promise, I expect some sharp cheesy flavor and some kick to it.  Especially if you’re gonna put this quasi-artsy fresco-style pictures of a pepper and cheese on the bag.

Photographic evidence

Easy display of what the snack promises: the different components of this snack mix are displayed on this bag, and there is a noticeable feature – LOTS of flavor powdering. It looks sprinkled over everything. I’ll remember this, Gardetto’s.

A history of flavor

WOW.  Sidenote – never use 8-pt italicized font on a snack bag. I want cartoon characters and big readable block lettering. I don’t want to find the scratchings of an ancient rune on the bag.

I love how the story of Gardetto’s is that it’s comprised of leftover bread bits that no one wanted.

Powder blasted!

Open the bag, and KAPOW! CLEAR vision of flavor powder all over everything!  Duder.

Brown rye bread chips, pretzels and breadsticks...2 of these 3 may suck

Of course, my skepticism still holds.  I’ve been burned by NON-Chex pieces in a snack mix before.  How would these different components hold up?

Perfectly powdered

Rye Bread chips: Crunch Crunch Crunch – decent flavor. A good deep cheesy flavor for sure, with a little kick. The spice is not necessarily Chipotle – to be honest, it’s more reminiscent of those spicy nuts you’ll find at any bar.  More of a Cajun spice than anything.  It’s a little smoky, but that’s it.  Still, a tasty treat, with good crunch.

Surprisingly retaining powder

Also decent powder retention...

The pretzels and breadsticks – hmmm. Here’s the thing – they did maintain the flavor powder a little better. As you can see from the pictures, the powder stuck to these pieces more than it did in the previous Chex Chipotle Cheddar Mix. However, the flavor didn’t taste as baked in as with the brown rye chips. While the same flavors were there, as soon as you chewed any of these pieces the overwhelming white flour overpowered the taste.

Still, I’d give these extraneous pieces higher marks than the Chex Mix equivalent.  Similarly, overall this was a more successful snack mix than its Chex Mix doppleganger – more flavorful, better crunch, and better representation of the Chipotle Cheddar flavor.

Stay dry everyone!  And catch my hurricane tweets by following me on Twitter @junkfoodguy!

Sincerely, Junk Food Guy