The Continuing Mad Deliciousness of Wheat Thins Stix

Well, Nabisco has done it again, taking the awesomeness of Wheat Thins, rolling them into crunchy sticks, and making them just about irresistible in two new flavors - Chipotle Pepper and Cinnamon Kick.

Last week, the Wheat Thins folks sent along a box of both of the new flavors for Lynnafred and I to review.  We cracked the boxes open tonight and shared them around with the family so that everyone could experience the addictive delight of STIX.

The first box we opened was Chipotle Pepper. Their wheaty deliciousness is enhanced with a smoky, chile-peppered flavor that isn't really backed up with much spicy heat. Although I was hoping for a bit more spice, I have to admit that they did a pretty good job of capturing the flavor of chipotles while leaving the heat behind; while that might be a bit of a disappointment for me, Maryanne and the grandkids thought they were just the best.  The Chipotle Pepper Stix do have a bit of residual heat that kind of builds up into a gentle warmth in the mouth as noshing progresses - in a mild and kid-friendly way - so don't buy them if you're trying to impress your frat buddies with your capacity for ingesting fire.   Oh, and by the way, they're excellent broken into a bowl of tomato soup.

Of the two, the Cinnamon Kick flavor that we opened next was actually our favorite. Like the other Stix we've enjoyed, the Cinnamon Kick variety is subtly sweet without being like a cookie. The cinnamon flavor is exceptionally well-balanced by the toasty wheat flavors, making an awesome savory crunchy snack.  You know what we found most surprising of all?  Cinnamon Kick has a touch of jalapeno pepper juice in the ingredients! It gave the cinnamon a wonderful warm glow loike you might get from a taste of cinnamon heart candies, and everyone really liked it.

Nabisco is packaging the new flavors in the same cleverly-designed widemouth box that has distinguished Wheat Thins Stix since their introduction.  I appreciate this design even more now, with the kids around - they find it easy to help themselves to the Stix without having to bury their grubby little arms in the box. Win all around as far as I'm concerned.

Yes.  The new Wheat Thins Stix are every bit as fantastic as Honey Wheat and Fire Roasted Tomato, the first two varieties.  And if I ever meet the people who developed the recipe, I'm going to shake their hands and  buy them each a Pepsi Throwback, because Stix have no high fructose corn syrup in them.  Awesome indeed.