Wheat Thins Toasted Chips in North End Parmesan & Herb: A Review

While doing a bit of grocery shopping the other day, I got a strong craving for cheese and crackers. So I picked up some cheese and then went into the snack aisle to find crackers.

There had to be a hundred different varieties, so I grabbed the first one that looked appealing and popped it into my cart. That happened to be Wheat Thins Toasted Chips in the North End Parmesan & Herb flavor.

An 8.1oz bag cost $5.40. It comes in a thick potato chip-like bag, it has a nice black and white photo of a European city on the front of it. There's also a picture of what I thought was a cracker but apparently it's what Wheat Thins are calling "chips"

The chips contains ingredients like unbleached enriched flour, whole grain wheat flour, soybean oil, corn flour, potato starch, whole grain millet, whole grain triticale, cheddar cheese powder, parmesan cheese powder, and garlic and onion powder.

A 1oz serving of the Wheat Thins North End Parmesan & Herb Chips contain 130 calories and 45 fat calories. There are 5g of total fat, and 1g of saturated fat. The chips have 0mg of cholesterol, 240 mg of sodium, and 55mg of potassium, they also contain 19g of carbs, 1g of fiber, 3g of sugar, and 2g of protein.

Wheat Thins claims that the Parmesan & Herb falvor was inspired by Boston's North End, which apparently contains a lot of Italian restaurants and bakeries. The company is also happy to explain that these chips are toasted, not fried so they have "50% less fat than the leading regular fried potato chips."

When I bought this bag I didn't read the entire label, all I noticed was the brand Wheat Thins, the flavor Parmesan & Herb, and a picture of what I thought was a cracker. So I had no idea, until I got home, that these were supposed to be enjoyed as chips.

But after trying these they still remind me of a cracker. They're golden brown, made from wheat, crispy, and they even have ridged edges and holes like a cracker.

So to me they're a freaking cracker, but they didn't go too well with the cheese I bought, so I just ate them plain. The North End Parmesan & Herb flavor was great. It reminds me of really tasty garlic bread. It has a strong garlic, onion, and oregano flavor that, when mixed with the parmesan cheese, tasted really nice. The flavors were more natural and definitely tasted better than that of a lot potato chip flavors on the market.

The only thing I didn't care for was the sweet after taste the wheat leaves behind. I also didn't like how dry these Wheat Thins were. They could've added a splash of olive oil or something to make these chips taste richer and to make them real competition for potato chips.

In the End...

The flavor of the Wheat Thins Toasted Chips in North End Parmesan & Herb was great, but I felt that the dry chips were no substitute for a real potato chip. If I had to buy another bag, I wouldn't eat these chips alone, I'd have to eat them with a dip, chicken salad, or something with some oil, for more flavor. I give them 3.5 out of 5 stars because they're too dry.