Review: Wheat Thins Sweet Cinnamon

Last week, Wheat Thins sent me a box of their new holiday flavor, Sweet Cinnamon. The cinnamon stick was a nice touch, as was the note I found inside:

They’re a little bit of sugar, spice and everything nice. But don’t be naughty – share the love with our limited edition flavor.

Right off the bat, I’m intrigued. But I have a question first: Since when does Wheat Thins have other flavors? Maybe I’ve been living under a rock, but I was unaware of any variations of this malty snack. So I checked out their website to find a multitude of flavors, including Ranch and Wisconsin Colby (which both sound delightful). Maybe I just don’t go down the cracker aisle enough.

So what’s the deal with Wheat Thins Sweet Cinnamon? Apparently, back in 2008, the folks at Nabisco rolled out a new Lightly Cinnamon flavor, which was discontinued the following year. This time, it’s a totally new flavor, and it’s limited edition, just in time for the holidays. From what I gather, you can most likely find them at your grocery store today.

My first impression of these sweet crackers was that they’re way too dry. Wheat Thins are already pretty dry, and adding cinnamon doesn’t help that. As far as flavor, at first it kind of tastes like a cinnamon graham cracker, and then fades into that wheat aftertaste. I was hoping for more of a Cinnamon Toast Crunch flavor. I just don’t think wheat and sweet can go together. These crackers aren’t bad, but they didn’t meet my raised expectations.

But I wasn’t done yet. I had to try them with something. But what? My favorite way to eat Wheat Thins is with cheese, but cheese and cinnamon…no thanks. I could try the weird dip recipe on the back of the box, which calls for ham, apples and cream cheese. I’ll pass. But apples, that could work. So I paired each cracker with a small piece of apple, and drizzled caramel on top.

It looked pretty awesome. I felt like a…Sweet Genius! I was thinking maybe it would taste sort of like apple pie, but it just didn’t work at all. I am no sweet genius, which is just as well, because that bald turtle-looking guy scares the shit out of me.

So Wheat Thins Sweet Cinnamon are not a bad idea in theory. I just don’t know how to eat them in a way that makes them good.