Review: New Cheez-It Chipotle Pepper Zingz

Hey there, So Good! Just your friendly neighborhood Junk Food Guy, back again to share with you one of my latest junk food discoveries – new Cheez-It Chipotle Pepper Zingz!  But what exactly IS a Zing, or rather, a Zingz?  And Cheez-Its, with a brand new cracker? After Sunshine Biscuits LLC attempted to come out with a new Cheez-It for every single variety of cheese out there, I half expected the next Cheez-It flavor to be Gorgonzola or something. But no. Zingz. Hmmmm…

New Cheez-It Chipotle Pepper Zingz are “The Snacking Crunch with a Punch.” Wait, that’s imperfect grammar.  It’s…the snack that crunches with a punch?  Whatever – it’s a crunchy cracker, dangit!  Which is sort of new, since regular Cheez-Its tend to be more soft and flaky… I reviewed the Queso Fundido variety over on JunkFoodGuy.com the other day, and really liked those; hopefully, these Chipotle Pepper ones measure up.

New Cheez-It Chipotle Pepper Zingz have less than 10 calories per cracker, and…

…contain lots of hint ingredients as to how these will taste.  I see hickory smoke flavor, I see chipotle pepper, I see cumin, onion powder, garlic powder…these promise to be a savory explosions in my mouth.

New Cheez-It Chipotle Pepper Zingz have corn masa for “MAX Crunchiness.”  How EXXXTREEEME.  But, as a nod to the front of the box, these are “baked crunchy” and then seasoned well.  It’s clear Cheez-It wants a beefed up cracker, since every other snack is going the bold flavor route.

New Cheez-It Chipotle Pepper Zingz smelled immediately like liquid smoke when I opened the box.  Jiminy CHristmas – if you like smoky flavor, these are for you.  I could smell some tanginess of the cheese, but that smoke flavor smelled GREAT from the opening of the box.  Made me excited to eat these.  Eat cracker was thinner, seemed crispier, and was flatter than a normal Cheez-It.  Perhaps the added corn masa allowed for a thinner yet crunchier cracker? Only one way to find out…

These New Cheez-It Chipotle Pepper Zingz were very very very tasty.  Not sure I can say tasty enough.  But it’s a cheese cracker, so c’mon – I’m GONNA like it, no matter what. Duh.

The crunch of these crackers is noticeably different than normal Cheez-Its – regular Cheez-Its I feel are more flaky, and these were crunchy and crispy, clearly due to the added corn masa.  The flavor I immediately got was that of a sharp cheddar – nice and tangy.  The red pepper helped with that, I’m sure.  But as the tang set in, the amazing smokiness of the chacker rushed forth.  Nice and deep, the chipotle pepper aspect of these crackers was not subtle at all.  Cheez-It WANTS you to taste the smoky chipotle here, and I did.  Finally, the overall marriage between smoke, chipotle, and cheddar was tied together by a nice cumin-taste.  Salty for sure, but not enough to overwhelm any of the flavors.

All in all, a nice smoky cheese snack.  Great job, Sunshine.

PURCHASED AT: Giant Food Grocery

COST: $3.00 on sale

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