Illustrated by Louisa Cannell.
What's on my desk this week? A bag of nordic oregano crisps from the brand Hungry Bird Eats: founded in 2016 at new and burgeoning snack-business builder, Foodworks. You might be wondering: "What is a nordic crisp?" According to the company's site, "Scandinavian countries have a long relationship with crispbreads, typically made with rye flour and baked into large pieces." So, in my mind, this colorful package of broken apart crispbread was essentially just a bag of fancy-sounding crackers. Right? Wrong. It turns out, they are so much more.
Upon tearing open the top flap of the smallish-sized bag, I was excited to find that the pack was resealable (key points for storage longevity). I was also pleasantly surprised that the the bag was pretty fully packed (no overwhelming extra air space like with many chip and cracker brands). Though, the crips themselves were actually not so crisp-like. The snack was more of a soft, dense, square-shaped, and seed-packed cracker (smaller than a Triscuit but larger than a Cheez-It). The taste was buttery and salty with a savory hint of oregano. The texture was soft, yet somehow still crunchy without being overly crumbly or dry. I couldn't put them down — or stop wondering how such an ideal taste and texture combo could exist in a gluten-free cracker. They were amazingly light while still feeling dense enough to be a satiating snack all on their own (no need for hummus or cheese here).
Hungry Bird Eats crisps are made with an all organic mixture of brown rice flour, buckwheat flour, water, olive oil, flax seeds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, chia seeds, rolled oats, sea salt, and oregano. You can pick up your own pack online for $5.69, either in the savory oregano flavor or a sea salt rye take (not gluten-free). And we'd recommend doing it ASAP before word gets out about nordic crisps storming the U.S. cracker scene.
Welcome to Snack On This! A weekly series on all-things crunchy, crispy, smooth, savory, and sweet. Join us as we munch our way through the latest snacks that get a big thumbs up from our food team. (That usually means they've made it all the way from our mail pile to a more permanent spot in our not-so-official snack drawer.) Got suggestions for next week? Throw 'em our way in the comments below.