Crackerbreads always confuse me a little. I frequently buy them, and every time I do I regret buying them as I go on a one woman mission to eat the whole pack in as short a time as possible as they are THAT NICE! But they confuse me non the less. Let me explain-

They are called CRACKER BREAD but they are not crackers (they more closely resemble very very compressed weetabix as they taste flaky) but they are not bread either. I mean, even melba TOAST looks like mini bread slices.. with crackerbread, you just get rectangular slices of caramel coloured "stuff" that seems to disintegrate/melt in your mouth when you eat it.

Don't get me wrong, I love these "crackers" but they are a little confusing.

Crackerbreads have been around for YEARS... I mean YEARS- I have tried to find out when exactly they were "invented" but I can't find this information but my mum used to eat them when she was "slimming" in the 1950s or 1960s so they have been around for a long time!. They are made by Ryvita, you can buy ORIGINAL or WHOLEWHEAT varieties. I have only tried the original version so this is what this review is about.

One pack will cost 69-90p depending upon your supermarket and for this price you get two individually wrapped rectangular packs inside one box- so you can eat one load of crackers and leave the other one fresh in the box. These do go soft if you do not keep them in an air tight tin so it is a good idea to buy a tin or some tupperware to store these in.

Nutritionally- these are a nice compact 19 calories/ 0.2g fat per slice, I find around 3 of these is good for a snack. You can eat them without any topping but the beauty of these is they are a neutral flavour (neither sweet nor savoury) so you can put margarine and cheese on them or you can have them with stawberries on (serving suggestion from Ryvita!).

I can see how the sweet toppings would work, but i'm sticking with the cheese and pickles (cheese on first as if these come in contact with any moisture they do literally disintegrate so if you put a pickle on a nude cracker it would create a soggy hole in the cracker). It has been tried. It is not good.

Crackerbread makes a lighter alternative to cream crackers and a more light and flaky alternative to actual ryvitas that can be a bit too fibrous and hard on your teeth sometimes I find! They are less polystyrene tasting than rice cakes but have a smiliar malty neutral taste. I can only describe it as malty as it is a sort of savoury flaky taste- the sensation of the cracker disintegrating in your mouth is really pleasant too.

The downside is the crumbs. Oh boy do these create a mess. You need to use a large plate or just avoid doing your hoovering until after you have eaten them. They do not break in haf very well either if you want to create smaller crackers they will only break well lengthways due to how they are made (you need to try snapping one to see what I mean).

Ingredients:
Wheat Flour, Vegetable Oil, Salt, Sugar, Sugar Beet Fibre.

Pack warnings:
Contains Wheat. May contain Milk and Soya.

Oddly, I think Ryvita have gone a bit "But you CAN eat these if you have the following allergies:" crazy-- as the pack states these are suitable for:
Vegetarians, consumers avoiding: MSG, Tree Nuts, Peanuts, Egg, Yeast, Crustacean, Fish, Sesame, SO2 & Sulphites, Celery, Mustard, GMO.

If I had a fish allergy, I would not check crackerbreads to see if they contained fish. Same for "crustaceans" (that's shell fish, right?). I can understand you have to be careful if you have a life threatening allergy but this seems a bit like marketing apples to people who are allergic to eggs. And I didn't know you could have a CELERY allergy?.

Anyway, I love these, they are just brilliant to snack on and very versatile- you can be quite creative with your toppings, they are well priced, tasty and you can eat them if you are allergic to all sorts of things!