Glutino Multigrain Crackers

Ever since arriving n Hawaii I found myself looking for crackers.  I had grown to enjoy those Ener-G crackers quite a bit, and I was sad that I had so much trouble finding them.  On the day I finally did find them, I also found these Glutino crackers, available in several flavors.  I thought multigrain sounded like a great option, but I should have read the label.

See, I hate fennel seeds.  Hate hate hate.

Who expects fennel seeds in their crackers?

Anyway, so I was a bit disappointed in that regard.  But I'm getting ahead of myself here.

On the box, Glutino's crackers look like crackers of the Ritz variety.  Glutino and I are having a strained relationship.  Their penne was terrible and their breakfast bars were so-so (I didn't review that yet).  I was really hoping that their crackers would at least be edible. 

When I opened the box I was very surprised, because I expected the usual individually wrapped tubes of crackers, like you get in a box of Ritz.  No no no.  I guess as a cost-saving measure they decided to just THROW A BUNCH OF CRACKERS IN A BAG.  Not even one big bag.  Two smaller bags.  Why is this a bad idea?  Don't they do that with other brands of crackers?  I seem to recall that Wheat Thins do this, but Wheat Thins don't break very easily.  This sort of cracker?  Breaks. 

So I opened up a baggy to find a lot of broken and some whole crackers.  Not exactly pleasant.  I took one out and tasted it.  Fennel.  Fennnnnnnel.  But it wasn't terribly overpowering.  I'd survive.  I think these crackers are best suited to the meat and cheese approach.  Too bad I bought them for peanut butter. 

So I dug out my peanut butter.  It did cover up the fennel well enough.  It also completely overwhelmed the cracker itself.

It isn't a bad cracker.  It's just ... there's a certain nuttiness I expect from multigrain crackers, and that's missing.  Perhaps because there's no (or very little?) salt on it, the flavors don't really come out in the cracker itself.  But I wouldn't be very harsh on these.  6.5/10 or thereabouts.  They serve their purpose.  They aren't gross.  They lose a point for poor packaging and the FENNEL.  (WHO PUTS FENNEL SEEDS IN CRACKERS??) 

But definitely not bad.  And not Nut Thins.  Sorry, Nut Thins, but if I wanted to eat things that tasted like Fritos ... I would buy Fritos.