The Great Chex Cheat (mild)

I love Chex Mix. I liked it homemade, and I liked it even better when it started showing up in stores pre-packaged. Homemade is still better, of course, but it seems I always have a taste for Chex Mix when I am out of Wustusterchurshire* sauce, so I was loving the bagged version. Then they came out with a honey-nut version that is pretty good too, although so far the Chex people haven’t twigged to the “puppy chow” peanut butter and chocolate version. Then, today, I found Chex Mix Trail Mix! Chex, pretzels, peanuts, raisins and little ersatz M&Ms. That’s gotta be good, right?

BLECH!

The cereal bits are sweetened, but either not enough or too much - I can’t decide. The peanuts are puny. The pretzels should be salty - but they’re sweet (yuckers!!) The raisins are OK, not too dried out. The faux M&Ms are teeny and there’s not nearly enough of 'em. The whole shebang is lacking… something. Something vital.

What I thought was going to be a nummy PMS-soothing munchie is crappy, and it was three whole dollars worth of crappy! I feel so cheated.

(*- yes, I know how to spell it. )

Yes, the bagged version is a letdown from homemade. I have found that Gardetto’s snack mix is a great improvement over Chex Mix, but it may be a taste thing, as in preference.

The same sort of thing applies to homemade granola as compared with packaged versions. The stuff you can buy at health food (organic food?) stores is a little better than the Quaker versions, but homemade still tastes better.

The hassle factor has to be considered, though.

Mmm, chex mix, my one weakness!!

Here’s what I do: Get a bag of original, a bag of cheese-flavored, a bag of gardetto’s, and a bag of this cajun-spiced trail-mix kinda stuff they sell here. Dump it all into a big plastic tub that once held ice cream, and mix well. Mmmm!

And sweet pretzels?? What on earth are they thinking??

I like living on the edge, i take a bag of Gardettos and a bag of regular chex mix and combine them! a whole new taste sensation, but on the whole, i think there are wayyyyy to many of those stupid rye bread thingys!

i tried one of the chex things that had m and m’s in it. blah it was yucky. never again!

how come it is, tho, nobody really makes chex mix until the holidays? (maybe i am imagining this)

Munchies. I’ve seen them in 3-4 flavors, Hot, Cheezy, and Original. They throw in Sunchips, cheetos, and pretzels. It varies with the mix, sometimes throwing in other chip type foods.

Ah, but homemade Chex mix always has M&Ms in it at my house! And it’s great, but those kids are pretty sneaky about sniping all of the M&Ms. I make it most around camping season or for trip munchies.

I have to disagree here. Every time I’ve had homemade granola it’s been… “eh” whereas Kellogg’s granola is a little piece of heaven.

Beware the cheesy ones if you don’t like any sweet stuff in your snack mix - they contain Quaker cereal squares, which are somewhat sweet.