Flash back to 1970s, 1980’s or even 1990’s. Grandma and Grandpa had the standard items on the kitchen counter: half completed TV trivia crossword puzzle, the ornate glass candy dish filled with cashews or ribbon candy, and last but not least, the blue cylinder container labeled “Planters Cheez Balls”. As popular as the Planters nuts were, the cheez balls seemed to be extremely popular in U.S. households. This snack was so damn good. Cheetos took a back seat to these. Unfortunately in 2006, this product was discontinued by the manufacturer.
Now as we are well into the 2014 year, I will be on a quest to find a suitable replacement for the Planter’s cheez balls. Notice my focus is on cheez balls, not the puff or crinkle form. Those puffs do have their place on the lunch table. For now, I am on a quest to find a successor to the blue can favorite.
My first attempt was made during my last trip to Meijer. I picked up a nine ounce package of Meijer Cheese Balls. The snack is sold in large purple bag with the transparent window positioned in the middle to display the actual cheese balls. The packaging came across as “meh”. I did find the price very attractive as it was part of the weekly Meijer’s 10 items for $10 campaign so this large bag of cheese balls set me back one dollar. Normally the Meijer cheese balls retail at $1.99.
These cheese balls made their debut on my table during my Sunday lunch. It was sort of a double cheese whammy of a meal as this snack was served alongside my cheddar Panini (courtesy of my George Foreman grill). The first test of this snack was the flavor character. The flavor was surprising decent as it was cheesy but not too pungent as you get with those sharp cheddar dusts. I honestly expected flavor to be much less satisfactory given the low price. The product’s best trait was the crunch of the corn puff. I am no food chemist but the manufacturer hit the right formula with corn meal, corn starch or whatever they used to make this cheez ball fun to munch on. My kids emptied two thirds of the bag in one sitting as they enjoyed chomping on these.
The Meijer brand cheese balls are my first attempt at finding a suitable replacement for the discontinued Planter’s product. I would give these snacks a definite passing grade; especially at the low price. I will continue my pursuit of testing other brands whether they are Utz, Target Market Pantry, Wise, or any no name store brand. I will update my findings here on this site.
