Fudge-Dipped Ritz Are Mind-Blowing

Fudge Covered Ritz

I Paid: $3.49 for a 7.5-ounce box (prices may vary by region)

Taste: 5 stars

Marketing: 4 stars

Several years ago, at an annual Thanksgiving-in-February party, a chef friend of mine did something déclassé that blew my mind. He took Ritz cracker sandwiches filled with peanut butter and dipped them into a microwaved bowl of chocolate almond bark. The melted chocolate hardened back up at room temperature, creating salty-sweet-nutty-chocolate flavor bombs that charmed all in attendance.

Now, along comes Nabisco (as it has the last few holiday seasons) to snatch that Promethean fire of greatness and bequeath it to the masses. Mark my words: Fudge Covered Ritz are going to go head to head with the holiday cookies you eat this year, and kick most of their asses around the block. The salt and sweet flavors are in perfect balance, and the light, buttery taste of the cracker is accentuated by the heavier, sweeter flavor of the chocolate. The overall package is something like "campfire s'more meets Girl Scout Cookie."

These even put to shame the Ritz peanut butter sandwich variant I learned years ago—it turns out the peanut butter is just a complicating factor, not a crucial ingredient. Fudgy chocolate and buttery Ritz alone are a perfect duo, destined to go out in a blaze of holiday glory at the end of the season. That's right: Fudge Covered Ritz are a limited-edition offering for the holidays, so stock up while you still can.

James Norton edits the Upper Midwestern food journal Heavy Table. He's also the coauthor of a book on Wisconsin's master cheesemakers. For his Supertaster Daily videos, he samples offerings from supermarket aisles and fast-food menus. (Click here to see all of James's previous Supertaster work.) You can follow him on Twitter and fan him on Facebook.