Kroger Hot & Sweet Snackers

Kroger Hot & Sweet Snackers

Heat, Sweet and Cheap!

Those three words really sing for me.  Kroger's Hot & Sweet Snackers make an excellent replacement for the excellent Premium Selection Spicy Bread & Butter variety.  Premium Selection is another Kroger Co. brand, so apparently Kroger has a relationship with a great pickle maker (or at least somebody who makes really great sweet-hot pickles).

Heat.  Yep.  These have some kick, but nothing that's going to abuse your taste buds.  The warm feeling they leave on your tongue that combines with the nicely Sweet and a balanced amount of vinegar/sour flavor.  All-around balance of sweet, sour and heat.  You can munch on these enough so that Kroger ought to put a warning label on the side, or sell them as 2-packs.

As you can see in the photo to the right, there's plenty of goodies in there...mustard seed, onion slices, and plenty of red chili peppers.  All of the stuff that you'd expect from a premium jar of pickles.

On the label, they point out that there are no artificial flavors, dyes or use of high-fructose corn syrup, and once you opened the lid, it was clear they meant it. The light color of the cucumber was actually a little odd, as there's usually a more yellowy color that perhaps is from that dye?  

The crinkle cut worked well, and set expectations that you quickly realized as a crunchy bite.

Lastly, these were the Kroger store-branded pickles, and had a price to match...I wanna say $2.59?  For such a nice presentation, flavor and crunch, what a deal.  The pickle department at the Kroger company has certainly done their job--I now have a number of their varieties that are not only as good as the national brands, but in most cases exceed the flavor, quality and value.

 

Meijer Bread & Butter Chips

 

Meijer Bread & Butter Chips

In the infinite universe of pickle selections your travels often take you to places you seldom frequent and you can find varieties and brands that you wouldn't ordinarily seek out.  Well, due to a weird pandemic shortage of Solo Almond Filling (for Gretchen's bakery), I found myself in a Meijer store on the other side of Ann Arbor (about 15 miles west).  Since I was in a grocery store, and had located the last 2 cans of the stuff for 25 miles, I dug out the shopping list and found we were out of bread'n'butter sweet pickles.  

If you're not familiar with the Meijer chain, they're a Grand Rapids, MI based chain of everything-stores, they're positively monstrously large buildings with a full grocery store, department store, hardware store and outdoor gardening store all under one roof.  When we were growing up, they were a novelty and were known as "Meijer's Friendly Acres".  No kidding!  I detest getting anything in that store because every visit is 45 minutes, regardless of how much stuff you're picking up.

After a 10 minute search for the pickle aisle, I found them, but didn't find any chunk-style bread'n'butter pickles, like we prefer in the Kroger store brand.  I hadn't tried Meijer's offering, so I picked up a jar of their "chips".

They're crinkle-cut, and seemed to have plenty of the mustard seed and onions that other store brands often skimp on.  Upon opening the jar, the pickles were sticking out above the brine level, so I figured those couple might be a little on the limp side--they were.  What I didn't expect is for most of the jar to be pretty limp.

The flavor was good, though; not too sweet, and a tad more vinegary than I was expecting.  You "grow into" the vinegar strength, although there's enough there that you won't have to worry about burning through a jar of these.  Like the McClure's pickles, the vinegar acts as a brake on things, although, McClure's pickles set the bar.

These are good muncher pickles to have "straight up" on the side, but would also be an excellent sandwich or burger topping.  The "not too sweet" character puts 'em up there.  I made a burger and had these on top and they worked well.  They'd be perfect on a meatloaf sandwich!

Lastly, they weren't that expensive...these ain't no $9 pickles.  I think they were around $2.39 for a decent sized jar.

Vlasic Zesty Bread & Butter Chips

 

Vlasic Zesty Bread & Butter Chips

I'm always on the lookout for a kick of flavor, whether it be something unusual, or a little added heat.  My favorite dill pickle remains Vlasic Zesty Dills (which I just realized I've never reviewed!), so when I saw that they've applied the Zesty formula, to their bread'n'butter pickles, it was like a moth to a flame.  In looking for the Zesty Dill review, I noted that I have a fair number of sweet-and-hot varieties in there, so apparently, I've developed a taste for them.

In spite of the rather bland labeling (the Zesty Dills make it abundantly clear they're "zesty"), you immediately notice there's something different about them because the brine is a darker, yellowish color. If I had a guess, it would be due to the red pepper bits in there, or perhaps the abundance of mustard seed.  With all pickles, I popped them in the refrigerator to chill them down--warm pickles just don't cut it in my book.

First bite exhibited all of the hallmark Vlasic crunch.  You really have to give Vlasic credit for doing that so well.  Initial flavor doesn't give you much hint that this is a "zesty", but by the time you're done munching with that first chunk, you notice there is indeed some heat in there.  Great balance of sweet and vinegar, although its possible some might think they're a tad on the sweet side.  After a few chunks, enjoying the sweet heat, the heat starts to accumulate.  It's not "heat-sweats" type of heat like McClure's or Harrold's, just a nice simmer.  I found it took about 10+ minutes for the heat to dissipate from my palate, which tells me the heat is probably from some spice or pepper source that is high in oil, as oil heat usually lingers.  There weren't any visible "heat sources" in the jar, like jalapeno pepper or those little Thai "meal-enders", like I've found in the Private Selection hot/sweet varieties.

Overall, I like these for a good sweet-hot snacking pickle.  The heat will build up gradually enough to put the brakes on finishing a jar, but won't singe your tongue either.  Unlike Famous Dave's these aren't as vinegary, so you won't get the "pucker-up" effect either.  For topping a meatloaf sandwich, they'd be pretty nice, but I think the nod would have to go to Dave's for that use, as the extra vinegar flavor would work really well.  However, since Vlasic is a national brand, you shouldn't have any problems finding them in your neighborhood grocery store.  You really can't go wrong with any Vlasic pickle, though...good crunch, balanced flavor and great availability.