As a parent my relationship with Goldfish crackers is a love and hate relationship. I hate the fact that they have no nutritional value (and not organic), but I love the fact that they are cheap and my kids will eat them pretty much all the time. But when changing my family over to a Gluten free diet, my hate for Goldfish became even more intense. Replacing the little cheese fish shaped crackers with a gluten free version is hard. There are some products out there, but the taste isn’t that great and they cost an arm and a leg. Did I mention my kids were picky too?
Then I heard about Goldfish Puffs. Did I see that right? Are they really gluten free? A GLUTEN FREE GOLDFISH PRODUCT! I had to go buy some. I might have finally found a replacement for the regular Goldfish crackers. So I ran to Target to buy a package. Luckily I was smart and only purchased one to try. I’m sure glad I didn’t decide to stock up. The puffs come in 3 different flavors: Mega Cheese, Cheddar Bacon and Buffalo Wing. I opted to try the Mega Cheese because I already knew my kids wouldn’t be too thrilled with the other 2 flavors.
I arrived home and it was time to test these new puffs out. My kids were initially excited to see that I brought home Goldfish. They wanted to try them right away. We popped open the bag and the first thing that struck me was the smell. Now, I have to be honest, I don’t care for the smell or regular Goldfish crackers, but these were even worse. It smelled like some kind of artificial cardboard smell! Yuck. Anywho, each of my kids grabbed a puff and popped them in their mouth. I could tell right away that my son didn’t like it and he spit it out. My daughter at least finished the bite, but said they had a weird tasting spice she didn’t like. I offered them seconds and needless to say they said no. I decided to give one a try and I could see why they didn’t want anymore. They had a very artificial cheese taste. It reminded me of the nacho cheese dip I use to get at ballpark concession stands when I was little. Which wasn’t that bad, but as a weird textured puff it doesn’t work at all.
So, are gluten free Goldfish too good to be true? YES! Maybe I will just try and bake my own?
