We here at Peeled Snacks are constantly eating snacks, trying the new stuff, revisiting the old stuff, and finding the places where snacks are heading, and HOPING to steer snacks to where they BELONG.  There's plenty of good snacks out there, but occasionally we come upon something head-scratching, something stomach churning, something that just doesn't taste good.  And so we give you....

From the files of "OH MY GOLLY, WHAT ARE YOU EATING?!?!", comes this new entry in the world of "no, please, DON'T eat that": Genero's baked cheese peanuts. 

Some notes about Genero: it's an Argentina based company that has for years made many fine nut products.  They grow mostly peanuts in the Cordoba region of Argentina (a good region for wine), and roast in a variety of ways.  They offer baked peanuts (which are tasty and impossible not to love), but their bread and butter (so to speak) is peanuts baked with a wheat starch shell, rather like a M&M shell, only less colorful.

Most of their products taste great, and I LOVE peanuts, so they've got that going for them (plus I love Argentina, but they can't help that).  But allow me to bring your attention to the specific snack in question, the Cheese peanuts.

Ingredients for product in question: Peanut, Wheat Flour, Starch, Sugar, High Oleic Sunflower Oil, Salt, Flavoring.

That's it.

Where's the CHEESE!?!?

Cheese is written in large, clear words not once but TWICE on the front of the package.  But there's no cheese inside.  What's "Flavoring"?  Does it have any cheese in it?  I have no idea, but frankly, I can't be made to care, because unlike other Genero products that I've tasted, these "Cheese" peanuts taste AW-FUL.  As in, eat one and think about how yummy a handful of dirt might be instead.  As in, I could be eating this, or I could be washing my mouth out with soap.  As in, YUCK!

Okay, maybe it's my problem, as I usually assume that bad-for-you products taste, you know, kinda good (but are actually terrible for you).  Maybe I just don't see the big picture, and maybe Genero is way ahead of the curve, seeing that if they're going to make something awful, it should taste awful.

But however you want to spin it, when a product says "Cheese" on the front of the package (twice!), it really should contain, you know, CHEESE!

Now I return my almost entirely un-eaten bag of Genero's baked Cheese Peanuts to the file.  I think that I'll have a mouth-wash for lunch.  Happy Snacking,

-Peeled Skinny