We all know Cheez-It crackers are orange and delicious.
But there's a lot we don't know about them, like where that orange color actually comes
from.
Here are all the interesting and fun facts you need to know about this wonderful snack
cracker.
The first Cheez-Its were made in 1921 by a Dayton, Ohio cracker manufacturer called Green
& Green Company, which was run by Weston Green, his father John, and his brother Joseph.
The family was so good at making crackers that they had several patents related to perfecting
the snack, such as cracker coatings and a "baking article" to give the crackers the
perfect crispness.
Thank goodness there are people out there passionate enough about crackers to invent
ways to make them better!
In 1930, after Weston Green passed away, Green & Green Company was purchased by Loose-Wiles
Biscuit Company, which then became Sunshine Biscuit Company, aka Sunshine Co.
The Sunshine label that we all know and love remained on the Cheez-It box even after Keebler
acquired Sunshine in 1996, and even still after Kellogg's acquired Keebler in 2001.
The box got a fresh new look in 2015 and as a result, its Sunshine roots aren't as prominent
anymore.
While owners and packaging may change, the staying power of this tasty cracker surpasses
all labels.
You might already know there's nothing fake about the cheese in Cheez-Its.
In fact, Kellogg's launched a huge ad campaign in 2010 that aimed to unmistakably assure
consumers that the "cheez" in Cheez-It crackers is, in fact, cheese.
But that doesn't change the fact that cheese isn't the dominant ingredient in this cracker.
As it turns out, there's more flour and vegetable oil than cheese.
This is all a roundabout way of saying that if cheese is all you're after, you're better
off just buying a hunk of brie to gnaw on.
"Too often, we forget the hard work done at the Federal Department of Cheese Geometry."
If you're looking to prove that you're not at all lactose intolerant, scarfing down Cheez-Its
probably isn't the best way to do it.
So just appreciate the Cheez-It for what it is: a cracker with some cheese artfully baked
into it.
Some people like to organize the years between BC and AD, but we like to divide them between
the times before and after we learned that a Cheez-It cracker is not actually a square.
"CHEEZ-ITTTTTTTTTTT!!!"
The dimensions of the original classic Cheez-It are 26 by 24 millimeters.
So technically, it's a rectangle, and ever so slightly not a square.
Nevertheless, it's often wrongfully described as a square-shaped cracker.
To be fair, the original Cheez-Its do, at first glance, more closely resemble a square
than some of the brand's newer incarnations, like Cheez-It Grooves and Cheez-It Snap'd
. Maybe thinking of the original version as "the square one" helps to keep things straight
in the face of so many variations of Cheez-It flavors and shapes.
Thankfully, the slight difference in millimeters has no effect on the crackers' taste or endless
snacking potential.
It might seem natural to assume that Cheez-Its' orange tint comes from the real cheese that
they contain.
But it turns out that's not the whole truth.
The ingredients list for Cheez-It Original crackers breaks down the components of the
cheese, and one of them is annatto extract color, which is a natural food dye that comes
from tree seeds.
So while technically the cheese in these crackers isn't providing the color, it does contain
an added ingredient that enhances it.
The other ingredient responsible for the iconic Cheez-It color is paprika, which is the signature
spice of the original-flavored, first-born Cheez-It.
While paprika is present in some of the other flavors, like Cheez-It Cheddar Jack, it's
most firmly associated as the stand-out flavor in the Original variety.
It's worth noting that Cheez-It White Cheddar, Cheez-It Pepper Jack, and Cheez-It Italian
Four Cheese flavors don't contain paprika or cheese with annatto color added, which
makes sense given their lack of orange-ness.
Cheese may be the star of the show, but paprika and annatto are clearly the wizards behind
the curtain.
The brand behind Cheez-Its has had some creative advertising ideas over the years.
Who can forget the commercials in which a doctor tried to determine if cheese rounds
were mature enough to go into the crackers?
"Oh, do you have a check there for hilarious?"
"We take the time for our cheese to mature before we bake it into every delicious cracker."
The PR team took things to another level in early 2019 when a year's supply of Cheez-It
Snap'd crackers were hidden in a bunker in an undisclosed location in New York City.
It was basically a city-wide scavenger hunt fueled by clues to the bunker's location that
were gradually leaked on Twitter.
While the clues led to the location of the grand prize, the location was revealed only
after participants stepped on the correct sequence of pressure-sensitive tiles.
The winner did indeed get herself a legit one year supply of Cheez-Its.
While she can't take a load off in the actual bunker now that's she's won, she did get some
of the other non-cracker stuff in it, like a beanbag chair, TV, headphones, and gift
cards.
Bravo to Cheez-Its for keeping their promos creative.
Isn't it true that snack foods get even more delicious after they've been hanging out it
in a cool hidden bunker?
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