Tea Time with Brandy: Farmer's Pantry

For Brandy, the height of culinary experiences is the perfect balance of sweet and savory. "It's one of the many reasons brunch is my favorite meal," she says, "Where else can one experience the joy of chicken and waffles? Or bacon and pancakes? There is no finer treat for the tongue than a symphony of sugar and salt."

As one can imagine, when it comes to snack time, Brandy often has trouble choosing between sweet and savory options for this very reason. Luckily, she recently came across some ingenious snacks from Farmer's Pantry. Their twin lines of Cornbread Crisps and Meal Snacks really intrigued her, as they proclaimed to have the same flavor as homemade cornbread and fresh grilled vegetables and meat, but in convenient bite sized pieces.

Made from fresh corn and other whole grains grown on American farms, Farmer’s Pantry Cornbread crisps are delicately sliced and toasted to crispy perfection. The crisps come in three delightful flavors; Original, Jalapeno and Honey-Butter. Though the Honey Butter sounded like it was going to Brandy's favorite, she actually favored the original for it's pure corny flavor. The Honey Butter did have it's charm, though, with a the same sweet and authentic cornbread taste, touched off with the slightest hint of buttery goodness, while the Jalapeno flavor had just enough heat to make things interesting. All three flavors had the same neat crisp, the same cornmeal texture, and the same perfect amount of sweetness and saltiness.

Firmly on the savory side of things was the Farmer's Pantry Meal Snacks: a snack that combined meat jerky and freeze dried veggies in an ingeniously designed pouch. Each Farmer's Pantry Meal Snack is like a complete hearty meal, slow-roasted into a crunchy snack. Before all the goodness has a chance to escape, it's immediately seal in the dual-pouch package until one tears it open. Brandy found that the Grilled Chicken and Vegetable variety really packed a punch of powerful savory flavor, with the slightly spicy jerky pairing well with the slightly sweet veggies. The pieces of corn were Brandy's favorite to munch on, as they were a little more substantial, but there was no beating the flavorful of a handful of everything together.

Farmer’s Pantry Cornbread Crisps are approximately $3.99 for 6 oz bags, and under $2.00 for 2 oz bags. Farmer’s Pantry Meal Snacks have a suggested retail price of $5.99, in a 2.5 oz bags. Both can be purchased on the Farmer's Pantry website or at Costco's in the Chicagoland area.