We firmly believe that you should always keep a box of crackers in your pantry for entertaining or just snacking purposes. Those crackers don’t need to be fancy, but they do need to be delicious. There are plenty of ways to turn crackers into gourmet snacks, but if the base isn’t appealing on its own, it might behoove you to select a more delectable cracker when perusing the grocery store aisles. We ranked 13 popular cracker brands from worst to best, and we found that Carr’s Original Table Water Crackers were by far the worst of the bunch. For their methodology, our taste tester looked for the plain or baseline versions of each commonly found grocery store brand of crackers, and sampled each cracker individually without any toppings or flavor additions.
Our taste tester found that Carr’s Original Table Water Crackers don’t bring anything to the table, taste-wise, and they are fairly dry and crumbly when eaten on their own. These plain crackers aren’t ideal if you’re seeking a flavorful and enticing cracker, and they lack discernible flavor. Our tester noted that while the crackers might be a good, neutral-tasting base for hors d’oeuvres, to eat them alone is akin to a tragedy. While they may be good for someone recovering from a stomach bug due to their blandness, Carr’s Original Table Water Crackers aren’t a snack we’d recommend if you’re looking for an exciting, enjoyable cracker.
Carr’s Original Table Water Crackers aren’t great on their own
Both the Carr’s brand and this original version of table water crackers date back to Carlisle, England the early 1830s, and they get their unique but flat characteristics from baking in a brick oven. If you’re curious about the somewhat odd name, water crackers originated from the need for food that wasn’t going to spoil or go bad on a lengthy overseas voyage, and were originally made from just water and flour, hence the name. Although they’re now made with flour, palm oil, and salt, there are no flavorings added to make the cracker a more delicious, multidimensional eating experience. But now that we don’t need our snack foods to last months and months, we think you deserve a more satisfying, flavorful snack cracker than Carr’s Original Table Water Crackers.
We don’t want to dismiss the crackers entirely, however, as they do serve an alternative purpose to eating them on their own. There are flavor rules to follow when pairing cheese with crackers, as you don’t want the cracker to outshine the flavor or texture of the cheese. Given the delicate, flat texture and neutral flavor of the Carr’s Original Table Water Crackers, they might just be the perfect crackers to pair with almost any cheese or other more enticing toppings.
