Swicy is everywhere these days. Sweet plus spicy makes the ultimate flavor hack. Heat tames the sweet, sweet rounds out the spice, and your taste buds ride the flavor rollercoaster.

Now Cheez-It joins the swicy chat with its new limited-time Hot Honey Cheez-It Crackers.

I’ll admit, I felt skeptical for two reasons:

First, Cheez-It cheese is distinct, and I didn’t know if hot honey could hold its own without being overtaken. On my charcuterie boards, hot honey usually pairs well with mellow cheeses like Gruyère – not cheddar.

Second, outside of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos or Takis, I rarely trust a snack’s “heat” claims. Spice levels usually disappoint.

Still, I stan Cheez-It. So of course I copped.

First impression: no real smell. Like most Cheez-It boxes, opening the liner just hits your nose with… cardboard. For a second, my brain swore it caught Italian seasoning (probably because I stared at those specks of seasoning), but nope – just cardboard.

Digging in, the crackers looked inconsistent. Some carried a heavy dusting, others barely any. The cracker itself also looked lighter, which made me wonder if this was a white cheddar base – or maybe lighter meant “honey” and darker meant “heat.” The plot thickened.

Then I popped one in my mouth. Skepticism: shattered. These deliver.

Sweetness lands first, heat follows, and it all layers over that familiar Cheez-It cheese that wedges itself in your molars (it’s glorious, don’t come at me). The balance works, and together they hit eat-a-whole-box-in-a-sitting level of snackable.

Using white cheddar as the base? Boss move. The person who made that call knew precisely what they were doing. The heat doesn’t reach Flamin’ Hot Cheetos or Takis territory, but it’s real and builds into a warm, satisfying kick.

It doesn’t matter if the cracker looks lightly seasoned, pale, or the usual Cheez-It orange. If every piece carried maximum seasoning, the flavor might overwhelm, but the mix keeps you reaching back. This limited time flavor smashes.

Final verdict: Run, don’t walk! Hot Honey Cheez-It earns a spot, at least a trial run, in your snack rotation.

Purchased Price: $3.77
Size: 12.4 oz
Purchased at: Walmart
Rating: 9 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (27 crackers – 30g) 150 calories, 7 grams of fat, 1.5 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 210 milligrams of sodium, 20 grams of carbohydrates, less than 1 gram of fiber, 1 gram of sugar, and 2 grams of protein.

If I was exploring a seaside cave in Northern California, or maybe Oregon, and came across a magic genie lamp, and a genie came out and granted me three wishes, one of those wishes would be for Keebler to bring back Pizzeria Pizza Chips. (Any of the flavors would do, frankly.) Once that was solved, I’d turn my attention toward world peace and ending global hunger and that sort of stuff.

But the Pizzarias would be first.

I love pizza-flavored things. Though it is distinctly its own flavor — and mostly only shares its name with its namesake — there’s something uniquely wonderful about the combination of garlic, onion, and tomato powders, plus the oregano and strange fake mozzarella extracts that make up the taste. To borrow a tired cliche, I would eat a pizza-flavored shoe if you gave me one.

So it was with great joy that I saw the new Cheez-It’s Snap’d Extra Crunchy Margherita Pizza crackers on our “to-review” list.

First, a few housekeeping notes. 1) I have never had Cheez-It Snap’ds. 2) Or is it just a Cheez-It Snap’d? 3) If I’m attributing ownership, is it Cheez-It Snap’d’s _____? 4) Why did they do this pesky apostrophe? 5) Anyway, my original point was that I’ve never had this particular type of Cheez-It, so I don’t know how much crunchier the “extra crunchy” version is as opposed to the “standard crunch” kind. These were pretty damn crunchy, though, so if you have an aversion to crunch as a texture or perhaps as a noise, these will be problematic. While I don’t like hearing other people crunch, I’m totally cool with doing it myself, so I enjoyed this aspect.

The other thing I enjoyed, probably quite obviously, is the pizza taste. While I didn’t necessarily denote nuances of “Margherita pizza” — you know, the whole fresh mozzarella and basil thing — these had a very distinct pizza flavoring. But it was a pretty generic pizza taste. (Which, again, I enjoy. Immensely.) I wish the pizza powder was upped by about 10%, though. I think that would have elevated the score by a point or so. As it is, the flavor is fairly mild.

And so, really, that’s the tale of the Snap’d Extra Crunchy Margherita Pizza crackers. If you like crunchy things with a mild pizza taste and don’t mind unnecessarily weird apostrophes, you’ll probably enjoy these.

Purchased Price: $3.98
Size: 7.5 oz
Purchased at: Hy-Vee
Rating: 7 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (30 g) 140 calories, 6 grams of fat, 1 gram of saturated fat, 0 gram of trans fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 260 milligrams of sodium, 20 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of fiber, less than 1 gram of sugar, 0 grams of added sugar, and 2 grams of protein.