I got my all time favorite Chicken in a Biskit and my second favorite Vegetable Thins. I don't regularly buy crackers but if I do I usually opt for a box of Chicken in a Biskit so I'm familiar with the evolution through the years of that brand. More like Devolution if you ask me. Their a drier, blander and less exciting version of their former selves. But I hadn't bought Vegetable Thins in many years so I was shocked to see what I got when I opened the box. The shapes were all wrong. They used to be good-sized crackers that you could put a slice of cheddar cheese on. Now they're tiny. They used to have shapes that were like the vegetables they were made with...onion, carrot, bell pepper, tomato. Now they're some funky convex and concave curved rectangles. Like CIAB, they also were dull and dry. What a disappointment.
I tried looking online to see when the recipe had been changed and I didn't see any reference to the crackers of my youth. Oh,oh, was this another Mandela Effect? Luckily no, as after a little more digging I found some references to the old shapes. Remember, the internet has a short memory span and it looks like these new crackers have been around since about 2008 or 2009 it seems.
But what was really weird and I found it almost right away was the fact that during the 60s, when I guess these crackers had first come out, the original Vegetable Thins shapes were the same as the newest ones. So it looks like they went back to their classic version. Yet I know that by the 70s the crackers were redesigned into the vegetable shapes I remembered. That's what made me think of a Mandella Effect.
The picture of the old cracker boxes reminded me of some others I loved as a kid but have been discontinued a long time ago. Bacon Thins. Yes! Why is this no longer a thing? Onion Thins were really good too. Now Celery Thins? Never tried them but I guess it's no wonder they're not around any more. Makes me think of old fashioned glass condiment dishes with sections for celery and olives. Mmmm. NOT!
But you know, it does make me think how good an idea it would be to start up a small baking company that produces crackers in these mid-century, old style flavors. You could have Pickled Egg Thins. Or Head Cheese Thins. Or Pimento Loaf Thins.
Hey, how about cocktail party selections like Extra-Dry Martini Thins or Highball Thins? Why drink and nibble when you can combine the two?
Or maybe to realistically reflect the era you could have Duck and Cover Thins, Dead Not Red Thins or maybe Whites and Colored Thins...or how about Back Alley Abortion Thins. Too much? Did I go too far?