The Best | Gardetto’s Roasted Garlic Rye Chips

It’s funny how your tastes can change.

I remember when my mom and I used to share bags of Gardetto’s Original Recipe Snack Mix. Billed as having “The irresistible big, bold taste,” we quickly crunched our way through the pretzels and several of the other differently shaped munchies — until only the dark brown rye chips were left. (No, we weren’t “saving the best for last.” We just didn’t like ‘em.)

Somewhere along the line of working my way through many, many bags, my taste buds changed, and I began to search out those little brown discs. The rye chips actually became my favorite ingredient of the snack mix.

Imagine how delighted I was when I noticed the good folks of General Mills were offering bags of just the rye chips! The 8-ounce “Gardetto’s Special Request Roasted Garlic Rye Chips” won’t make it on the healthful foods list, but I do find all that tasty, salty crunching to be a bit of a stress reliever. We can thank Italian immigrants Baptiste and Diane Gardetto for that, as they created the snack mix in their Milwaukee, Wisconsin bakery, which opened in 1932.

I found Gardetto’s Special Request at my local Walmart grocery store for $2.19 a bag.

Now, if I can just work that taste change thing on Lima beans …

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Lisa Griffin lives in Louisville and is a communications and marketing consultant, children’s book author and illustrator.