When I wrote about my love for Cheetos Sweetos last month a reader of the blog from Kansas City reached out to me and told me to slow down and back up because I didn’t know a damn thing until I had Clancy’s Cinnamon Churros.  Okay…she didn’t really say it like that, but she said they were better, and a seasonal release from local grocery chain Aldi, and that if I really loved cinnamon sugar treats I needed to try them.  Out of the kindness of her heart she waited for them to pop back up on shelves and sent a bag all the way to the bay area so I could try the heralded regional brand, so today, I try and put to the test, Clancy’s Cinnamon Churros.

Out of the bag these Cinnamon Churros look almost identical to the warm twisty braided bundles of yum from Taco Bell.  They have a huge, sharp, and defined cinnamon smell that more closely resembles sniffing a bottle of ground cinnamon than a bag of chips.  Biting in the crunch is serious.  They’re hard yet airy with a delightful flavor that, much like the smell, is more cinnamon-forward than sweet or salty.  The crunch is addictively fun, and the spice-level is spot on for someone like me that loves cinnamon.

Unlike Sweetos, there’s no underlining butteriness and not a single sign of greasiness either.  The churros themselves are dry, but not in a bad way, more in a way that registers they were perfectly fried and dried so you get all the well-executed crunch factor without any leftover oil or undesirable texture.

The only thing I don’t like about these Churros is the fake sugar aftertaste when I finish a mouthful of cinny-delight.  I didn’t notice it immediately, but after a second handful I had a distinct Splenda zing on my tongue that was surprising and took away from the great spicy flavor.  Looking at the ingredients I wasn’t surprised at all to see sucralose listed right after cinnamon, and I find the use of the sweetener kind of puzzling.  While it does keep the sugar content low, at 3 grams per serving, these aren’t marketed as a diet food so why sacrifice the taste to shed a couple grams of sugar?  I eat plenty of products with sucralose in them, mostly protein bars and yogurt, but if I’m having a sweet and salty cinnamon snack I would prefer they just stick to their real sugar guns and give me the full cal goods.

As far as cinnamon-factor goes, these ARE better than Cheetos Sweetos, but I’ve gotta be honest, they’re pretty different.  While these pack a huge crunch and authentic spice flavor, the Cheetos bring a softer butterier flavor that I enjoy just as much.  The saddest part in all of this for cinna-sluts like myself is that BOTH of these products are seasonal and will always be hard to come across.

Rating: 8/10
Found at: Aldi Supermarkets