I’m ready for the summer of beachside picnics, late night bonfires, and seafood boils covered in Old Bay. But maybe the seasoning should stick to seafood only.
I was grocery shopping for a beach trip and immediately saw one of my favorite snacks, Goldfish. Who doesn’t love the snack that smiles back? I love the different types of Goldfish that are already on my local grocery store shelves. Whenever I see the XTREME Pizza flavored Goldfish, I always buy, and I’m not averse to the s’mores or the cupcake-flavored ones either. This time was different though. When I went to grab my usual XTREME Pizza flavored fish, a different type of Goldfish was in their spot — the limited edition Old Bay Seasoned Goldfish. Naturally I had to try them, and I have some very mixed feelings about them.
First bite & first thoughts
There are many different ways to eat Goldfish: in a snack mix, by itself, or even dipped in ranch (for my ranch girlies), I had to try the snack one-by-one before I ate them in handfuls.
The first bite of the Old Bay Goldfish was pleasant. It wasn’t too much seasoning or texturally different, and the first smell of inside the bag was amazing. I started to eat the Goldfish in handfuls, and after about the second or third handful of these, I realized that maybe this wasn’t a super great idea. The regular Goldfish have that salty cheddar taste. These had more of the celery taste of Old Bay Seasoning with just a light kick of red pepper. That kick was light at first, but the more you ate, the more the taste became too celery-salt-ish.
After a while, I wasn’t a fan of Old Bay Goldfish. They were too much to eat in handfuls like you would with other types of Goldfish and not super tasty. I stopped eating and took a breather just to see if the dryness from the Goldfish was the cause of the overwhelming celery-salt flavor. I like celery salt as a seasoning, but it tasted like I ate a whole jar of it as a snack instead of the crackers. While these might taste like eating seafood off the coast of Maryland for some people, to me it just wasn’t worth the hype.
Final thoughts
If I had to eat these again, I would consider using them as soup crackers or adding to a seafood boil to soak up the seasoning at the bottom of the bag. I wouldn’t eat these as a midnight snack like I do my regular Goldfish. Next time, I’ll stick to my usuals and stick to having Old Bay in summer seafood boils.