Cricket Bites: 5-Pack of Assorted Flavored Edible Insects (Made in Portland, Oregon) by Cricket Flours

I've watched a TED talk or two, had a co-worker that said he's invested in a startup company making snack bars with cricket flour and googled several videos on eating insects. Finally, I decided to jump in and try it. It worked, and this company's product seemed the most sane buying option after window shopping my Amazon options. I like it. It'll never be a main course, but it is a valuable addition to 15 bean soup and my fried chicken salads I buy at work. If you think your nutritional profile is missing a little something something that you just quite can't get a handle on, this may be it. As a standard Westerner (dietary-wise), it took a little to get past the cultural programming. At first I thought I'd wasted my money. I'm not going to lie, there was a period of "OMG! That doesn't taste exactly like what I'm accustomed to after 51 years of eating! Foreign! Gross! This is something a 5y.o. kid would eat that doesn't know any better, what am I doing?!" But the objective side of me afterwards was more: but it didn't *actually* taste bad. Earthy/nutty are commonly used descriptors, and I agree. Crickets don't taste like chicken, crickets taste like crickets, and it's a rich flavor all on its own. There's no direct analogue, at least if you're a standard Westerner like me that's never eaten bugs in your life. It might taste like other bugs, for all I know at this time. My turning point was at work, I'd taken the bag in to talk to friends about it, and told them it was a waste of money. I'd poured a palm-full out, ate one and finally said no! After eating maybe 10 total before then. And I threw the palm-full in the trash with the intent to also throw the 1/2lb bag out as an experiment that failed. But a corner of my mind thought "you just threw away something valuable". Not money-wise, but valuable. And that was a turning point. I gradually have become a real fan. I think they add a good type of variety to your diet that is lacking in Western society purely due to cultural programming. They do not taste bad at all, it is truly in your head - at least for me it was. They actually do make a tasty addition to other dishes, that is most likely a healthy addition, too.

Purchased these to eat on my YT channel with the kids. I was kind of upset by the small packages, but we got over it pretty quick once we started eating them. Once you get past the texture, they make for a decent little snack. Spicy Cayenne - Not much flavor...Pretty bland, but gave a nice burn in the aftertaste. Buffalo Wing - Pretty good! Kind of sweet, but tasted decent overall. My youngest loved this flavor. Original - Tasted like a saltine cracker. Not bad. One of the best of the bunch. Bacon - My personal favorite. It tasted exactly like the charred bits that come off a piece of well-cooked bacon. Absolutely delicious! Cheesy Ranch - More like foot. Tasted like a dirty sock smells after a hard day of hiking. This flavor should be abandoned. This flavor should be banished. This is not a flavor meant for human consumption. Animals will avoid this. Flies won't even bother investigating. As a last resort in a survival situation, I would rather not survive than eat cheesy ranch. It was that bad. Haha Price - Please...Come on...Really?

Since around 2 billion people (around 30% of the world's population) eat insects as part of their traditional diet says the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization I figured I'd give mealworms a try. I have since gone onward and also have tried grasshoppers, crickets, locust, bamboo worms, silk worms, scorpions, sago worms and Ants. Since Insects contain more than twice as much protein per 100g as meat and fish they are a valuable protein source. Getting past mental blocks ingrained by propaganda is the difficult part. But I have managed that hurdle and enjoy crickets and grasshoppers especially. I also now have several 'insect' cookbooks too.

I know they're insects, and I want to like insects in food as they are healthy alternatives to red or even lean meats, but this is just bland. Decent novelty I guess, but if you are looking for a 'gateway bug' that doesn't turn you off in its blandness, try buffalo worms or buffalo worm powder (much more protein than mealworms and a light and nice flavor compared to crickets), or waxworms (sweet and are good for cookies, though they are fatty). You could use buffalo worms in more foods since the flavor is lighter but still high in protein, but they are not as easy to find as crickets or mealworms. You even could breed them if you could provide high heat and regular kitchen scraps, turn your leftovers into high protein meal?, sign me up. If you're adventurous, you could try black soldier fly larva or even cockroaches; they surprisingly taste about as decent as crickets when farmed and not hunted from your trash bin.

These pouches are quite small. Still, each provided about one small snack. The bugs initially taste like roasted pumpkin seeds, but they leave an astringent or dusty sort of aftertaste. It may be useful to know that they don’t have most of their appendages. So eating them is a bit like eating seeds.

I ordered these as a "let's try this out" kind of thing, having never eaten meal worms before. I find it particularly annoying when people get all "eww bugs gross", as if slicing open a living pig, bleeding it out, and carving up its body like a serial killer is so much more appealing... so I figured I'd go ahead and try the worms. I actually like them, particularly the original roasted flavor (delicious), which was a pleasant surprise considering they are actually better for you than livestock meat. I will definitely be ordering more.