Another Super Bowl is coming up. And while the Super Bowl is about football, it’s also about the musicians performing at the Halftime Show, and the great commercials… and of course, all of the great food served at Super Bowl parties. Over 100 million people will be throwing parties to watch the big game. At these parties, hosts will be serving smorgasbords of everybody’s favorite treats. After chips & dip, wings, and pizza, the most popular food is cheese & crackers.
Conventional crackers contain several of the denatured foods which contribute to the Standard American Diet and make people unhealthy. Crackers typically have refined flour along with baker’s yeast, which lacks nutritional value. Spraying glyphosate is common among conventional wheat growers. Many crackers use rancid vegetable oils, such as canola and soybean oil. Additionally, conventional crackers often contain synthetic vitamins, fillers, stabilizers, and GMOs.
In the recent years, we’ve seen companies pop up who offer healthier crackers with better ingredients . The methods of making better crackers vary from sourdough to ancient grains to gluten free to grain free. All of these types of crackers have benefits for different reasons. For my selections, it’s also important that the crackers are organic, free of seed oils, and contain simple and clean ingredients.
In alphabetical order, here are the 12 best organic crackers with basic ingredients:
Cult Crackers
Cult Crackers was founded by professionally trained baker and mother Dianna Dar. After her career in marketing, she returned to the kitchen as she felt at home and creative there. Dianna began baking seeded crackers which she described as “really good and really good for you”. Her friends and family agreed and convinced her others would love them too. Dianna took the crackers to a local cheese shop and her business was born. Cult Crackers uses only wholesome ingredients to make its gluten free crackers where each batch is mixed, baked and packaged by hand. The crackers contain a wide variety of seeds and come in the option of corn flour and cassava flour.
Firehook
In December 1992, the first loaves came out of the oven in Firehook‘s bakery. The founders’ love for baking goes back to their family’s Eastern Mediterranean roots. They wanted to start a neighborhood bakery similar to the village bakers in their hometown. As they had great memories of crackers, they baked them along with their breads and pastries. And they felt the key to the crackers being addictive was using whole and healthy ingredients. The flavors of Firehook crackers are sea salt, za’atar, rosemary sea salt, spicy Mediterranean, garlic thyme, multigrain flax, everything like the bagel, hummus crunch, and sweet potato chive.
Flackers
Dr. Alison Levitt M.D. co-founded the company The Dr. in the Kitchen with the mission to improve her patients’ diets by eating nutrient dense, organic foods. Dr. Alison worked nonstop to concoct a great tasting crackers made only from flax seeds and a few simple organic ingredients. Her product became known as Flackers flax seed crackers. Over 10 years later, co-founder and CEO Donn Kelly continues that mission of creating clean snacks which are good for both our health and our planet. Their gluten free crackers come in three categories: classic flax seed, toasted seed crisps, and flax & fonio. The first two are grain free while the last uses the ancient grain fonio. Fonio is a gluten free grain native to West Africa. The crackers are seasoned with organic herbs and spices to make such flavors as sea salt, rosemary, cinnamon & currants, tomato & basil, garden vegetable, and everything.
Georgia Sourdough
Coming from 25 years in the restaurant industry, Georgia Sourdough founder and baker Tracy Gibbon knows the importance of clean and healthy food. While on a summer trip to the supermarket with her niece, Tracy began looking at the ingredients on snack crackers. She noticed the basic ingredients were surrounded by bizarre and hard to pronounce words. Melissa attempted to explain the problems of conventionally farmed food and GMOs to her sister. Her sister responded that she doesn’t have time to think about every ingredient and just needs to think they’re safe. What Melissa’s sister said opened Tracy eyes. Tracy then set out to create a company serving modern day healthy food which people know is safe. Her snacks use organic ingredients made with the ancient process of sourdough making. Tracy’s crackers are all baked with the sourdough starter she used at the beginning. Georgia Sourdough crackers come in the flavors of sea salt, rosemary olive oil, cheese, everything, and cinnamon sugar.
Hu Kitchen
The story of Hu Kitchen begins with the three founders, Jordan Brown, Jason Karp, and Jessica Karp, all wanting to improve their health. Jordan did extensive reading on health and wellness. Jason had successfully overcome autoimmune disease himself. Jordan left the corporate world to devote himself full time to nutrition and food. The three researched the gut-brain connection, what causes inflammation, and the effects of foods and additives have on our health, immunity, and performance. They concluded processed ingredients needed to be replaced with basic and healthier alternatives. And the food brand of Hu Kitchen was born. Their products range from chocolates to snacks such as grain free cookies and grain free crackers. The crackers use a flour blend of almond, cassava, and coconut and offered in the flavors of sea salt, everything, and pizza.
Jovial
Jovial Foods Inc. was founded by the husband and wife team of Carla and Rodolfo Bertolucci. Both were born into families of talented home cooks. Food played an important role in their childhoods. When they discovered their daughter had gluten sensitivities, they felt it may be due to the changes in wheat and other plants. Looking at food’s past, they learned about nature’s original wheat einkorn. At the time, this ancient grain was nearly extinct. Carla and Rodolfo realized they had to bring it back to help other families. As they were both professionals in the organic food industry, they were able to revive it for the Jovial brand. Jovial sells einkorn flours, pasta, cookies, and crackers. Their einkorn crackers are baked with an organic sourdough and are found in the varieties of sea salt, rosemary, and everything. Jovial also has gluten free and grain free pastas along with jarred tomatoes, beans, and olive oil.
Julian Bakery
Since 1990, Julian Bakery has offered products which are free of gluten, grains, and GMOs. They cater to all styles of eating, including paleo, keto, vegetarian, and vegan. Julian Bakery has a wide range of products, including bread, crackers, cookies, brownies, granola, protein bars, and monk fruit. They have a Paleo Thin cracker salt & pepper cracker made with almond flour and cassava flour and a Primal Thin parmesan cracker made with tapioca flour.
Mary’s Gone Crackers
The story of Mary’s Gone Crackers begins with founder Mary Waldner one day figuring out how to make great tasting snacks out of only whole, plant based ingredients. The love for Mary’s crackers went far beyond her kitchen, so she felt inspired to leave her successful career and follow her passion. She prides her crackers on being minimally processed and containing consciously and sustainably sourced ingredients. She sees it as important to keep both ourselves and our planet healthy. Mary’s Crackers partners with the organizations The California Ricelands Waterbird Foundation, Palm Done Right, SAVE the BEE, and SowNaked. The crackers are a mix of rice flour, quinoa, flax seeds and sesame seeds plus other ingredients depending on the flavor. Mary’s also has super seed cracker using the same mix plus sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, and poppy seeds.
Rustic Bakery
Rustic Bakery founders Carol LeValley and Josh Harris always had a passion for the simple sourdough flatbread crackers they’d bake for their friends. After a 2005 visit to the Cowgirl Creamery Outlet at the San Francisco Ferry Building, they told the Creamery’s owner that their cheese belongs on artisan crackers. With the Cowgirls’ first bite into the flatbread, they were ready to order 50 cases. Carol and Josh then searched for a commercial kitchen in their hometown of Marin county. They learned about a wine bar in Larkspur with an unused bakery in the back. They ended up buying the entire space and used the wine bar to serve coffee and croissants along with their crackers. Then in 2006, Rustic Bakery exhibited at the Winter Fancy Food Show, which was then held in San Francisco. Buyers all across the country took interest in their flatbread. Rustic Bakery now has 4 cafes and 28 products, including artisan crisps and flatbread cookies. They have regular sourdough flatbread crackers and a smaller version known as flatbread bites. Rustic Bakery’s flatbread flavors are olive oil & sel, rosemary & olive oil, sweet onion & creme fraiche, and everything spice.
The Greater Goods Snacking Co.
While shopping in the snack aisle for her children, The Greater Goods Snacking Co. founder Sujatha Duvvuri was upset to see that the selections were either unhealthy or bland. As a mother she felt the need for families to have whole and fun snacks which are also flavorful and tasty. So Sujatha got to work in her kitchen to figure out how to make “greater-for-you” grain free biscotti, cookies, and crackers with organic ingredients. The crackers are a made with almond flour, dried tapioca, arrowroot powder, and psyllium husk and come in the choices of sea salt, caramelized onion, and tangy tomato & basil. Presently Greater Goods supports women around the globe to also be able to provide for their families. Greater Goods is committed to employing women at entry level positions and strengthening the female workforce in India, which is currently only at 19%.
The Sourdough Project
The Sourdough Project begins with founders Jen & Danny El-Azzi being overwhelmed with baking loaves of sourdough bread. So they decided try their hands at other types of sourdough baked goods, including crackers. As the crackers were a hit with everybody from their immediate family to their friends to their co-workers, Jen & Danny began selling them at the farmers market. This led to moving into an organic kitchen and selling in supermarkets. The heirloom wheat for The Sourdough Project is grown organically in Texas and fresh milled for them. Jen & Danny continue to make the cracker by hand so they can pay attention to every detail. Their crackers are available in the flavors for sea salt, dilly, everything, sun dried tomato & herb, beet & thyme, whole wheat, & za’atar.
Top Seedz
New Zealand tennis pro Rebecca Brady always baked crackers to bring to her tournaments. When she and her husband moved to New York, she would offer them as hostess gifts. Soon she found herself selling them at farmers markets. Rebecca was fortunate to have a buyer from Wegman’s taste it there and put it in his stores. Other supermarkets soon followed. Top Seedz crackers consist of a seed mix of sesame, sunflower, flax, and pumpkin plus cornstarch and other seeds depending on the flavors. The flavors are sea salt, 6-seed, rosemary, and cumin. Paying it forward is also important for Rebecca. Her 11 employees are all female refugees from diverse countries such as Burundi, Somalia, Eritrean, Cabinda and Afghanistan.