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I can hear the stories in my head already.
“Rember that one Mother’s Day when mom made us eat crickets so Mr. Thames could make a YouTube video?”
But that’s not how it was.
Not at all.
What happened is, Mom (in this case me) was on Twitter one day and was intrigued by a post from a company called Aketta. What is Aketta you ask? Here is a quote from their website:
“Why the name “Aketta?” We don’t eat “cow” or “pig” we eat beef and pork. We want you to associate crickets with the word Aketta in the same way. Our crickets are a sustainable farmed food source, not a pest or something plucked from the wild. We realize that if insects are going to be a consumer product, we need a new vocabulary to normalize the idea.”
Put simply, Aketta is crickets. Crickets you eat.
So, basically, I did what any good mother would do. After thoroughly perusing the website I ordered crickets. To eat.
And since we run a product review site, I asked Greg if he would like to review these (that review is pending…these things take time. I will update when we get it finished).
I personally chose the sample pack that included five different flavors of roasted crickets. The flavors are Spicy Hot, Texas BBQ, Sour Cream and Onion, Sea Salt and Vinegar and Southwest Chili.
I wasn’t entirely sure how my children would respond to the idea of eating crickets. To ease their taste buds and minds we first prepared smoothies using Aketta’s ground protein powder. The kids drained their drinks and asked for more.
I said, “Sure…but first I have a new snack for you to try.”
And out came the crickets.
I explained that the protein powder in the smoothie was made of ground crickets. This fact didn’t bother them at all (which is how I was hoping they would react).
Tucker was game just like I knew he would be. That boy is adventurous. Following his lead, most of the other kids were willing to try eating crickets.
And by the way, I tried these myself when I took the photos of the product.
Spoiler alert, they taste good. Nutty, earthy and delicious!
Kalina refused to try these when it was just me and her taking photos…but went ahead and tried them on Sunday.
Even Apollo tried one. He thought they were “okay” but wasn’t interested in trying more.
My advice for eating crickets the first time? Just don’t look too closely. They taste good.
Hezekiah and Tucker loved these. In fact, I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that they were the only kids who packed crickets in their lunch on Monday. While Tucker looks tentative in this video, it is only because he learned that he liked biting the heads off first. He was doing it slowly and telling me what it was like. As you can see in the background, Hezekiah is loving them!
As I said above, we will be posting a full review on Large Family Reviews in a few weeks. For now, watch our short YouTube video and check out Aketta to learn more!
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How did you spend Mother’s Day? What are your thoughts on eating crickets?
if I ever win a lifetime supply of crickets as food, I will send them your way. We had a “cricket licket” …a sucker with a cricket embedded in it….for a long time and not even my most candy driven child would eat it. I am all for trying new things, but I can’t get past the thought of a crunchy cricket leg stuck between my teeth. Please feel free to enjoy my earthly share! haha
Hey, thanks! lol
I have tried some sort of dried worms, there were okay too :p
Mealworms kind of creep me out, so I would have a problem with that…
Well, ick. Sorry. I remember chocolate-covered ants. I spent my mother’s day with my family . . . love the necklace my husband got me.
Chocolate covered? That sounds good. These were savory.
I ate crickets when I lived in Mexico for the express purpose of horrifying my mother.
Now that is funny. Kalina has eaten live ants on several occassions…but was afraid to eat these at first!
Ewwww
No, YUM! Besides, you don’t like coffee, so you don’t even get a vote! 😉
We saw them being harvested in Uganda. Before that though one of our team was given a live one by one of the locals. He had no idea if it was meant to be eaten or not. He thought if it wasn’t it would look pretty insane if he ate it. If it was he wasn’t super keen to eat a live cricket. So he said he would hang onto it for later. “Later” he released it.
I will forever be sad that when I visited Thailand at age 12, fried grasshoppers were out of season 🙁
Wow, you are a culinary adventurer!
Sometimes…