By Gwynedd Stuart |
Rice cakes—even the best rice cakes—get a bad rap. Do they resemble styrofoam in look and texture? Well, yeah. But they’re also lower-fat, lower-cal vessels for flavorings (compared to potato chips) and excellent vessels for toppings. Kind of like gigantic crackers—or regular-size crackers if you’ve opted for mini rice cakes.
Over the course of two separate taste tests, we gathered a bunch of popular brands of rice cakes and mini rice cakes in all different flavor profiles to find the best rice cake flavors, yes, but also the best rice cakes you can buy in terms of freshness, texture, and crunch. Is this a Quaker-heavy list? Yes. Several of the store brands we tried seemed almost stale and other brands lacked flavor and crunch. That white-haired dude in the jaunty hat may be known for oats, but he’s killing the rice cake game, too. Hell yeah, Quaker King. Here are the nine best rice cakes we tried.
- Sprouts Organic Dark Chocolate Coated Brown Rice Cakes
You know when you go on vacation and you stop in the little local chocolate shop and they sell pretty much everything dunked in chocolate—pretzels, potato chips, orange rinds, old boots? That’s what these chocolate-dunked rice cakes from Sprouts remind me of, in a very good way. These are only half dipped, so the chocolate-to-rice cake ratio is perfect, and they’re wonderfully crunchy, so you feel like you’re eating a candy bar even though you’re not—you’re eating a dang rice cake! The dark chocolate coating really tastes good—silky and high quality. This is the best rice cake to reach for after you eat a big, savory meal and feel like you’re absolutely going to burst, but you still need a little something sweet to balance things out. You know the vibes.
Credit: Liv Averett / Instacart
- Simple Truth Organic Himalayan Salted Caramel Mini Rice Cakes
A lot of sweet rice cakes are coated in a sort of sugary glaze, but these mini rice cakes from Simple Truth Organic (a proprietary brand sold at Kroger grocery stores) are instead coated in a sweet-salty powder, and it really works. They’re perfectly sweet and salty and have amazing depth of flavor—they’re buttery like caramel with just the right amount of salinity to mix things up a little bit. If you happen to shop at a store that carries Simple Truth, try these! If you like sweet rice cakes, salted caramel is definitely one of the best rice cake flavors.
Credit: Liv Averett / Instacart
- Quaker Dill Pickle Mini Rice Crisps
These Quaker mini rice cakes are my new obsession. If you like dill pickle potato chips but don’t like how greasy they can be, I think these will be your new obsession, too. They’re successful because they don’t just taste like dill—you get the briny, vinegary flavor of pickles, too, all with the pleasant, light crunch of Quaker mini rice cakes. I love these things! They may not be the best rice cakes on our list (we went with something a little more versatile), but they’re some of the best tasting rice cakes you’ll find.
Credit: Liv Averett / Instacart
- Quaker Sour Cream & Onion Rice Crisps
In our second best rice cakes taste test, we tried a bunch of mini rice cakes and I gotta say, you kind of can’t go wrong with Quaker mini rice cakes. They come in a lot of flavors and most of them are very good (see #3 for the best of them all), but this is definitely the best rice cake flavor for people who are trying to kick their sour cream and onion potato chip habit. This is a lower cal potato chip compromise that doesn’t feel like a compromise in terms of big sour cream and onion flavor. The powdered coating tastes creamy and tangy and wonderfully savory. I called these “sublime” in my notes, and I think that’s high praise for mini rice cakes.
Credit: Liv Averett / Instacart
- Quaker Chocolate Rice Cakes
Okay, pardon me if this blurb turns into a cry for help, but ever since I did Weight Watchers about a year ago, one of my absolute favorite stoned snacks has been a Quaker Chocolate rice cake topped with a fat swirl of fat-free whipped cream from the can. All of a sudden, there’s no fat-free whipped cream at the grocery store. I’ve been checking for months! Is this just a Southern California thing? If you have evidence of the existence fat-free canned whipped cream, please let me know in the comments! Anyway, in the absence of my favorite topping, these sweet, cocoa-forward Quaker rice cakes are the best rice cakes to eat with peanut butter and banana slices. If chocolate rice cakes still sound lame to you, take into account that they actually have little chocolatey chips nestled in their nooks—I swear these Quaker rice cakes are more fun than they sound.
Credit: Liv Averett /Walmart
- Lundberg Organic Rice Cake Minis Ginger Seaweed
Besides Quaker, Lundberg is the other big brand of rice cakes around these parts, and while we didn’t love their full-size rice cakes (they just feel way less fresh than Quaker), their minis are nice and fresh and crispy. And this Ginger Seaweed flavor is just so much more interesting than so many other best rice cake flavors. My colleague Justine Sterling called it a roller coaster of flavor—you get umami and salt up front from the seaweed, but on the finish, they have this wonderful brightness from the ginger-flavored powdered seasoning. You get notes of garlic in there, too. These might not be for everyone (particularly the seaweed averse), but they’re the best rice cakes if you want something that’s different from pretty much everything else in the rice cake aisle.
Credit: Liv Averett / Lundberg
- Quaker Sweet & Spicy Chili Rice Crisps
When it comes to Quaker mini rice cakes, the Sweet & Spicy Chili flavor is just so damn good. I’ll admit that they aren’t terribly spicy in terms of heat, but that just means you can eat more of them more quickly. The flavor powder includes sugar, dried soy sauce, vinegar solids, onion and garlic powders, among other things—there’s a little something to tickle every taste bud on your tongue. They’re umami. They’re salty. They’re sweet. They’re the best rice cakes to eat straight. Whoever cooked up this flavor deserves a raise. Mr. Quaker, give this person a raise, you cheapskate!
Credit: Liv Averett / Ralphs
- Quaker Caramel Rice Cakes
I’m generally a savory snack guy, so sweet rice cakes are a pretty new genre for me. If you’ve been similarly trepidatious about branching out and treating a rice cake like dessert, seriously, give these a shot. The cooked sugar flavor of the caramel goes nicely with the roasty flavor of puffed rice. The packaging showed these Quaker rice cakes topped with cream cheese, peaches, and honey, which seems neat, but I think these are the best rice cakes for topping with vanilla ice cream and diced apples. They’re flavored enough to eat on their own, too.
Credit: Liv Averett / Instacart
- Quaker Everything Rice Cakes
Everything seasoning has made its way from the bagel realm to the snack world in a big way. And you think you know what to expect from Everything snacks, right? A sprinkle of poppy and sesame seeds, sizable chunks of dehydrated garlic, big crystals of kosher salt. Well, you’re in for a surprise with these Quaker rice cakes, which remain the best rice cakes we taste tested. Instead of a coarse Everything topping, these cakes are positively coated in a tan flavoring powder that has all the elements of Everything seasoning, but ground up real good so it really infiltrates all the crannies in the cake. It’s super garlicky, savory, and delicious. I actually said “holy moly” when I took a bite of one of these. There are lots of great rice cakes on this list and plenty of good ones we left off, too (seriously, most Quaker rice cakes are very good), but these get major points for versatility and for promising lots of flavors and delivering. Nice work, Quaker man!
Credit: Liv Averett / Target
Best Dipped
Rating:
8/10
Sporks
Best Sweet Minis
Rating:
8/10
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Best Tangy
Rating:
8.5/10
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Best Chip Dupe
Rating:
8.5/10
Sporks
Best with Peanut Butter
Rating:
9/10
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Best Unique
Rating:
9/10
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Best Overall Flavor
Rating:
9.5/10
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Best Sweet
Rating:
9.5/10
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Best of the Best
Rating:
10/10
Sporks
Other products we tried: O Organics Slightly Salted Rice Cakes, Quaker Lightly Salted Rice Cakes, Suzie’s Thin Puffed Cakes, Quaker Salt-Free Rice Cakes, Lundberg Lightly Salted Organic Rice Cakes, O Organics Unsalted Rice Cakes, Lundberg Honey Nut, Lundberg Salted Caramel, Lundberg White Cheddar Minis, Quaker Cheddar Rice Crisps, Quaker Buttermilk Ranch Rice Crisps, Simple Truth Organic Mini Rice Cakes Blueberry, Quaker Tomato & Basil Rice Cakes
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About the Author
Gwynedd Stuart
Gwynedd Stuart, Sporked’s managing editor, is an L.A.-based writer and editor who spends way, way too much time at the grocery store. She’s never met an Old El Paso taco or mozzarella stick she didn’t like.
