I was finishing up with work Friday evening and, even though the weather wasn’t really cooperating enough to let me grill out, I realized I was in the mood for some brats. So, on my way home from work, I stopped at the store to pick some up for dinner that night.
I had only a limited amount of money to spend and, as a result of that, I ended up looking for the cheapest pack of bratwurst I could find. This ended up being the Grandpa Rechek’s Maple Bratwurst.
Prior to buying this variety of brats, I gave serious consideration to buying the onion and green pepper brats I have had in the past and loved. I ultimately decided on the maple brats both because they were something different and because they were slightly cheaper in price.
As it turns out, I probably should have stuck with my first choice.
Overall, the brats weren’t terrible. Unlike many other brands of brats, they weren’t full of fat, they didn’t have a tough skin and, of course, they were pretty affordable. However, when it came to taste, these were somewhat of a disappointment.
Basically, it came down to something my wife said about them when she first saw them; the maple flavoring sounds like something you would expect with breakfast sausage and not something that would taste good on a bratwurst. At first, I put her doubts about the brats aside (mostly because I haven’t found a variety from this brand I didn’t like). But, in this particular case, she was right. They just didn’t seem to go together.
I should also mention the maple flavor wasn’t even that strong. The first couple times I bit into my first brat, I couldn’t even taste it. When I got to the middle of the brat, I could taste it a bit more. But, it wasn’t anything that made me enjoy the brat. As I said before, it was something that would have been better on a breakfast sausage instead.
My wife and I did finish up the pack of brats the next day (I had one for lunch and we had the two remaining ones for dinner). But, even after having a couple of them each, we weren’t impressed with this variety. I will still buy the Grandpa Rechek’s brand in the future. But, the next time I see their maple bratwurst, they will be left on the shelf.