A couple of months ago, I was strolling through my local Shop-Rite grocery when something caught my eye. A product called "Drinkin' Ballz," to be specific. I think I chuckled a bit, and then after seeing exactly what it was, I decided to buy it. More precisely, I got the bacon cheeseburger and pickle flavor of Drinkin' Ballz, a cheese ball snack from Sweet G's Bakery.
I've often complained about official company websites which are lacking in certain information, and I'm going to do it again now. Sweet G'as Bakery has one of the least detailed sites I've ever encountered, at least as it pertains to the company's history, and founder(s). About all I could learn from it was what the company makes. It sells a variety of hard pretzels, some snack mixes, some cookies, some wedding favors, and a few "skinny syrups." Also, obviously, several different kinds of cheese balls, or "drinkin' ballz," utilizing ranch, cheddar cheese, taco flavoring, and even Chicago ghost flavor. (I was hoping that this last one had the taste of spirits who had died in the Windy City, but the reality was less interesting. It just contained ghost peppers.) Moving on, Sweet G's is located in Pine Grove, Pennsylvania And that's about it. I don't even know when it started, or even who "Sweet G" is, other than it's presumably someone who has a name that starts with that letter.
Therefore, I'll switch to a brief history of cheese balls. Cheese balls, also known as cheese puffs, or cheese curls, date back to the 1930's. There are two main origin stories. First, a man named Edward Wilson reportedly noticed strings of puffed corn oozing out from a machine that made animal feed at the Flakall Corporation in Beloit, Wisconsin. After some experimentation, in 1939 Clarence L. Schwebke applied for a patent for Korn Kurls. In 1946 the Adams Corporation began marketing the Kurls as a snack. Adams was founded by one of the founders of Flakall. Later, Adams was bought out by Beatrice Foods. The second tale comes from the state of Louisiana. The Elmer Candy Corporation started making a type of cheese balls in 1936, which were given the brand name CheeWees. Morel M. Elmer applied for and owned the trademark. Unfortunately, when the company was sold in 1963 Elmer lost the rights to CheeWees. However, the Elmer family reacquired the brand in 1993. Whichever invention is correct, or even if both are, this snack is made by adding cheese, or at least cheese powder to puffed corn. Some companies make the results into a round ball shape, and other craft them to look like short, fat, cylinders. There are many popular versions sold around the world. In the U.S. the top brands are Cheetos (made by Frito-Lay) and Cheez Doodles (Wise Foods). Japan has Curl. India makes Kurkure. A South African kind goes by the name NikNaks. Australia makes Twisties, and the U.K. has Wotsits.
Sweet G's Bakery, Drinkin' Ballz, bacon cheeseburger and pickle flavor: These balls were round, clearly, and had a diameter of about .75 inches (or about 1.5 cm.). They were orange, with greenish black flecks on them. The taste was nice. I could detect a pickle-y flavor, as well as notes of cheeseburger. Crunchy and dry texture. Overall they were a good example of the style. And I would recommend them to those that like cheese curls/puffs/balls. Like typical cheese balls, they were a little messy to eat--my fingertips were orange afterwards. And these Sweet G's ones were rather expensive--I forget the exact price, but I think they were easily double or triple the cost of Cheez Doodles or Cheetos. I'd be willing to try other flavors. However, I haven't seen them at Shop-Rite again, so maybe they only had them on a short trial basis.
Finally, I did a little checking on the word "balls" itself, as to when it became a slang term for "testicles." Reportedly it has been so in the English language since at least the 14th century. Its use in literature is more recent. In 1903 William Ernest Henley used it in this way while describing author Robert Louis Stevenson. And in the (in)famous erotica novel "Lady Chatterley's Lover," (1928), writer D.H. Lawrence also used "balls" in this context. Some folks might claim that the good people at Sweet G's Bakery aren't referencing an obvious double entendre with their cheese snack names. Call me overly cynical if you want, but I don't buy that for a second. And yet I also support it. Who says that branding always has to be in good taste?
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