REVIEW: Sara Lee Original Cheesecake Bites

Cheesecake is one of those special desserts that one would only buy to celebrate an important occasion or because they’re at a Cheesecake Factory. I don’t know of anyone who eats cheesecake on a regular basis, and why would anyone? Despite how delicious they are, cheesecake is also packed with calories and saturated fat, so much so that it makes ice cream blush. Just one slice can makes someone feel like they’ve eaten an entire meal. But it seems Sara Lee (who I just found out is not Asian) wants people to eat more cheesecake with her Sara Lee Original Cheesecake Bites.

Each container has 40 ready-to-eat pieces, which means after you eat the first one, you have 39 opportunities to stop eating it. Where you stop depends on your body’s will power. Forty pieces may sound like it’s a lot, but when you see those 40 pieces in its container, it doesn’t look like very much and it’s quite easy to eat half of them, which would be bad, because I imagine death by cheesecake is not how anyone would like to go. Each square bite, which measures at three-fourths of an inch wide and a half of an inch tall, has 20 calories. Through the power of addition, you can get an idea of when to stop. If you were to eat only five of them, you would have consumed 100 calories. If you eat ten of them, that’s 200 calories. If you eat 20 of them in one sitting, you do not care about your body.

Unfortunately, the folks at Sara Lee don’t know how to add. According to the nutrition facts on the back of the packaging, a serving size of 24 bites has 440 calories. I don’t know if they forgot to carry over a number, put a decimal point in the wrong place or had a blindfolded monkey poke at a calculator, but according to my calculations, which I double and triple checked without a blindfold, if one bite has 20 calories, then 24 bites should have 480 calories.

The cheesecake itself tastes like 24 bites should have 480 calories because it’s somewhat rich, although not overly rich. It also had a slight tangy flavor like some cheesecakes do, but the crust was hardly noticeable. Besides the nutritional content, another item that bothered me was the formation of ice crystals on the bites after I first opened, which can be a bad thing with frozen foods because it’s a sign of possible freezer burn. Fortunately, it didn’t taste like there was any freezer burn.

Overall, it wasn’t the best cheesecake I’ve had and that’s what I expected. But it’s not bad for something that’s frozen, cut up into pieces and served in a tub container.  If Sara Lee is trying to push for more cheesecake consumption, I think she might be able to do so with the Sara Lee Original Cheesecake Bites, if people don’t mind mediocre cheesecake.

(Nutrition Facts – 24 cheesecake bites – 440 calories, 27 grams of fat, 14 grams of saturated fat, 0.5 grams of trans fat, 90 milligrams of cholesterol, 340 milligrams of sodium, 43 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of fiber, 25 grams of sugar and 7 grams of protein.)

Item: Sara Lee Original Cheesecake Bites
Price: $5.99
Size: 40 bites
Purchased at: 7-Eleven
Rating: 6 out of 10
Pros: Decent tangy flavor. Not bad for something that’s frozen, cut up into pieces and served in a tub container. Bites make it easier to portion control, unless you have no control.
Cons: Mediocre cheesecake. Crust was hardly noticeable. 40 bites doesn’t look like much. Sara Lee doesn’t know how to add. Ice crystals. Nutrition facts appear to be inaccurate. Just as decadent as regular cheesecake. Sara Lee is not Asian.

26 thoughts to “REVIEW: Sara Lee Original Cheesecake Bites”

  1. Lol ya you should contact Sara Lee and tell them about the mess up in the nutrition content. It’s probably easier to eat the whole container of these since they don’t look like much. Ice crystals on cheese cake sucks! Not cool at all!

  2. I am so glad that I am not a huge cheesecake fan. If I am going to have cheesecake I need the best

  3. “…But it seems Sara Lee (who I just found out is not Asian)” – Hahha.

    I agree with Yum Yucky… Ice crystals + cheesecake = NOT! Apparently math is not friendly to Mrs. Lee.

    I also don’t like when my bites are portioned for me….how do they know my bite size, huh? It’s more often than not to big and when it’s too small I feel like less of a man. Is there an errant forumla they use for that too? A/T * C = B (where A=Average mouth size, T = Total calories, C = Calorie per bite, B = Bite Size?)

  4. Oh….one last thing….you bring up a good point…cheesecake SHOULD be eaten more regularly, I love me some cake o’ cheese…wait that’s different.

  5. Good thing these weren’t rated higher because I can see myself getting addicted. Then you might see me on A&E’s Intervention. Haven’t had cheesecake in a long time.

  6. These things are highly addictive. They don’t look like much (ice crystals and all) but they taste remarkably good considering they come chopped up in a cardboard container.

  7. They don’t even have a fruit topping? Very disapointing.
    I like Sara Lee’s pound cake better…

  8. angry bob once knew an Asian hooker named Sara Li. Probably a little old (or possibly dead) for you Marvo, but angry bob can try to look her up if you’d like.

  9. They’re generally $4.99 (or less on sale) at Safeway and SuperFresh around Baltimore. And yes, there is a strawberry cheesecake variety; I’ve never actually tried the plain ones.

  10. @wouldibuyitagain – At Sam’s club the Cheesecake Factory has some of the cheesecakes there. I try to resist all cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory due to how huge the portions are and hate sharing my food

  11. @Erin Brooks: I’m sure they’re allowed to do it. I’m sure there’s some FDA rule that says they can. Just like companies can say 10% calcium means they can say on the packaging “Good Source of Calcium”

    @Yum Yucky: I shall tempt you 1001 times. Oh, these cheesecake bites are soooo good, but not really. I know you want some. Yummy!

    amanda: But sometimes we have to settle for stuff that’s not the best because of money or because we’re drunk.

    @Bear Silber: I don’t mind it. It just means less work for me to do. No more cutting or using a knife, which in my hands is dangerous.

    @Ryan: I think you’d be fine because you run a fast food blog, but hardly eat fast food. I don’t know how you’re able to do that. 🙂

    @nuttyturnip: I must have good will power because I’ve been nursing the same container for the past week. I’m down to the last three bites.

    @lex: There’s a strawberry flavored one, but I don’t think it’s a topping.

    @brad: They should’ve made it have a crust coating. Mmm…crust.

    @wouldibuyitagain: I bought it at a convenience store, so that price is slightly higher than grocery stores. I just saw it at Safeway for $4.99.

    @angry bob: Was she related to Chun Li?

    @Chuck: I definitely would prefer ice cream bites and cheesecake bites over vampire bites.

    @grinder: Yes, you’re right. I guess it’s like pizza, sex and Japanese game shows.

  12. You’d think it would make more sense to make the serving size 20 pieces, since there are 40 in the package!

  13. I got these a long time ago, at half price, and with a coupon, that got me under two dollars. The strawberry cheesecake of course. The original I didn’t like much. They also had them in caramel and cookies’n’cremes.

    I believe a lot of the numbers are rounded so people can keep track of their calories, so I wouldn’t be surprised that the numbers are inaccurate. Considering that, each piece would be 18 and a third calories.

  14. too sweet, too tangy, too thick, and cost way too much.
    ummm I believe i will buy 4 packages of them

    THAT IS ALL

  15. @slurm: I agree about the serving size being 20 pieces. It makes a lot more sense.

    @Long: Ugh…why didn’t I have a coupon? I needz coupon cutting skillz.

    @Alisha: It might’ve been better, but I am proof that some Asian do suck at math. 6 x 9 = I dunno.

    @amanda: Cookies and cream does sound tantalizing. I might be able to eat that whole container in one sitting, but not the original flavor.

    @Neil the hammer: Don’t forget to use coupons. It seems like everyone else who bought these did.

  16. I don’t think the nutritional info is messed up. 440 / 24 = 18.3 per piece…so they just rounded that up to 20 per piece. Nutritional labels usually use numbers that end in 0 or 5 for the calorie section.

  17. @ohwow: I think that’s a little deceptive. It may not seem like much, but let’s just say that someone really likes these cheesecake bites and eats one container every month. If it’s two rounded up calories per bite then, 80 calories per container per month. Multiply that by 12 and it’s 960 calories per year. I think that’s a lot.

    @Lane O: Do you sell them in stores? 😉

  18. Sara lee products are the worst you can find., Cheese cake? Cool wipp wuth a squees of lemon, dont let them cheat you.

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