We Style-Examined 7 Grocery store Pretzel Manufacturers—Right here Are Our Favorites

Upon getting back from a current trip and listening to a pretzel style check had taken place in his absence, Daniel pinged me to ask: “Have been the outcomes messy? I’d guess they’d be.” It took me a beat to appreciate that he wasn’t speaking about, like, a fun-filled day in a crumb-strewn kitchen requiring a radical sweeping. As an alternative, he was suggesting that most pretzels style kind of the identical more often than not and due to this fact our style check outcomes shouldn’t be conclusive. 

However are all pretzels created equal? Or are pretzels nuanced snowflakes with a spread of textures, flavors, and ranges of salt and alkalinity? To reach at a solution, the SE crew pulled collectively seven manufacturers of good, old school snacky pretzels you are more likely to discover in your native grocery store, and methodically, empirically, scientifically! tasted its method by way of all of them in a quest to establish the perfect.

There was a transparent winner! There was a transparent—properly, we don’t do “losers.” However there have been ones that had been very clearly not the winner(s)! After which there have been a bunch of very pleasing pretzels proper within the center, ones we might mindlessly eat and not using a second thought if we weren’t very intentionally scrutinizing them in a style check.

Anyway! It was a productive train. Now we will all make knowledgeable pretzel-buying choices collectively. Lets? 

Ed. Word: We needed to attempt Herr’s and Uncle Jerry’s pretzels to no avail. I’m begging you, as soon as once more, to know that we wouldn’t have a West Coast correspondent (or an excited editorial assistant) to assist us procure these items!! However we do actually love the suggestions. Hold it coming!! Xx.

The Contenders

• Bachman Skinny’n Proper Pretzels
• Brad’s Natural Mini Pretzels
• Rold Gold Tiny Twists
• Snack Manufacturing facility Pretzel Chips
• Snyder’s of Hanover Mini Pretzels
• Utz Traditional Thins
• Wegman’s Mini Pretzels

The Standards

A very good pretzel is a factor of subtlety and refinement. It’s salty, for certain, however it is usually frivolously candy—not candy like dessert, however candy in the way in which sandwich bread grows candy the longer you chew it. Usually, the sweetness has a touch of malt to it. (In a sneak-peak of our outcomes, we will now say with confidence {that a} pretzel that’s salty and malty is, in actual fact, higher than one which’s merely salty and candy.) That stated, salty and malty ought to by no means develop into “salty and toasty,” which shortly devolves into, “Oh god, was there a fireplace on the pretzel manufacturing unit??”

The salt must be current as small crystals atop the pretzel in a good distribution, however it must also very distinctly be coming from the pretzel dough. It may be a plus if a pretzel tastes subtly of butter, however by no means a lot that in your coronary heart that butter is synthetic.

And I might be remiss if I did not point out {that a} good pretzel ought to have a deeply burnished brown exterior courtesy of a dip in an alkaline lye bathtub earlier than baking. This isn’t just for seems to be; it is this alkaline floor therapy that’s chargeable for a pretzel’s signature roasty, toast, weirdly pleasantly soapy taste. (Science time: The robust alkaline bathtub speeds the Maillard response throughout baking, which is the response that drives the browning of bread crusts, seared steaks, and roasted greens, resulting in such a well-developed and flavorful exterior regardless of a thin little pretzel’s comparatively quick cooking time.)

Dimension additionally factored into folks’s preferences in that something that took greater than two bites to totally devour ended up on the backside of those rankings. This might be as a result of most tasters choose a smaller pretzel’s increased ratio of alkaline floor space to malty-sweet inside. Or it might be as a result of smaller pretzels are thinner, resulting in a crispier chew that does not wade into the crunchy-tough zone. Or perhaps people similar to popping handfuls of their mouths all of sudden with out discomfort, as a result of is not that what snacking is all about? 

Ultimately, it was a pleasant and salty day. Not our saltiest, for certain, however pleasantly and professionally salty all the identical.

The Rankings

Bachman Skinny’n Proper Pretzels, 4.125/5

Mentions of the phrase “traditional” abounded right here. Did we get as far as to drag a “that is what I consider after I consider what a [pretzel] tastes like” from Genevieve? No, however she did write “Wow!” twice, as soon as in reference to exterior salt ranges and one other praising the pretzels’ general sturdiness. It was just a little candy! Somewhat buttery! A little alkaline! And every pretzel was very simple to eat in 1.5-2 bites.

Rold Gold Tiny Twists, 3.79/5

OK, I wrote too quickly. This is the place Genevieve wrote: “This tastes like lye. It tastes like pretzels!” (She did then ask: “Is that this Snyder’s?” which…extra on that quickly.) Everybody agreed there was an excellent quantity of salt, in addition to a gently buttery, toasty end. The crunch was good, the salt was well-distributed—it was a celebration!

These had been solely knocked from prime seeding as a result of they weren’t not dry. Style check visitor star/Critical Eats product lead Alison wrote: “These have a pleasant glaze, however they take some time to chew. I simply want water to assist issues alongside, that’s all!” (We didn’t go into this check anticipating dryness to be a differentiating issue amongst pretzels—aren’t all snack-bag pretzels equally dry, and is not {that a} good factor?—however one thing in regards to the texture of some pretzels made them appear extra dry to our tasting panel than others in a method that wasn’t perceived as completely nice. It is a good second to remind readers that every taster goes by way of the samples in a randomized order, so the difficulty might be not something so simple as, “all pretzels appear too dry after the primary few bites.”)

Snyder’s of Hanover Mini Pretzels, 3/5

Snyder’s tasted and smelled distinctly bready, as if gentle pretzels had been in our future. They weren’t, and that was unhappy, however the remainder of this pretzel-eating expertise was so good! Allison didn’t want water to push by way of, Kelli appreciated the snap and subsequent chew, and Genevieve once more loved the crunch. That stated, all of us discovered ourselves craving salt after this pattern, which, in a pretzel style check, is assured to knock you down just a few.

Wegman’s Mini Pretzels, 2.97/5

It was right here that the distinction between a nice pretzel second and a satisfactory one turned—as all the time, respectfully!!—abundantly clear. It was additionally right here that I seen that malt falls off ingredient lists (solely the Snack Manufacturing facility pretzels ranked beneath picks it again up once more), a powerful indicator that maltiness is a important element of a terrific pretzel, and merchandise that lack it are much less more likely to please. The butter aftertaste right here was good, however it was additionally distinctly synthetic. The alkalinity was satisfying, however solely when you’d had three or 4 pretzels. The salt was there, however it wasn’t sufficient or heartily textured. The yeast was—properly, in truth, one in every of our testers stated these tasted alcoholic. Not…a foul factor? Simply one thing virtually definitely price noting.

Utz Traditional Thins, 2.88/5

These had been dry sufficient that they had been a problem to chew and swallow, and, as Amanda so fittingly wrote: “I’m simply now realizing that’s not what I would like from my pretzels.” The dryness did enable for a degree of crunch three-fifths of our testers loved, however, to cite Amanda once more, “it was a tragic crunch.” Nonetheless, Allison and Genevieve each talked about the salt crystals had been the right measurement to fulfill their salt cravings.

Snack Manufacturing facility Pretzel Chips, 2.79/5

I did throw this little curveball into the style check pondering I’d find yourself in 5 totally different fights about what qualifies as a pretzel (and don’t fear—I did!), however what folks struggled with right here was the sweetness. Every particular person recognized an instantaneous “honey-like” style upon first chew, in addition to a honeyed aftertaste that lingered. That sweetness overwhelmed nearly any discover of saltiness or alkalinity. One of many tasters additionally stated these had been so sharp upon first chew she was nervous “a nook would jut into the roof of my mouth??”

Brad’s Natural Mini Pretzels, 2.33/5

We love and respect Brad, however we will additionally, in good religion, have questions for him about his plain and disintegrating pretzels! For starters: How! Additionally: Why?

Our Testing Methodology

All style exams are carried out with manufacturers utterly hidden and with out dialogue amongst tasters that might affect outcomes. Tasters style samples in random order. For instance, taster A could style pattern 1 first, whereas taster B will style pattern 6 first. That is to stop palate fatigue from unfairly giving anybody pattern a bonus. Tasters are requested to fill out tasting sheets rating the samples for numerous standards. All knowledge is tabulated and outcomes are calculated with no editorial enter as a way to give us essentially the most neutral illustration of precise outcomes potential.