M&S Chocolate Covered Pretzels

Hmmn… the chocolate coating on these pretzels is slightly sweeter than I expected, and the pretzel taste disappointingly fugitive. Really not enough crunch and definitely not enough salt.

If I were given the chance, I think I would adjust the sweet/salt ratio. Quite tasty, but I don’t think I would buy another packet.

The Chef liked his pretzels better than I did. He likes milk chocolate. But he agrees that there really isn’t enough saltiness.

Extremely handsome lime green and shocking pink packaging though. Very nice.

Migros Party Jungle Pretzels Gesalzen

Here we have a selection of salty, slightly pretzely-tasting jungle animals from the Migros supermarket in Sierra, in Switzerland. They come in a tall narrow packet. And this crispy snack is everything we have been waiting for. 

You know you wanted salty pretzel-tasting lion shapes, didn’t you? Lions and elephants and tortoises and hippos and monkeys, and er, koalas. Maybe you hadn’t thought about it before now, but guess what? Now you know there is a hippo-shaped crispy snack out there, do you fancy trying it? Of course you do*.

I have no idea who decided on these animals. Someone in Switzerland I imagine. To be honest, if it were up to me I would have gone with the full African theme and chosen something else instead of the koala. Goodness knows, Africa is full of wonderful wildlife. Why not a crocodile, or a rhino? Maybe a giraffe or an okapi, perhaps an aardvark? Aardvarks are super cute. Or a kudu? A shoebill stork? Like I said, Africa has lots of wonderful wildlife. Or, you know, what about branching out and having one in the shape of the African continent?

Anyway, never mind the choice of shapes, this is a tasty selection of little biscuit bites, slightly tasting of pretzels but mostly of salt, and very moreish. It’s quite hard to stop snacking when you’re not sure which animal will come out of the packet next. And if the shape is a bit broken, well, they taste just as good.

I only let the Chef eat a few but he definitely approved.

I’m thinking of an Australian Outback selection of pretzels. Koalas, obviously. Kangaroos, wombats, platypus, echidna, and perhaps a numbat (numbats are great), or a saltwater crocodile. There we go, a whole nother product. The Jungle Pretzels could be rebranded as African Savannah Pretzels. But I am getting picky. I have probably watched too many BBC wildlife shows. (NB Australia would be a great shape for a snack. I know because I have an Australia shaped cookie cutter. It makes a good scone. So does the wombat shape.)

Recommended for people who like pretzels or salt or crispy snacks.

*possibly only available in Switzerland, or maybe France if you are lucky.

Here’s a numbat. You can see I found him on Instagram.

Tesco Tree-Shaped Sweet & Salty Pretzels

I rather like a pretzel now and then. I’d rather have a small pretzel than a large, and I thought it might be fun to try a tree-shaped pretzel for a change.

I hoped this would be a packet of half regular salty tasting pretzels and half pretzels encrusted with sugar. But you know how it is when you’re in a busy shop; you don’t always have the time to read the label properly. What I actually got is a bag full of golden and crunchy tree-shaped pretzels all of them covered in a sweet salty seasoning. What a disappointment. Because you don’t get the contrast.

Yes the pretzels are crunchy, and yes they’re golden, but there’s an awful lot of sweetness going on and not nearly enough saltiness. I expect my doctor would applaud that: less salt is better for my blood pressure (the second number apparently).

The Chef agrees. Pretzels are supposed to be salty he opined (sorry), and there isn’t nearly enough saltiness. Also, the impact of this tree-shaped crispy snack is only impactful if they are actually tree-shaped. And all too many are broken and thus shaped like broken things.

Isn’t it odd how things come along in clusters. The Reluctant Taste Testers haven’t tried anything from the Tesco crispy snack aisle for simply ages and here we have three of them, all at once, and maybe more to come. Like London buses.

Sorry Tesco. I think this is a wasted opportunity.

Tesco Salted Caramel Party Mix

Hmm…. I thought this Party Mix from Tesco might be worth a try, and it kind of was, but, er, it is a bit of an odd mixture. Tasty, definitely tasty, but a lot of the bits are broken which is a shame. It’s hard to appreciate a small pretzel if it’s broken into 6 pieces. And the mix is a lot more sweet than it is savoury. I think I would prefer it the other way around.

According to the back of the packet we have maple flavour caramel peanuts with white chocolate with caramel buttons (complicated), milk chocolate buttons, salted caramel toffee popcorn, salted wheat pretzel knots and decorated milk chocolate coated cereal crisps. OK then. Are the shiny pink balls the “decorated milk chocolate coated cereal crisps” do you think? I’m not sure. It really is hard to tell.

All the elements are tasty, but everything is just a bit too sweet. More like what you might serve at a child’s birthday party, not so much to snack on with a glass of wine. Definitely wouldn’t go with a beer.

Yes it’s sweet. No it’s not very salty.

Dr Oetke Ancel Bretzels d’Alsace Mini

When I was about 5 or 6 we lived in Germany and used to drive to Bielefeld in North Rhine-Westfalia fairly often, and every time we saw the Dr Oetke factory. At the time I had no idea that Bielefeld was the headquarters of this giant baking, pudding and frozen pizza company. I also had no idea that there is a seriously strange conspiracy (dating from 1994, so long after we moved away) that claims Bielefeld does not exist. It seems the conspiracy stems from the fact that nobody ever goes to Bielefeld, or knows anyone who has been there. Well... I have been there and the 300,000 people who live there must be a bit baffled by the whole thing. It’s a bit odd.

The Chef and I found this little packet of French pretzels in Carrefour outside Reims. We weren’t at all sure about buying a Dr Oetke product but decided to give it the benefit of the doubt. 

Twistez vous apéros avec ancel! says the packet. These mini pretzels have a good initial taste; well, you can’t go wrong with salt, and a good crunch, but an odd metallic aftertaste and indeed middle taste too. This product is made in Alsace, using French wheat, “cleverly sprinkled with salt” (although I don’t really know what’s so clever about that) and apparently has “an authentic taste”. These last two facts according to my-french-grocery.com. And “this irresistible crispness makes happiness of all” well you can’t say better than that can you?

But not as tasty as the pretzels we’ve tried from the Co-op recently.

KP Snacks Penn State Pretzels Sour Cream & Chive

I wandered in to speak to Tech taste tester while he was eating his lunch and found he was feasting, all on his own, on a packet of sour cream & chive mini pretzels.

I don't usually buy pretzel-style crispy snacks.... although I don't really know why not. And in this case what a mistake. Because this is a lovely tasty snack; lots of sour cream & chive flavour dust chucked over a pile of crispy little pretzels. 

I only had the one, because this was part of Tech taste tester's lunch, but I was quite impressed.

My only real issue is that all the flavour dust gets eaten first however hard you try, and then there's nothing but a small biscuitty twirl or shards of same; depending how hard you've crunched.

A fine crunch at lunch and perhaps something to try again in the New Year (which as I write has not yet arrived).

I see the reluctant taste testers and I tried the Original Sea Salt version of this crispy snack back in January 2016. I also see we quite enjoyed it.

Roland Bretzeli

This is a tasty little pretzel snack from Roland of Switzerland. And tasty they are.

The Chef brought them home for one of his committees (they get the chance to snack on all sorts of Swiss goodies) so I also had the opportunity to try them.

Lovely light pretzel taste and a good crunch. What more do you need? Plus I chanced to discover that they work very well with a sour cream and chive dip which happened to be sitting in the fridge.

Yup. Tasty.

KP Snacks Penn State Pretzels Original Sea Salted

Tasty little pretzel knots strewn with sea salt. Nothing fancy, nothing exciting, just tasty little pretzels.

The Senior taste tester doesn't approve much of pretzels (and of course they do not qualify as a crisp) but the other taste testers managed to eat a couple of bowlsful without any difficulty. Could it be something to do with leftover dip from yesterday? Or could it be that these little pretzels are pretty good?

The interesting thing about these pretzels is that they are marketed as Classic American Snacks. Which they aren't. Dear me, no. These pretzels come from Ashby-de-la-Zouche in Leicestershire not Penn State at all.

Fewer food miles to be concerned about anyway.

M&S Sour Cream & Chive Pretzels

This pretzel snack is one of M&S's Great American Snack range. I was fairly sure that pretzels originated in Germany or somewhere but, hey, who knows. I guess the Americans have made it their own.

So these little pretzels are about the size of the first joint on your thumb. Which is a nice little size for a crispy snack.

And they have a fair amount of tasty flavour dust. You do have to lick it off your fingers. Which is no bad thing.

I quite liked this flavour. The reluctant taste testers quite liked it too. A nice combination of gentle sour cream and not too chivy. The Chef wasn't so keen. But it's quite a moreish snack  and I think most of us ate more than we expected.

Not bad.

As ever I ponder over the list of ingredients and wonder why you need dried creme fraȋche, dried yoghourt, dried whey and dried soured cream to create a good sour cream flavour. But the crispy snack department at M&S seem to have done a pretty good job.

Nice. I don't know why I never tried them before.