Soletti Salzstangerl

Managerial taste tester sloped off to Austria for a spot of skiing and on his way home picked up this little bag of pretzel sticks at the airport.

Long thin sticks (really very fine) strewn with little nuggets of salt, with a lovely light pretzelly crunch, we all rather liked these.

But pretzel sticks can be a little bit dry and we all agreed that this crispy snack might be tastier with a glass of something. Senior taste tester suggested a gin & tonic. Which of course we can't do in the office. And probably shouldn't do first thing in the morning; not even in the privacy of our own homes. Well you can if you like but I'm not recommending that.

So a bowlful did get eaten, possibly Extremely Senior Volunteer taste tester made away with more than a few, but I brought the rest of the packet home to try an experiment. And I can exclusively reveal that these pretzel sticks are pretty tasty when snacked in conjunction with  glass of Pino Grigio.

... immer dabei!! says the packet; always there!!  Seems a slightly weird slogan but there you are.

Roland Sticks

Roland Sticks are a delicious little pretzel style snack from Switzerland. And the Chef has been enjoying them all his life.

A lovely crunch, nodules of salt strewn along the little sticks, and a light pretzel taste.

Each not very large packet contains 200g of sticks. But they are hard baked (nothing but wheat flour, corn starch, salt, malt extract and yeast) and so presumably that makes them a lot heavier than your average crispy snack.

We tried the Waitrose version, which is much longer, last year.

Very tasty on their own. Extra tasty with a blob of butter. Yum! And the Chef even eats them with butter and marmite.

Recommended.

Waitrose Crunchy & Savoury Sea Salt Pretzel Sticks

Waitrose pretzel sticks come in a beautiful sea green bag that subtly changes from light to dark (or vice versa) as you move from right to left (or vice versa). Looking at the front I didn't even realise; ah, but then I looked at the back and it's obvious.

There's not very much to say about pretzel sticks. You get a stick. It's crunchy. With a light pretzel taste. And there are little chunks of sea salt. Not very tasty - you can't say that because the taste is light and not too strong - but pleasant and moreish.

The reluctant taste testers made away with most of the 100g packet without really noticing. You can get from the main body of the office into the filing room or the meeting room by walking along the passage, or you can duck through the kitchen. And I think a fair amount of grazing goes on as everyone takes the kitchen route. It doesn't save any time: it just goes past the handy bowl of crispy snacks.

Slightly weirdly someone thought these were Twiglets. Which they're definitely not because Twiglets have a much stronger and completely different taste. And look quite different too.

Not a bad crispy snack. Probably very good with dips, and possibly excellent with a little dab of butter!