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 might be.” It took me a beat to comprehend that he wasn’t speaking about, like, a fun-filled day in a crumb-strewn kitchen requiring a radical sweeping. As a substitute, he was suggesting that most pretzels style roughly 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 variety of textures, flavors, and ranges of salt and alkalinity? To reach at a solution, the SE crew pulled collectively seven manufacturers of good, old style snacky pretzels you are prone to discover in your native grocery store, and methodically, empirically, scientifically! tasted its approach by means of all of them in a quest to establish the easiest.

There was a transparent winner! There was a transparent—nicely, 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 would mindlessly eat with no 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. We could? 

Ed. Notice: We wished to strive Herr’s and Uncle Jerry’s pretzels to no avail. I’m begging you, as soon as once more, to know that we do not need a West Coast correspondent (or an excited editorial assistant) to assist us procure these items!! However we do really love the suggestions. Preserve it coming!! Xx.

The Contenders

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

The Standards

A great pretzel is a factor of subtlety and refinement. It’s salty, for certain, however it’s also evenly 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, the truth is, higher than one which’s merely salty and candy.) That stated, salty and malty ought to by no means turn into “salty and toasty,” which rapidly devolves into, “Oh god, was there a hearth on the pretzel manufacturing unit??”

The salt ought to be current as small crystals atop the pretzel in an excellent distribution, nevertheless it also needs to 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 you understand 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; it is this alkaline floor therapy that’s answerable for a pretzel’s signature roasty, toast, weirdly pleasantly soapy taste. (Science time: The sturdy 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.)

Measurement additionally factored into folks’s preferences in that something that took greater than two bites to totally eat ended up on the backside of those rankings. This might be as a result of most tasters choose a smaller pretzel’s greater 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 chunk that does not wade into the crunchy-tough zone. Or possibly of us similar to popping handfuls of their mouths suddenly with out discomfort, as a result of is not that what snacking is all about? 

In the long run, 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’ total sturdiness. It was a bit candy! Just a little 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 a very good 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 high 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 concerning the texture of some pretzels made them appear extra dry to our tasting panel than others in a approach that wasn’t perceived as completely nice. It is a good second to remind readers that every taster goes by means 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 delicate 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 means 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 a number of.

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 at all times, respectfully!!—abundantly clear. It was additionally right here that I observed that malt falls off ingredient lists (solely the Snack Manufacturing unit pretzels ranked beneath picks it again up once more), a robust indicator that maltiness is a vital element of an amazing pretzel, and merchandise that lack it are much less prone to please. The butter aftertaste right here was good, nevertheless it was additionally distinctly synthetic. The alkalinity was satisfying, however solely when you’d had three or 4 pretzels. The salt was there, nevertheless it wasn’t sufficient or heartily textured. The yeast was—nicely, honestly, one among our testers stated these tasted alcoholic. Not…a nasty factor? Simply one thing virtually actually 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 need from my pretzels.” The dryness did enable for a stage 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 unit Pretzel Chips, 2.79/5

I did throw this little curveball into the style check considering I’d find yourself in 5 completely different fights about what qualifies as a pretzel (and don’t fear—I did!), however what folks struggled with right here was the sweetness. Each particular person recognized an instantaneous “honey-like” style upon first chunk, 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 chunk she was apprehensive “a nook would jut into the roof of my mouth??”

Brad’s Natural Mini Pretzels, 2.33/5

We love and recognize 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 assessments are carried out with manufacturers fully 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 anyone 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 with a view to give us probably the most neutral illustration of precise outcomes attainable.