Mr. Pretzels now has Pistachio sauce [@NLi10]

We were in town to go see the new minions movie and my partner left me unsupervised by the pretzels.  The Auntie Anne shop has been gone for years, but Mr Pretzels is just the right size to possibly be one of the longest running shops in the Birmingham Bullring now.

And now they have Pistachio sauce.  Yes - I have a jar of the stuff at home, but this is a nice treat.

They have a multitude of more meal-like pretzels and toppings, but the bites are easier to share even if it's a couple of pounds more expensive at £6.50

 

And while it looks like a horrible sticky mess...

And I guess it is a bit much, but as they all stick together then you can just pull bites off and eat them while watching.

While they are still hot when you get them it's a bit harder to eat, but very tasty.  The pretzels are always decent quality here, and the sauce is luxury enough that it almost cools into a sold so is easy to get off your hands again.

Nestle Yorkie Salted Caramel Pretzel Duo (Londis) By @SpectreUK

I used to eat Yorkies all the time when I was a kid. However, I don’t eat chocolate so much these days, so I do lean towards my favourite brand of dairy milk chocolate. Cinabar saw this Yorkie Salted Caramel Pretzel Duo in the local petrol station shop, and picked it up for me.

I have been writing on this blog for nearly twenty years. I am keen on trying new snack ideas, it would be weird if I didn’t. I do like pretzels, I like the crunchy snacks, as well as the bread version. I do like salted caramel in milk chocolate bars. Mixed together they could be genius or a bit of a stretch.

On unwrapping the Yorkie Salted Caramel Pretzel Duo, there was a luscious aroma of caramel, and also a little pretzel. On taste there was a decent milk chocolate flavour, with a crunchiness from the pretzel, a little caramel and saltiness into the aftertaste. I think it was an acquired taste. You might like it though. I got distracted with picking bits of pretzel from between my teeth.

Information on the wrapper; The 66g Duo contains 171 per bar, with 9.2g of fat, and sugar 17.9g. Please see photograph for the ingredients.

Reese’s Dipped Pretzels (Morrisons Daily) By @Cinabar

Friday snack duty kicked off early today. The plan is a film later and probably some games, so I was on the lookout for something easy and snackable. I only made it as far as Morrisons Daily, but that was enough to spot something new: Reese’s Dipped Pretzels.

This is a sharing bag, though I’m not convinced it will survive long enough to be properly shared. Inside are small pretzels coated in a peanut butter layer and finished with milk chocolate stripes. They actually look really neat, almost too good for a random corner shop find. First impressions after trying one: very good crunch. The pretzel has that proper snap to it, which works really well against the softer coating. Flavour-wise, it is heavily peanut butter led, as you would expect, but the saltiness of the pretzel comes through nicely and stops it being too sweet. The chocolate adds an extra bit of balance rather than taking over.

The main issue here is how easy they are to keep eating. I only meant to try one and somehow the bag is already open properly. They are definitely moreish, which is a polite way of saying they are disappearing faster than planned.

Safe to say, if these are meant for sharing, someone is going to have to be quick.

Cinnamon Bun Flipz (Ocado) By @Cinabar

I love the combination of sweet and salty snacks, so Flipz pretzels have always been a favourite of mine. When I spotted this Cinnamon Bun variety online, I knew I had to give them a try, cinnamon is my favourite spice, after all!

These are small, crunchy pretzel knots coated in a cinnamon-flavoured icing. The icing has a beige tint, giving them a tempting, bakery-style look. The flavour is absolutely gorgeous. The sweet, sugary cinnamon hits first, and then the salt from the pretzel cuts through, balancing everything perfectly.

They’re dangerously moreish. I kept reaching for just one more until I had to force myself to put the bag away. The mix of sweet icing, warm cinnamon spice, and that salty pretzel crunch is utterly addictive. If you have a sweet tooth like me, these are definitely worth picking up!

Hershey’s Cookies and Cream Dipped Pretzels (Local Shop) By @Cinabar

I wandered into an independent corner shop that I don’t normally visit, and to be honest, it paid off for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I picked up four cans of Bank’s Mild, Spectre’s favourite beer. It has been impossible to find recently, and Spectre was super excited to see it again. Expect a blog post shortly. Secondly, I got to browse some interesting import products, and amongst the goodies, I found these Hershey’s Cookies and Cream Dipped Pretzels.

These are imported from America and are a combination of cookies and cream chocolate, and pretzels. I poured some of the contents out of the bag, and inside were dark and white-coated pretzels and quite a lot of crumbs too. They taste fabulous, sweet, creamy, and with lots of chocolate flavours. The biscuit taste was nice too, as was the salt from the pretzels. They had a great crunch and were very moreish to munch on. I’m so glad I found these Hershey’s Cookies and Cream Dipped Pretzels, and it just shows that sometimes it is definitely worth taking a look in some of the smaller local independent shops and supporting the local community. 

 

Baked In: Soft Pretzel Baking Kit (Ocado) By @Cinabar

I really like pretzels and as I have been baking a lot more recently I couldn’t resist this kit when I spotted it on Ocado. I have use the Baked In kits before and was pleased with the results of a rainbow cake, so I was interested to see how the pretzel one worked.

I opened up the box and found several bags, all numbered. There were step by step instructions on the packets and I worked my way through the stages. The recipe was quite simple, melt the butter with the milk not letting it get too hot, add it to the flour, yeast and salt to make a dough. The main bit of time is that you then leave the dough to prove until it doubles in size which takes between 60-90 minutes.

After that we split the dough into equal pieces, roll it into a rope and then form a pretzel. These are dunked in a bath of sodium bicarbonate and boiling water before being topped with salt and baked. I know pretzels should be fairly dark in colour and the recipe states to bake them for 10-15 minutes. I had a look and decided to pop them back in for a bit longer as I wanted a bit more colour in my pretzels. I was really pleased with how they looked.

Taste wise they were delicious, an absolutely authentic taste, with a lovely touch of salt all over them. Spectre is hooked on my Focaccia bread and when I said I was going to bake these pretzels he muttered something and I could tell he wanted Focaccia. Having tried them he thoroughly enjoyed them and asked me to make sure we do them again. That is better (and more difficult to achieve) than a Paul Hollywood handshake. A total thumbs up for this Baked In: Soft Pretzel Baking Kit.

Gingerbread Pretzel Flipz (Asda) By @Cinabar

I do really enjoy Flipz as I like the mix of sweet and salty pretzel underneath. These are the small crunchy American style pretzels, not to be confused with the large fluffy ones from Europe. There are quite a few different flavours of Flipz available, both in the UK and from import shops, but here we have a wonderful new seasonal variety; Gingerbread Pretzel Flipz.

Inside he bag are dark cream coloured pretzels with an icing drizzle. I gave one a try an was super impressed by the flavour. The icing is a sweet gingerbread taste, not too spicy and with an almost treacle like taste. It was a decent recreation of gingerbread. The salt catches from the crunchy pretzel and it totally lights up the gingerbread taste, it was like a sprinkling of magic. Sweet and savoury. As each taste is different depending on the amount of salt underneath it, it makes them really interesting and really moreish to eat. These are probably my favourite edition of Flipz pretzels to date and definitely a flavour I’ll be stocking up on. That large bag of Gingerbread Pretzel Flipz did not last long.

Rice Krispie Squares - Salted Caramel Pretzel (Ocado) By @cinabar

There are some new flavours of Rice Krispie Squares out and they have gone all American. Actually I think they may have always been American, but the UK version now has American themed flavours. First up we have these Rice Krispie Squares Salted Caramel Pretzel edition, which sounded fun. I love a mix of sweet and salty.

I opened up the packet and was quite surprised by the look of these Squares, they are really covered in pretzel bits, even to the extreme where it was hard to recognise the marshmallow bar underneath. There is a lot of topping an dI wasn’t complaining. I gave the bar a try and the texture was out this world. I found the usually soft and crispy Rick Krispies in the sticky mallow but the topping added extra crunch and a nice hint of savoury too. It really worked and I enjoyed the Salted Caramel Pretzel treat with a cup of coffee. I’m just hoping the other American flavour (Cookies and Cream) is half as good to be honest. This is quite a leap from their usual limited editions (we’ve all seen the things this year where all they do is add a bit of orange), this it is a total success.

Flipz Cookies & Cream (Co-Op) By @Cinabar

Somebody recently said to me that Flipz Pretzels were one of the greatest imports to the UK from the USA. I think they might me made here now but the idea started with finding products like these in import shops and they have taken off, so much so I found this new variety of Flipz Cookies & Cream in my Co-Op.

Flipz are savoury salty crunchy pretzels covered in a sweet coating in this case it is a Cookies & Cream icing. I opened up the bag and poured some out to try and was a little surprised that colour of the pretzels was a little grey and not that appetising. They had a nice pattern from the stripes but the underlying colour was still greyish. I gave one a try though and the flavour was lovely and far made up for the colour. The cookie and cream icing was lovely, creamy, sweet and butterscotch like, when combined with the salty pretzel it gave off the most wonderful sweet and salty vibe. I love that mix of sweet and savoury. It reminded me of salted caramel too, so very tasty. I stopped caring about the colour of the Flipz Cookies & Cream and started focusing on the flavour, they are so good to munch on and well worth picking up.

Tesco - Chocolate orange Pretzels (sweet & crunchy!) by @NLi10

 It is generic festive period again!  Here at FoodStuffFinds towers it's a great time as the shops are frequently full off odd things that I can try.  Here are three now!

Today we will just have a look at the one - the Chocolate Orange Pretzels from Tesco (as were all of these if you are stocking your table).

Ordinarily these would be for guests - but you can't have those at the moment so we are eating them while watching festive movies (technically Kingdom Of Heaven counts right?)

Look at this - 200g of salt and chocolate!

They are officially described as ' Chocolate Orange flavour wheat and potato Pretzel stars, trees & bells'

This is accurate - they are essentially dusty pretzels - but my goodness they are special.  Admittedly I'd add a tiny dash of cinnamon to the mix for true festive goodness, but I know some dislike that flavour so I'm happy to add a dash myself.

So - as they stand - very family friendly and perfect for nibbles.

Indie Bay Dark Choc Pretzels - Oven Baked Spelt Bites (@NLi10)

The Ocado man has been - which means lots of fun new things to criticise.  The first of which are these Indie Bay Dark Choc Pretzels - Oven Baked Spelt Bites.  I did't really read much about these - I just saw Dark, Pretzel and special offer and said yes.

Not only are they not pretzel shaped (this is a crime) but they are made with spelt instead!  This is one of the older grains that doesn't have some of the negative connotations that wheat has these days - but they added a little wheat too so don't go thinking these are gluten-free!

They are veggie/vegan friendly which is nice, and they don't really have that many calories in them - although all the really healthy things seem to aim for sub-100 calories per portion.

That's fine though - you are going to have to share these.

They actually look like the pack shots too which is nice.  They are big.  They are most definitely a slightly lighter pretzel and I'm really happy with them.  They have a good level of salt, the chocolate is very high quality and the crunchy bits are good too.  Good job I got two packs so I can see if they go with beer.  I finished the first one while writing this up.

While I'm not sure this is an instant re-buy there are certain to be other flavours and styles in the range and I could totally justify getting a couple of packs of white/milk to review.  Hopefully these will show up on the counters of a couple of my in-town shops so i can pick them up for wandering about snacks.

Just the right kind of luxury snack for me, and something I can see being very popular.

Flipz Salted Caramel (Ocado) By @SpectreUK

Cinabar has changed office location on Fridays to another town fairly nearby. She found a place a stone's throw away that sells freshly baked salted pretzels and generally has one for breakfast. I've never been all that fussed about pretzels. I know some people rave about them, but personally I prefer crisps. However I have had a few flavours of broken pieces of pretzels that were pretty good though.

As you can see from the photograph these Flipz are small bite sized salted pretzels with a salted caramel flavoured coating. It's funny because this morning I was lying in the sauna thinking that I should probably cut down on my salt intake, as I've been having a little too much lately. A few years back I spent a day in a spa going from saunas to steam rooms until my hands swelled up uncomfortably. Cinabar found out from the internet that this was because I'd been having too much salt in my diet. My hands did start to ache a little in the sauna this morning. Oh well, I'll start my salt diet tomorrow… Damn, I've got boiled eggs for lunch… Okay, Wednesday, definitely, Wednesday!

On opening the sharing bag there was a syrupy sweet smell from the multitude of small pretzels inside. Each pretzel was coated in a solid caramel sauce. The pretzels weren't sticky to pick up and the coating didn't melt on my fingers. There was a good crunch to these Flipz. On taste the salted caramel coating almost oozed over my tastebuds as I crunched through each pretzel. There was the sweetness from the caramel to start with, then its saltiness, then an almost biscuity flavour from the pretzel and also its added saltiness. These Flipz Salted Caramel are sweet and salty, moreish to the extreme and almost impossible to share. I can see myself eating these on a regular basis in front of a good movie or on a games night.

Information of the bag;
The 90g bag contains 108 calories per 22g serving, with 4.7g of fat, 8.6g of sugar and 0.2g of salt. Please see photograph for the ingredients.

Snyder’s of Hanover Jalapeño Pretzel Pieces (Germany) By @SpectreUK

I could see my breath this morning as I took the rubbish to the bins outside after feeding the local birds. It's that time of year when we're starting to look for food that warms us up a bit. These Snyder's of Hanover Jalapeño Pretzel Pieces seem to fit the bill. Not only that, but they meet my usual criteria of trying to find alternative snacks to nuts and crisps.

I received these "flavoured sourdough hard pretzels" with a bottle of beer and some peppered steak sauce for a birthday present a while ago. The sauce has been enjoyed with a few steaks and other meals, and the beer drank, and now for the Snyder's of Hanover Jalapeño Pretzel Pieces. Besides I've always been a big fan of jalapeños. I like them on meaty sandwiches to give them a bit of a kick, and also meaty pizzas, and flavouring other foodstuffs. So I'm pretty confident that I shouldn't go too wrong with flavoured pretzel pieces!

On opening the packet there was a nose hair tickling smell of jalapeños. It cleared my sinuses and I almost sneezed. I immediately started to worry that this was one of those snacks that would be too hot for me to eat and enjoy. They are rare, but it has happened. There was also a bit of a whiff of garlic, so don't expect a kiss after eating these alone.

There were a few green flecks on the bright orange coloured pretzels pieces. On first taste, these pretzel pieces are pretty spicy. They are very tasty too. However, they made me wish I hadn't spent so long in the sauna and steam room at the gym earlier. Or at least had a longer cold shower. Snyder's of Hanover Jalapeño Pretzel Pieces are very moreish, even if they are a little steep on the calories. They made me sweat a bit too. Though at least they warmed me up a bit more than I thought they would!

Information on the packet;
The 56g packet contains 264 calories, 10.4g of fat, 2g of sugar, and 1.8g of salt. Please see photograph for the ingredients.

Flipz Unicornz Pretz Pinkz Sparklz Nomz (@NLi10)

When we were little we'd pick up sweets and treats in the supermarket - rush them to our mother and she'd say no because they were silly indulgences.  Dejectedly we'd dump them on the row end by the tills.  And there they would presumably be put back by the assistants, or so I thought.  As an adult who has no reason to go down those bits, I spotted this dumped with the batteries at the end of an aisle and snapped it up.  A new flavour of Flipz based around unicornz? Sweet! 

Look at these colourz, can you imagine the joy on the childz face when they spot this and take it to their bill payer. 

The bag even tells you that they are MAGICAL which is great.  I mean the kidz will probably be disappointed with the salty goodness of the Flipz but for me these are amazing.

As usual the helicopter view looks a little disappointing because of packing space, but the smell is amazing even if the colourz are not quite as vivid as the art.

But here it is in all it's glory, a bit battered from going backwards and forwards to work in the bag, but still recognisable and whole!

How do they taste?

Like white covered pretzels and magic and a little hint of fudge on top!  I could have eaten the whole bag but I needed to share these at games tonight so I resisted.  They totally should make sharing size bagz of these for partiez.

And now they need to do Blue(berry) ones based around Narwalz. plz.

Indie BaySpelt Pretzel Bites Smokin' BBQ (@DegustaboxUK) By @SpectreUK

Indie BaySpelt Pretzel Bites Smokin' BBQ

Always on the lookout for alternatives to nuts and crisps, these Spelt Pretzel Bites Smokin' BBQ from Indie Bay seemed to fit the bill. There was a lot of information on the little packet. For instance these spelt and wheat pretzel bites are an all natural source of fibre and protein, being GMO (genetically modified) free, they have no trans fats (so good for your heart) and are vegan friendly. Vegans are pretty strict, I'm slowly learning, so it should mean that definitely no animals were even slightly put out of sorts during the production of these pretzel bites!

On opening these Spelt Pretzel Bites Smokin' BBQ had a pretty smoky sweet barbecue smell to them. As you can see from the photograph, they were spherical balls around one centimetre in diameter. The bag was a good shape for tipping as many pretzel balls into my mouth as possible, so these would be good for a gaming snack between death-matches or Battle Royale or races or whatever you may like to play. They do taste of a smoky salty sweet barbecue sauce to start with, until you bite in and then they taste of pretzels, with a touch of onion, garlic and paprika in the aftertaste. They can be a little dry whilst eating, so I would recommend some sort of beverage be close at hand, or alternatively one of those beer hats if you have one! I just filled my beer mug with a dark ruby ale to wash them down with. They went very well together!

Information on the packet:
The 26g bag contains 99 calories, with 1.2g of fat, 1.2g of sugar, and 0.6g of salt. Please see photograph for ingredients.

Snyder's Honey Mustard & Onion Pretzel Pieces (Waitrose) [By @SpectreUK]

Snyder’s of Hanover, in North Caroline in the USA, was established in 1909 and specialise in baking Pretzels. These Pretzel Pieces are Honey Mustard and Onion flavour. The front of the packet states “Bursting with flavour!” with the word “flavour” spelt in English rather than the missing “u” in American, which I very much appreciated on noticing the packet in our local supermarket. There was a sweet honey smell on opening the packet followed by a slight sting in my nostrils from the mustard; this aroma was enveloped by a keen whiff of onions. The packet was full of broken pieces of baked Pretzel, which was what I was expecting, as I’d expect the packet would have been much larger otherwise! The pieces were a little like the broken biscuits you get from some manufacturers. You know the reject biscuits that weren’t perfect enough to add to premium packets, but taste just as good, cost slightly less and why waste food? Here it looked like someone had gone mad with a hammer in a Snyder’s shop. On first taste the sweet honey flavour hit my tastebuds like a beehive hit by a freight train, followed by a mild zing from the mustard coupled with the all-enveloping onion flavour. I found these Honey Mustard and Onion flavoured Pretzel Pieces an innovative break (excuse the pun) from the broken biscuits idea. They were a very tasty treat indeed and certainly moreish enough, as I polished off the whole packet in no time.
Information on the packet;
125g packet has 615 calories, with 29.9g of fat, 11.3g of sugar and 2.8g of salt. See photograph for ingredients.

Flipz Birthday Cake Covered Pretzels (@GobstoppersUK) [By @Cinabar]

We went for a shopping trip in Birmingham and spotted in the new Grand Central centre a new import shop called Gob Stoppers, it was stacked with interesting candy and goodies. We couldn't resist exploring and thought we'd pick up some chocolate coated pretzels. I love the combination of chocolat and salty pretzel but they aren’t easy to find in the UK sadly. More shops stock them at Christmas, but this time of year they disappear again.
When we saw that Gob Stoppers stocked Flipz Pretzels in birthday cake flavour coating, my head almost exploded in excitement. Remember chocolate pretzels are exotic here in the UK market, so consider my mind blown. :-D

Once home we opened them to give them a try, and they looked pretty too. The pretzels are covered in a white coating speckled with colour, rather like cupcake sprinkles. The sprinkles on ours were predominately red and blue.
The flavour worked like magic. They have a strong sweet vanilla taste, just like a proper cupcake frosting. When this combined with the salty crunchy pretzel underneath it created a taste sensation, stand aside sweet and salty popcorn we have a new player in the field. This is one of the nicest sweet and savoury combinations I’ve tried, lush vanilla and salt, who'd have though that would work so well. These Birthday Cake Flipz Pretzels may be hard to track down in the UK but they are worth hunting out. I know I'm going back for another pack!

By Cinabar

New Milk Chocolate Pretzels and Popping Candy Popcorn (M&S) [By @cinabar]

This is another of the products where the title of the item just seems a bit too long. For example;
Spectre says; "I'm just popping into town, do you want anything?"
I reply; "Can you pick me up a packet of Marks and Spencer's Milk Chocolate Pretzels and Popping Candy Popcorn."
"What?"
"Chocolate, just get me chocolate."
Anyway on this occasion I was in the shop so managed to put a bag of Milk Chocolate Pretzels and Popping Candy Popcorn into my basket myself. Once home I opened up the bag and poured out the contents for a closer inspection.

I think the first thing that took me by surprise was the size of the popcorn pieces, they were huge! The chocolate coating on them is thick and the popcorn underneath is large and fluffy. I bit into one and gave it a taste test. The chocolate was good, sweet and creamy, and popcorn added a nice flavour, and a fun combination of textures. The popping from the popcorn was light, and gave a pleasant tingle. It is the size of them, they are brilliant giant popcorn balls with popping fizz perfection.

The pretzels were good too, and coated in the same rich milk chocolate, I love the flavour of the salt from the pretzels with the chocolate, it does add a fab sweet and salty taste mix. The pretzels were lovely and crunchy, and again were fun to eat.
This is definitely a nice mixed bag of goodies, they were perfect to munch on whilst watching a film. I will buy them again, but I think it will be me doing the buying myself!

By Cinabar