Review: New Snyder’s of Hanover Salted Caramel Sweet and Salty Pretzel Pieces & FDA to Ban Trans Fats? DON’T CARE
Junk Food Nation, I’ve received a few emails and DMs asking me what my opinion is on the FDA moving to ban trans fats in our food. In case you missed it: “The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday took a first step toward potentially eliminating most trans fat from the food supply, saying it has made a preliminary determination that a major source of trans fats — partially hydrogenated oils — is no longer ‘generally recognized as safe.’…If the preliminary determination is finalized, according to the FDA, then partially hydrogenated oils will become food additives that could not be used in food without approval. Foods with unapproved additives cannot legally be sold.”
Since I’m a junk food eater, the question was how do *I* feel about this? And my honest response is: Sure. Fine. Whatever.
Surprising? Well, hear me out. I’m not one for big government telling me what I can and cannot eat or put into my body. But, truth be told, as a junk food eater, ALL I CARE ABOUT IS FLAVOR. I feel like most junk food eaters out there agree. I feel like if they can ban trans fats without sacrificing flavor, then sure – have at it. WHO CARES? It’s not like I’m out there battling for trans fats for any other reason. Even super unhealthy people aren’t actively promoting WANTING to be unhealthy. I’m PRETTY sure that if someone invented an ice cream that tasted like Ben & Jerry’s but had the same calories as a Diet Coke, it’d be the most popular product on the planet. It’s a safe bet that people 1) don’t want to die early, 2) don’t want to feel awful, and 3) don’t really care about what’s in their food if it still tastes good – that’s clear because of all the crap IN food that we STILL eat. Most people just care about FLAVOR.
(That’s why you’ll see me go to the mattresses over MSG. I am FIRMLY in the camp that MSG tastes way too good to get rid of. Sorry, healthy people.)
But back to trans fats. TURNS OUT, many fast food places don’t even use trans fats anymore. Or donut places. Take a look at any bag of Doritoes or Potato Chips – no trans fats. Oreos – zippy. Candy – NOPE. So what’s the problem???
Let’s recap. Most, if not all, of my favorite junk foods AND fast foods don’t use them. The flavor of NOTHING I enjoy will be effected. And they’re bad for me. I REALLY don’t think I’m missing something here, but please – enlighten me if I am (in the comments below).
The ONLY argument I’ve heard BESIDES just wanting big gov’t to stay out is that trans fats help make foods last longer on the shelves and that “my frozen pizza won’t last longer than three years in the freezer now.” Let me tell you, if you have three-year old frozen pizza in your freezer, you have other problems. And who leaves food around that long anyways?? I’m telling you, I literally need to go shopping every weekend for food because my fridge/freezer is BARE after five days. BARE. NEWSFLASH: I EAT A LOT. Hey, I could go at any time – I don’t want to have that one extra Marie Callender’s Chicken Pot Pie “saved” for any reason. And neither should you. You eat that sh*t. You eat that sh*t RIGHT. NOW.
today’s junk food: New Snyder’s of Hanover Salted Caramel Sweet and Salty Pretzel Pieces!
New Snyder’s of Hanover Salted Caramel Sweet and Salty Pretzel Pieces: The Money Shot
New Snyder’s of Hanover Salted Caramel Sweet and Salty Pretzel Pieces were introduced to me by my friend Steve, who tracked these down AT the Snyder’s factory in Pennsylvania. These are nowhere on the Snyder’s website. I have not seen them in stores. In fact, THIS is the only reference on Google that I could find of them. So Steve, thank you for giving me this first look!
New Snyder’s of Hanover Salted Caramel Sweet and Salty Pretzel Pieces: OOOOOOOOOOO
New Snyder’s of Hanover Salted Caramel Sweet and Salty Pretzel Pieces apparently are Snyder’s first foray into sweet snacks, which is interesting, because why did it take them this long? Kettle corn is super popular, right? Well, we’ll see how the execution is…
New Snyder’s of Hanover Salted Caramel Sweet and Salty Pretzel Pieces: 140 cal per
See, no trans fats here? Just lovely lovely saturated fat mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
New Snyder’s of Hanover Salted Caramel Sweet and Salty Pretzel Pieces: Caramel pieces NEED caramel color…
When I opened the bag and smelled these New Snyder’s of Hanover Salted Caramel Sweet and Salty Pretzel Pieces, I could smell a general sweetness, sort of like kettle corn, but otherwise, nothing really jumped out at me. The pretzel pieces were not covered in caramel or anything – they were sort of tinged brown, some of the pieces. But better to eat, than just look/smell, right? Do it to it….
New Snyder’s of Hanover Salted Caramel Sweet and Salty Pretzel Pieces: some brown, some white
WOW. Um, wow. These…. Are good. Like, really good. Like, REALLY good.
These New Snyder’s of Hanover Salted Caramel Sweet and Salty Pretzel Pieces have that great Snyder’s standard crunch. Nicely made starchy pretzel pieces, light to handle, but thick enough to create a really good crunch. But not TOO crunchy, obviously – just enough to provide a good chew while giving your tongue plenty of time to enjoy the flavor.
And the flavor. The flavor was AWESOME. These did not taste like candy, first of all. Despite the term “salted caramel,” these were not covered in caramel, sticky with caramel, or anything of the like. Instead, the salted caramel flavor appeared to be baked into the pretzel itself!
So when I got my first bite, the flavors my mouth tasted: Buttery. Salty. Sweet, but not too sweet, with a nice burnt sugar taste. Just a REALLY good balance of sweet and salty – not cloying, at all. Almost like a kettle-corn version of pretzel pieces!
New Snyder’s of Hanover Salted Caramel Sweet and Salty Pretzel Pieces: closer up…
And honestly, the flavor of these New Snyder’s of Hanover Salted Caramel Sweet and Salty Pretzel Pieces reminded me of AUNTIE ANNE’S SOFT HOT PRETZELS (that I used to get at the food court at the local mall all the time). I remember whenever I’d get a hot preztel, it’s be buttery and salty but the dough would be super white-bready-sweet. And I’d think, “DO THEY MAKE THESE WITH CRACK NOM NOMNOM” Seriously, I used to think the sugar/salt combo on those pretzels was incredible. And these pretzel pieces reminded me EXACTLY of that flavor, especially with the butteriness that filled my mouth.
Awesome, AWESOME, product, Snyder’s. You need to get this in stores near me. NOW. I will buy them all, I promise.
PURCHASED AT: Snyder’s factory in PA
COST: Dunno
Thoughts? Please comment below or hit me up on Twitter @junkfoodguy or LIKE my Facebook Page and message me there. Let’s hang out.
Sincerely,
Junk Food Guy
Discuss - 20 Comments
The trans fat thing is actually a good example of incremental regulation. The fact that most of your favorite junk-food products don’t have trans fats anymore is because of the magic of mandatory disclosure. Since the FDA identified trans fats as potentially harmful and required labels to indicate whether there are any trans fats present in food products, most manufacturers have reformulated to avoid having to disclose the presence. Before the mandatory disclosure requirement, there was no incentive to avoid having trans fats in your food. Now that disclosure has taken care of most of the uses of trans fats, the FDA can come in to remove the GRAS status of trans fats and get the rest off the market. But most of it happened voluntarily.
Also, I would eat those caramel pretzel pieces all day.
@Lindemann: Man, I’m happy I’m riends with people who can explain this stuff. Thanks, Andrew!
Happy to help in the never-ending search for delicious junk food. The price on the package says $3.69, but my receipt from the factory store says they cost $3.39. Quite the savings! Actually, if I had known how good these were, I’d have bought every bag they had.
@STeve: WHEN WILL THEY SELL THEM IN STORES!? Get on it, Snyder’s!
Snyder’s Pretzel Pieces are where it’s at. They stock random flavours in one of the fancier grocery stores over here, their flavours are excellent. No Ranch though. God damn I miss Ranch.
@Trout Poutt – What flavors do you have near where you live?
Jalapeno and the honey mustard and onion. Not too outrageous but bear in mind neither of these are popular flavours/exist in other snack foods over here?
Great review – though not quite “Snyder’s first foray into sweet snacks”. About a decade ago they had “creamy caramel” which was even better than these are. With the salt, these leave me feeling thirsty but those creamy caramel ones were the best snack ever!
@Jeff: Ah, thanks for the tip! Had no idea about creamy caramel….how long ago did they come out?
Rarely do I venture into Walmart. I only went the other day because I was with someone who was picking up a prescription for someone else. I give praise out to the universe for such random, happy accidents, because while I was waiting for my companion, I found these yummy Snyder’s Sweet And Salty Snacks. Oh my goodness but these things are delicious.
You described them quite well. Not cloying, not too sweet, a perfect amount of each flavor in every bite, caramel, salt, buttery taste ….caramel!! salt!!! buttery taste!! I can’t get back to Walmart fast enough. Yes, I will sell my soul for Snyder’s Sweet and Salty (gonna grab a back of the other flavor, too! If I am going to hell, I want to go big!)
@Victoria: Thanks for the read, Victoria! Yeah, these are a CLEAR home run for Snyder’s
These are horrible. I read a review on here someone described these as reminding them of the pretzel taste from auntie anne’s (which I love) I tried these and I don’t know if these previous reviews were written by people working for Snyders or what, but these have barely any Carmel flavor they taste like well…. Nothing with a semi sweet flavor and some salt on them. I love carmel and I love several of the Snyders pretzels especially the Honey mustard and onion and Hot Buffalo wing. These sweet and Salty flavor are horrible, if you buy you will regret it.
@Fat Albert – Thanks for the feedback! Seriously – comment more; I like getting other opinions so people can read a wide range of takes on the various snacks I review. I never claim to be an expert so I like getting multiple opinions 🙂
you should have your dam taste buds fixed cause theseare the best out there people are buying them right off the shelves everyday they are being stocked just for this brand alone ….shit i walked into the store and bought the last six they had on the rack befor e someone eles took them ,so dont be hateing its not cool man!!!! i know you gotta be fat i just know it
@Fat Albert- Know this is an old post, but just wanted to throw this out there: I LOVE the salted caramel pretzels so much I *may* go through multiple bags a week. But, I have gotten several bags that were duds. Seriously, had barely any flavoring on them or burnt. You may have just gotten a bad bag- it does happen rather frequently (if you eat them as much as I do).
I found these in the vending machine at my university and holy hell! I buy a bag every day I’m on campus now. I can’t find big bags anywhere near me, unfortunately, so I’ll just but the little ones every Tuesday and Thursday for now!
@Sara: Stockpile those bags, Sara!
Just saw these at my local shop rite and hopped on here to see your review- into the cart they go!
I just found and bought a bag of this in a Fred Meyer in Oregon while traveling through home to Washington. We have the honey mustard which I love and eat all the time. I had never seen the variety of flavors they had at this store (and I cant remember them) but the salt and caramel caught my eye. I bought one not sure if it would be good and a bag of my ol’ stand by honey mustard. I think the Junk Food Guy has a third eye and read my mind. Love, love, love. I am going to campaign my Fred Meyer and hope they can get them in. Or I have about a 3 hour drive to get them.
@Anne: Hey, if they’re worth it, do the drive! 😛