Best Pretzels, Ranked [Official Taste Test]

Pretzels are the underdogs of the snack world. They don’t get as much love as potato chips or cheese puffs, but there’s a pleasant elegance to a pretzel’s simplicity. The best pretzels are crunchy, salty, and just a little tangy. Sure, they’re great with beer, but you shouldn’t need a beverage when you’re going to town on a bag. A good pretzel should never, ever dry out your mouth. The best pretzels should be flavorful, toasty, and mundane in a good way. None of us should be thinking too hard about our pretzels.

Well, we do think too hard about pretzels here at Sporked. It’s our damn job. We passed around bag after bag of pretzels and jotted down intensive tasting notes like we get paid to do this (we do) looking for pretzels with understated flavor, structure, and razzle-dazzle. So, here are the seven best pretzels you can buy.

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Best for Game Day

If you’re looking for a classic pretzel, look no further than Snyder’s minis. All of Snyder’s pretzels have that same buttery, salty, lightly toasted feel to them. They’re never dry and always enjoyable. Compared to the snaps and pieces, the minis deliver that classic pretzel shape, which makes them good for munching, but less versatile in the dipping category. Still, fill up a big bowl with a bag of Snyder’s minis and watch them disappear. —Danny Palumbo

Credit: Ryan Martin / Target

Rating:

6.5/10

Sporks

Best Flavor

Utz, another Pennsylvania company, makes great chips and pretzels. Their sourdough specials are big in size, but the texture is still light, airy, and crunchy. These pretzels might be the most pleasant to munch. They’re well salted, too. While their size might seem a little foreboding, in the end they didn’t make any of our mouths dry. Large, salty, crumbly, and flavorful, Utz Specials are the best pretzels to serve with a cold beer. —Danny Palumbo

Credit: Ryan Martin / Amazon

Rating:

7/10

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Best Crunch

These may not be the best gluten-free pretzels—that honor goes to the number 7 cracker on this list—but they deserve a shout-out for crunch factor. Gluten-free pretzels are made with wheat alternatives, like rice flour or potato starch, and sometimes that gives them an even more solid crunch. Unfortunately, those alternative flours can also make them taste like nothing (that’s why you won’t see Glutinos on the list). But these lil’ gluten-free Snyder’s minis have a nice pretzely flavor. Gluten-free pretzels should still taste like pretzels! —Gwynedd Stuart

Credit: Liv Averett / Target

Rating:

7.5/10

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Best Gluten Free

Gluten-free pretzels just work well. Without the gluten, pretzels become so much less dense. For a perfect example, Perfection Snacks makes a nicely toasted, light, and well seasoned gluten-free pretzel you can count on. Unlike Snyder’s sweet honey mustard and honey, the version from Perfection Snacks has a much more pronounced onion flavor. So if onions are your thing, this is the best pretzel for you. They also have a wonderful crunch, which, combined with the light texture, makes them super crushable. —Danny Palumbo

Credit: Ryan Martin / Amazon

Rating:

8/10

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Best Spicy

Surprise, surprise. Snyder’s is here yet again. These are the same pretzel pieces as before, but with a hot Buffalo sauce flavor. The Buffalo flavor here isn’t very overwhelming, and there’s still that wonderfully fatty, saturated flavor of a Snyder’s pretzel piece that defies all logic. The flavor of the honey mustard and onion is more pronounced, but the hot Buffalo wing flavor deserves a place on this list of the best pretzels because it is no easy feat to make a good spicy pretzel. A lot of companies just dust their pretzels with seasoning and it falls off. Not Snyder’s. Their flavor is baked into each tasty morsel. —Danny Palumbo

Credit: Ryan Martin / Target

Rating:

8.5/10

Sporks

Best Dark

I know that extra-cooked pretzels aren’t for everyone, but if you’re a person who’s always scrounging around for the brownest pretzel in the bag or the toastiest Cheez-It in the box, you’re going to love these as much as I do. Cheez-It capitalized on people’s affinity for their overcooked crackers by releasing Extra Toasty, and Unique Snacks is taking the same tack with these extra dark pretzels. They’re delicious—a nice, substantial size and truly charred on the outside. You’d think these were pumpernickel from the looks of them. The best pretzel if you like ‘em toasty, for sure. —Gwynedd Stuart

Credit: Liv Averett / Amazon

Rating:

8.5/10

Sporks

Best Thin

Snack Factory figured out something about pretzels nobody else has: A pretzel is best when there’s less of it. That’s right, sometimes a snack pretzel is just too big and clunky, and thus dry. That is not the case with pretzel crisps. You get all the great salty, toasty, tangy flavor of a pretzel but in cracker form. Super light yet still crunchy, these pretzel crisps are a natural pairing for hummus, or really any dip at all. This is one of the best pretzels, and a pretty unique twist on a classic snack. —Danny Palumbo

Credit: Ryan Martin / Walmart

Rating:

8.5/10

Sporks

Best Flavor

These are insanely good. Like, a pretzel has no right to be this deeply flavorful. To be fair, these are pretzel pieces, which kind of read more like a crouton and less like a traditional pretzel. But, all things considered, this is still a pretzel—and one of the best pretzels, at that. Snyder’s honey mustard pretzel pieces are packed with sweet honey mustard flavor. They’re higher in fat than a lot of other pretzels on this list, but that’s all well and good with us. Go big on flavor. Go Snyder’s Honey Mustard & Onion Pretzel Pieces. Pro Tip: Jordan suggested putting these on a salad. I did it twice, and it’s incredible. A gift from us to you. Put these on a salad. —Danny Palumbo

Credit: Ryan Martin / Target

Rating:

9/10

Sporks

Best Seasoned

My colleague Jordan Myrick had literally just said they don’t care about pretzels, and then started dancing around the room when they ate a Dot’s seasoned pretzel twist. These cult-favorite, North Dakota-made pretzels are just so flavorful. They redefine what we expect from a pretzel. The seasoning—which contains garlic, buttermilk, and MSG for extra savory flavor—tastes like the Worcestershire-esque seasoning on a really good snack mix, and the pretzels themselves are incredibly buttery and satisfying. They’re my personal pick for best pretzel, but I couldn’t put them in the top spot because they sort of stray from what you’d expect from a good ol’ salted pretzel. If you want something that tastes like baked wheat flour and salt, these are going to be way too intense. But if you’re in the mood for something you can get excited about (just like Jordan did), I think you will love these. —Gwynedd Stuart

Credit: Liv Averett / Target

Rating:

9.5/10

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Best of the Best

Snyder’s is the gold standard for pretzels, period. Each bite of a Snyder’s pretzel is the perfect little morsel of salty, crunchy goodness. There’s something indescribably buttery about a Snyder’s pretzel, too, like they’ve been brushed with fat. And there are different styles for every type of pretzel snacker. The best pretzel of the Snyder’s bunch, though? That would be their pretzel snaps. These pretzel grids are properly salted, crunchy but not dry, and easy to eat. A bag of pretzels that you don’t get sick of in two minutes? That’s an incredible feat. Good on you, Snyder’s. These pretzels also stray from the traditional looped shape, instead opting for a tightly knitted grid that’s great for dipping. Also, it should be said that Snyder’s of Hanover is based in Pennsylvania. Trust the state of Pennsylvania to deliver on chips and pretzels always. (Editor’s note: Danny is a Pennsylvania native and therefore biased. But also usually correct about these things.) —Danny Palumbo

Credit: Ryan Martin / Target

Rating:

10/10

Sporks

Other products we tried: Snyder’s Twisted Seasoned, Glutino Twists, Dot’s Honey Mustard, Dot’s Southwest Seasoned, Unique Snacks Splits, Great Value, Kroger Mini Pretzel Twists, Market Pantry Mini Pretzel Twists, First Street Pretzels, Rold Gold Rods, Sprouts Mini Pretzel Twists, Trader Joe’s Gluten-Free Pretzel Twists

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