Snyder's of Hanover

Update Review, March 2019

I've reviewed Snyder's many times before (read on below), always focusing on the crazy flavored, way too addicting, pretzel nibblers.  But did you know, they make other items too?  I didn't!    I was genuinely surprised when I saw their brand name on a package of "Wholey Cheese" crackers.

Wholey Cheeese

"Wholey Cheese! are light, crispy crackers that are baked with real cheese. Tasting these crackers is the only way to understand why we keep shouting “Wholey Cheese!”

This product was even more surprising once I tried it, but I'll get to that soon.  Wholey Cheese is unlike any other cheese snack I've ever had ... nothing like Cheez-Its, which, to be honest, is what I expected.  And not anything like a traditional "cracker".  They are baked, and actually quasi-healthy.  Oh, and gluten-free.

I quickly discovered why they are called "wholey", by the way: spoiler, they do indeed have holes!  And, yes, are quite cheese-y.  Wholey Cheese is available in a selection of flavors, ranging from basic mild cheddar, to a interesting sounding swiss & black pepper, to spicy pepper jack.

I tried only one variety, smoked gouda, but I'd gladly try others.  These are fascinating!

Smoked Gouda.

"Try Smoked Gouda Wholey Cheese! crackers. These things taste like a cheese sunrise baked into the cracker of our lifetime!"

I was so surprised when I opened the package.  I expected something that looked like a Cheez-It: a square, fake orange, solid, chip-cracker.  Instead, I found a square ... with holes like swiss cheese, a more natural color, and ... light and airy?

They were shockingly light, crispy, and intensely cheese-y.  In particular, I was impressed with the smoked quality that made it into the product.  This tasted like a really decent gouda, not like fake cheese in any way.

I'm not generally one for cheese crackers, but these are so very different, almost more like chips than crackers, but ... baked, not fried, but not in a way that detracts.  Really hard to describe.  I think you need to just try them!

Update Review, December 2018

This is just an update of some new "Limited Edition" flavors I tried in the past year.  Summary?  I still find Snyder's strangely addictive, and then often sickening, but my parent's always seem to have them in the house when I visit a couple times a year and I can't resist trying more flavors!

As always, I encourage you to start with my original review below first.

Limited Edition Flavor Spotlight: Buttermilk Ranch.

"Generous chunks of our Sourdough Hard Pretzels bursting with intense flavor combinations... like the creamy flavor of buttermilk with a subtle touch of herbs and spices in our Buttermilk Ranch Pretzel Pieces."

As with all the Pretzel Pieces, the mix is assorted fragments of pretzels, ranging from some actually quite large ones, to lots of little nibbles, and everything in-between.  The pieces were all well coated in the seasoning, the rough broken edges hold it particularly well.  My favorite chunks are the smaller ones that are just all well coated edges, as I don't actually like the pretzels much at all (sourdough eh!)

The seasoning was decent.  The flavor was more akin to sour cream and onion than what I think of as ranch, although I guess it did have an herby nature to it from the parsley.  They also have buttermilk powder, but it didn't quite add a buttermilk tang, just more of an almost fake-cheesy quality?

So overall fine, probably fun to pair with buffalo ones, a la buffalo wings and ranch dip, but not a flavor I'd get again.

Cheddar Cheese.

When I visited my parent's house I found a bag of these in the drawer, and, even though slightly expired, I still dug in.  I wanted to try the cheesy flavor again!

The pretzel chunks, as always, were crunchy and hard, sourdough flavored, so not my favorite.  The coating, as always, was well applied, particularly on the broken sides, and it coated my fingers as I ate them.

The flavor wasn't particularly cheesy though.  It was fine, but, not as strong of a cheddar as I hoped for.

Overall, fine, but not anything special, which is about how I felt last time

Limited Edition Flavor Spotlight: Cheddar Ale.

"The bold flavor of Cheddar Ale is a mix of rustic and sharp flavors that will leave you craving more delicious crunch! Devour them now before the spotlight dims."

Cheddar Ale really was just a more "grown up" version of the cheddar cheese.  The flavor didn't scream out "beer" or "ale", but I didn't really want it to anyway.  It was more like "Hey, these would go great with a pint!" (or, cider in my case).  It seemed like a more complex cheddar.

As always, assorted sized chunks, and very well coated.  And yes, #orangeFingers.  I liked it more than the plain cheddar, but I didn't want to purchase another bag.

Original Review, January 2018

As you know, I love snack foods.  Whenever I visit my family, my mother always has a variety of pretzels around, usually for use as part of Chex mix.  And she always buys Snyder's of Hanover brand.

Over the year's, I've sampled a large number of Snyder's of Hanover's offerings, although in looking at their website now, I realize they make far more products than I realized.  They are most known for pretzels, which come in assorted shapes and seasonings, but they also apparently make chips and salsa.

The pretzels are pretty much as generic as can be, standard bagged pretzels, although they do come up with some interesting flavors.  I won't ever seek them out on my own, but when I'm home, you know I can't resist ...

Traditional Pretzels

The most classic product made by Snyder's is traditional pretzels, offered in just about every shape and size, including mini pretzels, sticks, rods, snaps, and of course, holiday shapes.  Snaps are the checkerboard shaped ones, which are the best for use in Chex Mix in my opinion, since the waffle shape helps trap extra seasoning!

These pretzels are all about the same, not offensive, slightly buttery, nice and shiny, some salt.  Nothing remarkable, but not bad.

Seasoned Sourdough Nibblers

For interesting flavors, go for the Nibblers. These are chunks of their sourdough pretzels, coated with seasonings.

I only have notes on one variety that I've tried, the Honey Mustard & Onion: The flavor coating on these was awesome.  The pretzels were crunchy.  I was addicted.   But not because I loved them.  Rather, I was addicted because I wanted MORE of the coating.  The ratio of pretzel to coating was just off for me.  But then again, I did keep eating them, so perhaps they did create a good product.

Flavored Pretzel Pieces

"Give yourself a break with our pretzel pieces. Small bits of your favorite pretzel, delightfully coated with extraordinary flavor!"

Luckily for me, Snyder's seems to have realized that their coating is delicious, and figured out a way to expose more surface area of the pretzels.  They also offer flavored "Pretzel Pieces".  Just like the Nibblers, they are made from sourdough pretzel, but are just little twists and chunks, with lots of exposed edges to soak up the flavor.  By far my favorite of the products I've tried, as the pretzel: coating ratio is perfect!

The pieces come in a slew of flavors, ranging from savory cheddar cheese or spicy jalapeno, to sweet and salty salted caramel or s'mores, to "50% less fat" varieties, and finally, peanut butter filled.

Savory

Honey Mustard & Onion.

Just like the Nibblers, I liked the slightly sweet, flavorful, salty coating. Do they really taste like honey mustard or onion? Nah. But I get addicted, even more so with the the pieces than the nibblers. I do find that I always want them to be better than they are. As single pieces, they still just aren't that great. They are much better by the handful. Beware though, I've found that eating too many of these in one sitting really easily causes a stomach ache. And it is far, far too easy to eat too many of these!

Hot Buffalo Wing.

The hot buffalo wing are almost awesome.  The flavor is intense.  And I like it ... about half the time I try them.  The other half of the time, I find the flavor repulsive.  I really can't explain why I find them so nasty sometimes, when other times, I'm so close to loving them.

The flavor is ...  I guess buffalo hot wing.  There is some garlic and cayenne flavors that come out.  And of course, MSG.  They always leave my fingers bright orange.

Like the honey mustard & onion, they aren't great when you just eat one or two, but really require a big handful to get addicting.  And then they do get addicting.  The assorted sized pieces range from fairly large to tiny little bits.  The tiny bits are usually my favorites, as they are just absolutely coated in seasoning.

I always want to love these more than I do, but, like I said, so close to good.

They also come packaged as "Flavor Doubles" with Buttermilk Ranch.

These were quite interesting.  The Hot Buffalo Wing and Buttermilk Ranch flavors are also each sold separately, but they also mix them in a bag together, as "Flavor Doubles".  At first I didn't realize that there were two distinct flavors in the bag, I just thought each piece was supposed to be both ranch and buffalo, and that some were more or less coated than others.  After a few handfuls, I realize that the very orange ones were buffalo wing, and the duller ones were ranch.  The ranch really didn't taste much like anything else "ranch" flavored I've had.  It was a very muted flavor, probably due to being mixed in with the hot buffalo ones?  The buffalo were good, and addicting, but even more so than the Honey Mustard & Onion, you really had to be careful not to overdo it.  I can't even tell you how many times I ate too many handfuls of these and later regretted it.  I'm not sure what is in these things, but they really give a stomach ache!

Cheddar Cheese.

Not my favorite of the flavors, slightly cheesy, but decent.  I'd eat them again, but wouldn't pick if given a choice.

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Sea Salt & Cracked Pepper.

"These pretzels are made from wholesome ingredients, slow-baked to seal in all the flavor. Chunks of sourdough pretzels bursting with gourmet seasonings like a dash of sea salt and ground black peppercorns."

Well, these tasted like pepper.  Very strongly of pepper.  I didn't like them at all, but if you like the idea of peppery pretzels, check them out.

Sweet

Sweet pretzels?  Why not.  Sweet and salty is always a good thing.

Salted Caramel.

"Imagine buttery caramel accented with flecks of salt on bite-sized, golden-brown sourdough pretzel pieces!  You’ll love this new, mouthwatering flavor combination with BIG pretzel crunch!"

Well, huh.

I didn't purchase these, since I am not particularly excited about pretzels, but, my mom bought them for me when I was visiting.

They were interesting.

They weren't a dessert item.  They didn't taste like caramel at all.  But ... they weren't bad.

Crunchy standard Snyder's pretzels, in assorted bits and pieces and sizes.  With a sorta sweet and sorta salty light dusting on them.  I really didn't taste "buttery caramel", but, sweet they were.  I like sweet and salty.  I like crunchy.  I like munchie snack foods.

So ... they worked for me.

S'mores.

"The sweet flavors of marshmallows & chocolate sprinkled onto perfectly salty sourdough Pretzel Pieces."

I thought I would like this, given the success of the previous sweet and salty variety.

But, I really, really didn't like it.

First, it tasted just like marshmallow, which makes sense given the S'mores nature, but it was a fake sweet taste that did not linger nicely.

Second, there just wasn't nearly enough of a chocolate aspect to it.  Yes, the pieces were brown, but, there was no taste of chocolate at all.

And finally ... it just didn't make sense.  I like chocolate covered pretzels, but those have real chocolate to them.  This was really just hard pretzels that tasted like fake marshmallow.

Did not like.