The Good: They do not taste bad
The Bad: Pretzel flavor is so much stronger than the vanilla frosting, Nothing amazing on the nutrition front
The Basics: Mars Combos Sweet & Salty Vanilla Frosting Pretzels are a good enough concept, but the vanilla frosting flavor is not strong enough to impress.
I have a pretty wonderful source for a wide variety of snacks and foods in my area, so it is one of the reasons I truly love reviewing foods. Every now and then, I uncover a real gem in the snack food aisle of my local eclectic discount store. Lately, that has not been happening so much unfortunately. The latest "miss" on the snack food front are the Combos Sweet & Salty Vanilla Frosting Pretzels. I was actually surprised to discover, when I sat down to review these Combos, that I have not reviewed any of the Combos snacks before. I was instantly enamored with the idea of the Vanilla Frosting Pretzel snacks, but was underwhelmed by their execution.
Basics
Combos were a pretty new snack from M&M/Mars when I was a kid and now they have made a transition from pure salty snacks into a sweet and salty realm with their Combos Sweet & Salty. This was my first experience with the Sweet & Salty line. The Combos Sweet & Salty Vanilla Frosting Pretzels are a clever idea for anyone who likes mixing disparate flavors. Unfortunately, those looking for the "sweet" half to satisfy a craving will have to look elsewhere.
Each one ounce serving of Combos Sweet & Salty Pretzels is made up of hard pretzel cylinders that are approximately 5/8” in diameter and 1” long. Combos Sweet & Salty Vanilla Frosting Pretzels come in a 6 oz. package with several dozen Pretzels. The Combos fall around their bag without any protection.
Ease Of Preparation
Eating Combos Sweet & Salty Vanilla Frosting Pretzels is not a real challenge: simply open the package, pull out a pretzel, and consume. When you have a pretzel out, all you have to do is stick it in your mouth and chew; there is nothing complicated or mysterious about eating these snacks.
Taste
The Combos Sweet & Salty Vanilla Frosting Pretzels smell like almost entirely of the filling, which is vanilla frosting. The aroma is very inviting to anyone who loves a sweet snack and craves vanilla frosting.
On the tongue, each Combos Sweet & Salty Vanilla Frosting Pretzel is hard and salty. The salt that coats the pretzels completely overwhelms any hint of the sweet vanilla frosting inside. The vanilla frosting acts more like a soft texture than a flavor in these Combos, so heavy is the baked pretzel and salt flavor. The bready pretzel is oppressive to the filling.
These pretzels leave one with a strong, dry aftertaste in the mouth.
Nutrition
Combos Sweet & Salty Vanilla Frosting Pretzels are intended as a sweet snack, not a full meal. A 1/3 cup, 1 ounce serving is not overly nutritious. Made primarily of wheat flour, vegetable oil, and whey this is not an all-natural food product. These Pretzels were produced on equipment that forces them to add a disclaimer about milk, soy, and wheat.
Combos Sweet & Salty Vanilla Frosting Pretzels have a substantive 130 calories for a single serving, 45 of which are from fat. A serving represents 15% of one's RDA of saturated fat, though they are cholesterol free. As well, they are predictably high in Sodium, having 270 mg (11% RDA) per serving. They have two grams of protein and two percent of the RDA of Calcium, with no other real nutrients. As one who is working on getting heart-healthy, I was happy to see a single gram of dietary fiber in each serving.
Storage/Cleanup
Combos Sweet & Salty Vanilla Frosting Pretzels are easy to care for and clean up. Unopened, they have a pretty short shelf life; we purchased ours two weeks ago and they have an expiration date in September 2015. Given how the package is not resealable, it is not easy to keep these Pretzels fresh once the bag is open. These hard pretzels generate significant crumbs when one consumes them!
Overall
Combos Sweet & Salty Vanilla Frosting Pretzels taste good, but are not exceptional, which makes them a harder Pretzel to get truly excited about. The lack of a real strong chocolate flavor to the chocolate chips makes them feel much more average with their embedded frosting than truly special.
For other reviews of snacks, please check out:
Chewy Chips Ahoy! Birthday Frosting Cookies
Clif Builder's Bar Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Bar
Blue Diamond Smokehouse Flavor Almonds
4/10
For other food and drink reviews, please visit my Food Review Index Page for an organized listing!
© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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