What are Auntie Anne’s Birthday Cake Pretzel Nuggets?
Mall-pretzel-mecca Auntie Anne’s is rolling out the winning flavor of its “Pretzel Nation Creation” crowd-sourcing contest. Just in time for the company’s 30th birthday, Birthday Cake Pretzel Nuggets have vanilla dust, chocolate drizzle and funfetti sprinkles.
How are they?
What immediately jumps out of this birthday cake is the chocolate syrup. While it says “made with Ghirardelli,” this tasted just like the childhood classic Hershey’s syrup. I’m generally not a big fan, and I didn’t think it belonged in a birthday cake flavored item. To me, birthday cake is vanilla, butter, milk and maybe a hint of cream cheese or almond.
The vanilla dust on these nuggets was more like vanilla sugar, which was fine. It was a nice middle-of-the-road vanilla flavor and did a good job of making itself known. The sprinkles were the flat round type – formally called quins – in bright pastels. Very cheerful.
A friend who tried these with me suggested an all-over glaze might’ve been better, and I agree. Vanilla buttermilk frosting glaze poured over each nugget would’ve screamed birthday cake and been a great sticky landing pad for those sprinkles.
This was my first time trying the nugget format of Auntie Anne’s pretzels. The flavor was good, but they weren’t as soft at the traditional, large, knot-shaped pretzels.
Is there anything else I need to know?
Because the nuggets are placed in the cup before “birthdayization,” your sprinkle and vanilla experience will be limited to the 3-4 nuggets on top. The syrup works its way down, but there will likely be some blanks at the bottom.
Conclusion:
Auntie Anne’s Birthday Cake Pretzel Nuggets are definitely a mall food – new but still really familiar, cute but institutional, with a tinge of missed opportunity.
Purchased Price: $5.69
Size: 16 oz. cup
Rating: 7 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (16 oz. cup) 530 calories, 6 grams of fat, 3 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 340 milligrams of sodium, 106 grams of carbohydrates, 4 grams of dietary fiber, 40 grams of total sugars, and 10 grams of protein.
I thought it was bit weird with the salt clashing. Plus I think they should had shaked the nuggets in a container before serving. Or serve with a new flavored dip birthday cake dip. That would be better.