Pretzel M&M's

Sometimes the internet - and with that the chance to see how many different kinds of products exist all over the world- can be rather disadvantageous - at least when you're as excessively curious as myself. To be more precise, the disadvantage is that I end up purchasing products online that I can't get hold of in Germany at a horrendously immoderate price. The order I placed (that amongst others contained the Jelly Belly Soda Pop Shoppe) also included a pack of Pretzel M&M's.

As far as I know, there are only three sorts of M&M's available in Germany at the moment: Milk Chocolate M&M's, Crispy M&M's as well as the Peanut M&M's.

I'm already a big fan of the first two sorts whereas the Peanut kind just isn't for me, which is not too surprising considering my fundamental distaste for nuts in general (I assume many people without this restriction love it though, otherwise it would probably have long been taken off the market by now).

Following my natural instinct, I immediately put the Pretzel M&M's into my virtual basket shortly after they had appeared on my screen.

The first thing I noticed when I tore the bag open (after having more or less patiently taken a photo of the packaging beforehand), was that these M&M's are MUCH BIGGER compared to the "standard" M&M's (approximately 1.5 to 2 cm in diameter) which doesn't really make them quite as bite-sized. Despite their size, they don't actually weigh that much. The 15 balls you can see in the picture were all that was included in the 32.3g pack so that a single one weighs round about 2g (you may call me a mathematical genius).

As you have probably already guessed by the name, the special thing about this sort is the pretzel core on the inside which is surrounded by a layer of chocolate as well as the typical candy shell.

Admittedly, I was initially expecting to like this type quite a lot being a lover of the sweet&salty combination for a long time (see also the Lindt HELLO Salted Caramel). Unfortunately, I was a little let down after trying the first one. At first, it does seem to be crunchy when biting on it however the pretzel nugget itself is actually rather dry and stale when you keep on munching it. You will probably also be disappointed when you expect a nice and crispy pretzel snack as we know it.

Furthermore, you might be able to identify at least a hint of salt but it is ultimately barely noticeable and fails to give the M&M this little something that I was hoping for.

In addition, you might be able to tell from the picture above that especially the yellow one in the front has a cracked shell. As a consequence, air was able to get to the pretzel core which then turned completely soft and crumbly -Ugh! This might very well be a singular case and I certainly don't know if that happens quite a lot or if I was just having a bit of bad luck with this pack.

As I normally reeeally like chocolate covered pretzels, I suspect the candy shell to be the disturbing element in this composition. Compared to the pretzel portion there is not very much chocolate inside (as you can see on the picture above) so that the chocolate taste gets a bit lost when you have to bite through the shell first. Because of that I also tried eating the candy shell first which actually made the chocolate a little more detectable and slightly emphasized the nice contrast between sweet and salty.

Anyway, I'm still a bit disappointed by the Pretzel M&M's. I definitely prefer the Crispy M&M's which have a rice core inside of them. Although they also don't have my desired saltiness, they do have a much nicer crunch, the chocolate taste doesn't fall by the wayside and they come in a much more convenient size.

Have you already tried the Pretzel M&M's? Which is your favourite sort of M&M's?