Junk Food Nation, it’s Friday! Woot woot. There’s a bunch of stuff I wanted to comment on that I saw in the news, so let’s just get to it – as usual, please make sarcastic and snide remarks in the comments below.

1) In Brazil, a country that I am only familiar with through World Cup Soccer and Fast and the Furious movies, a billionaire had a Porsche confiscated by the police while he was being investigated for insider trading. Interestingly, the judge who is presiding over the criminal case was seen driving the same damn Porsche that the authorities confiscated! Now THAT’S ballsy. Who knew judges had it in them to pull some Ferris Bueller parking attendant ish off?

Nice work, judge. You keep telling people “The federal police had no safe place for the car and it was exposed to sun, rain and possible damage. I took it to a covered parking space.” I’ll see you at the Cubs game later.

2) Um, holy S. Did you guys see the video of that NJ house exploding yesterday due to a gas leak?

Jeez Louise. It’s not a great story because even though they were able to evacuate 75 homes, a bunch of the gas company people were injured.  I am certainly not glorifying this incident – this is exactly why paranoid people like me check their gas knobs all the time – but JEEEEEZ. That is some crazy craziness.

3) Finally, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the amazing scoring feat that occurred in college men’s basketball the other night in the Florida State vs. Miami U game. All you need to do know is this: FSU’s Xavier Rathan-Mayes scored THIRTY, 3-0, POINTS in the final 4:38 of the game. 30 POINTS in less than five minutes??? Do you know how hard that is? Look, I know I’m a horrible athlete, but I feel like it would take me longer than five minutes to score 30 pts on a regulation basket, with no defenders, and not even in game play. Like, if I was out in a driveway trying to shoot on a basket with nothing but grass being mowed in the background, I STILL COULDN’T SCORE 30 POINTS.

And what were the players on Miami doing???  Dude, this guy’s pointing up a Kevin Durant impression, and you’re not guarding him? “Well, he’s gotta miss some time.” UM, YOU CAN HELP BY GETTING YOUR HANDS UP, SON.

The kicker? FSU LOST. You kidding me??? Goodness.

Today’s junk food: Snyder’s of Hanover Three Cheese & Cinnamon Sugar Pretzel Poppers!!

Snyder’s sent me these Pretzel Poppers to review, and I’ve already reviewed the original variety on this blog before. I liked the original kind, mainly because I liked the crunch and the versatility in dipping them into other things. But flavoring them up from the start? I’m excited to see whether the texture and the flavoring works.

Snyder’s of Hanover Three Cheese & Cinnamon Sugar Pretzel Poppers both come in 10 oz bags, while the original variety came in 12 oz bags. I like the move Snyder’s made here, introducing both a sweet and a savory version. Hit both sectors at once. Synergy. Extremitude. Other words.

First up: Snyder’s of Hanover Three Cheese Pretzel Poppers!

Snyder’s of Hanover Three Cheese Pretzel Poppers contain three cheeses – Cheddar, Mozzarella, and Monterey Jack. Aside from the cheddar, the other two flavors tend to be not really mild, but definitely not “sharp” flavors. Still, when I opened the bag, I did get a nice cheesy smell.

The texture of the Pretzel Poppers was just like the original – nice and crispy. Basically, exactly what you’d think a shell-only pretzel would taste like. The crunch was perfect; each chew shattered the pretzels in my mouth.

The flavor of these three cheese pretzel poppers was, to me, just OK. To be fair, they didn’t taste bad – the cheese flavor was artificial tasting, not too salty, and I kind of dug it. Felt like the cheese from the inside of a Combos, but smeared on the outside in dry powder form.  Perfectly cheesy, but nothing memorable. There was no Cheez-it-like cheese flavor here.

Instead, the problem for me was execution. The cheese powder itself was caked on the outside but didn’t seem like it totally stuck – a lot came off on my fingers as I ate. While a good amount of powder did remain on the pretzels themselves, as soon as I chewed it felt like the powder came off in my mouth. Now, to be fair, maybe it doesn’t matter, since the chew also pulverizes the pretzel and the two things mix while chewing, bringing the expected result – a cheese flavored pretzel. Still, these weren’t perfect for me. Don’t get me wrong – I’ll eat the whole bag. But these were not a home run for me.

Second up: Snyder’s of Hanover Cinnamon Sugar Pretzel Poppers!

I’ll just say it – while the prior Three Cheese variety of these Pretzel Poppers was just OK for me, these Snyder’s of Hanover Cinnamon Sugar Pretzel Poppers REALLY WORKED for me. I enjoyed these IMMENSELY.

When I opened the bag, the sweet smell of cinnamon and sugar was unmistakable. Not overwhelming, but still pleasantly there, like when you smell cinnamon rolls in the oven. That warm smell. Not over-the-top cloying like Cinnabon, but just that nice faint cinnamon smell. MMM. I needed to get these in me, NOW.

Same as before, the pretzels themselves crunched nicely – light and flaky with a decent crunch. But the cinnamon sugar mixture REALLY paired well with these pretzels. The sweet powdery mixture seemed to adhere way more to the pretzel than the three cheese variety. The chew of these had the same effect, however – when I chewed the pretzel popper, it seemed like the cinnamon sugar would pop off and hit different corners of my mouth. While not the best in the three cheese context, I enjoyed the exact same sensation in the sweet context.  Weird.

Chewing everything together, the pretzels tasted sort of buttery, which was odd, but I liked it. Pairing that with the cinnamon sugar mix, these tasted sort of like crunchy churros, or like a crunchy cinnamon toast. Because these were only pretzel shells, there wasn’t too much pretzel dough to mask the sweet flavor – it was just enough so that the overall flavor wasn’t TOO sweet. As a fan of Mexican food who has had fried tortillas with cinnamon and sugar, these sort of reminded me of that too.

Man, Snyder’s knows how to NAIL the cinnamon sugar mix. If the Sweet/Salty Cinnamon Sugar Pretzel Pieces were my #1, these wouldn’t be too far behind. Really good.

—

So there you go! Three cheese was ok, and I’d recommend buying the Cinnamon Sugar ones for sure. With these and the Sweetos in stores now, Cinnamon Sugar is definitely at the forefront of my flavor radar currently.

PURCHASED AT: Sent to me, but they’ve been spotted at Harris Teeter 

COST: Spotted at Harris Teeter for 2 / $6.00, so $3.00 each on sale.

Thoughts? Please comment below or hit me up on Twitter @junkfoodguy or LIKE my Facebook Page and message me there. I also have Google+!! Let’s hang out.

Sincerely,

Junk Food Guy