san diego pretzel company + giveaway!

I’ll bet that you had no idea that there’s a pretzel factory in San Diego! I’ll further bet that you didn’t know it sat in National City, amongst a few houses, and that they provide pretzels for many places who distribute to tons of places across the country (like Disneyland! And Karl Strauss! And stadiums and stuff!). And it’s all made here in San Diego!

The only reason I found out about the San Diego Pretzel Company is because I was invited in for a factory tour to check out their pretzels. I was able to bring a few people with me to see the operation and to sample the pretzels. At the end of this post, check out the sweet giveaway for a chance to win any item from the San Diego Pretzel Company’s website!

I love the giant pretzel on the side here. The front office is quite small and is open to the public for wholesale pretzel purchases for you to enjoy at home as well as pretzel fundraising opportunities. 

We got to be like Laverne & Shirley and wear hairnets to go inside of the factory. Here you can see one of the workers bagging salt.

Every pretzel here is rolled by hand! I think they put extra affection into the pretzels to make them taste better.

These pretzels are headed for the freezer. They take great care in making sure their product is fresh. The pretzels are good for 7 days at room temperature, 21 days refrigerated or up to 9 months if you keep them frozen. The pretzels are easy to reheat and taste freshly baked when you do reheat them!

These pretzels got to go into our mouths. YAY!

What I really liked about the pretzels is how soft and chewy they were, but that they still had a nice crusty exterior. The pretzels were quite pliable. The outside was chewy but it was soft and almost tender on the inside of the pretzel. I also like that there’s only a small bit of salt on these. When you reheat your pretzel, you can determine the amount of salt (if any) you want to put on.

This GIANT Bavarian pretzel  was a really unique product that incorporates two different styles of pretzel into one. The bottom, fatter part of the pretzel is much softer than the thinner, crisper top. I preferred munching on the bottom since the pretzel was like a soft breadstick.

They make both “Philly” style and “Traditional” style pretzels here.  The “Philly” style has two pretzels hand rolled together so that you get an “end” piece on both sides.

 In addition to the larger pretzels, they also make “pretzel puffs” (like pretzel balls), pretzel slider buns (mmm), Golden State multi-grain pretzels, Munich Pretzels and a couple of flavored pretzels. 

The tour was great fun and we got to hear a bit of history behind the pretzel and the San Diego Pretzel Company.

Giveaway! Giveaway! Giveaway!

Now onto the giveaway! I’m trying out a new giveaway system, I hope it’s easier to use! One winner will be able to pick one item from the San Diego Pretzel Company’s online store – tell me: which item would you choose? There are also additional items you can do for more entries! This contest is open to residents of the USA only. Contest runs until November 29, 2013 at 11:59PM PST. This contest is sponsored by the San Diego Pretzel Company. I was invited on behalf of the San Diego Pretzel Company to come in for a tour and to receive complimentary pretzels for myself and my guests. No further compensation was received and all opinions stated here are my own. Winner will be picked via the PromoSimple interface. Good luck!