All Hail to the Humble Pretzel - An Oktoberfest Classic

The humble pretzel has come a long way since its modest origins in 610 A.D. when Italian monks made them from leftover bread-dough scraps. Once considered a holy food with healing powers and, in modern times, parodied as the snack that launched a surprise attack on our 42 nd president, the basic flour and water pretzel has been an American staple ever since European immigrants brought the recipe with them to U.S. shores in the 18 th and 19 th century.

The popularity of the pretzel in the U.S., whether the soft or hard variety, is indeed undisputed. Pretzels are the third most popular salty snack food by share of total sales, behind potato and tortilla chips, and annual per capita consumption is a whopping 2 lbs. The Mid-Atlantic States have earned the label "Pretzel Belt of America" by consuming 4 lbs per capita per annum, twice the national average. This is hardly surprising, since it was indeed the Palantine Germans, later known as the Pennsylvania Dutch who brought pretzels to these states in 1710.

Especially popular in Southern Germany, the Brezel as it is known in this region, is a familiar sight at the annual Munich Oktoberfest. Visitors to the famed beer festival will remember the so-called "Brotfrauen" (bread ladies) carrying super-sized pretzels in huge baskets from table to table. Oktoberfest is of course the most popular time for consumption of pretzels in Germany, since the salty snack is an essential accompaniment to the ubiquitous beer. However, they are also popular year-round and represent an 18% market share in volume (2003) of the total German snack food market.

While there are hundreds of companies manufacturing pretzels in the U.S., you can offer consumers a more authentic European experience with high-quality genuine German pretzels, both in the hard and soft varieties. Pretzels in Germany are made under the strict guidelines of the German Purity Law, using only natural ingredients, and contain no preservatives, flavorings or color additives.

Two companies in Florida, Breads of Europe based in Venice, and EURO-Bake headquartered in St. Petersburg both offer high-quality bakery products imported directly from Germany. While the most familiar and traditional version of the pretzel is that of the twisted knot meant to symbolize the arms folded in prayer, these two companies offer other bakery items using the same familiar pretzel dough. In addition to a large range of European bread specialties, Breads of Europe offers pretzel baguettes, pretzel sandwiches and pretzel rolls as well as the traditional soft pretzel. The pretzels are par-baked and require minimal baking time (ca. 10 minutes). Similarly, EURO-Bake offers thaw-and-serve soft pretzels, a pretzel sandwich, pretzel bread sticks and a pretzel bun.

A large variety of German hard pretzels are also available on the U.S. market. Lorenz Snack-World, one of the leading European snack food companies first launched its "Saltlett Classic Sticks" in 1935 and today manufactures a wide range of pretzel products including Saltletts Cocktail Mix and Saltlett Snack Mix. Wolf Bergstrasse, the market leader in Central Eastern Europe and one of several brands under the Intersnack GmbH umbrella, exports its Stickletti pretzel sticks, packed in a plastic tray with tear ‘n toss lid, along with a range of snack mixes known as "Maxi Mix." Another company with a long history of pretzel manufacturing is Pauly GmbH & Co. KG has been producing salted snacks since 1894. Their export range consists of salted pretzel sticks, salted pretzels, filled pretzels and XXL pretzels.