Penn State Sweet & Salt Popcorn review

A little while ago, I received a few bags of Penn State snacks to review (here) and discovered their Spicy Jalfrezi Deli Chips, their Sour Cream & Chive Pretzels and their Sizzling Teriyaki Baked Deli Chips, which were all very nice. This time, they sent me through a bag of Sweet & Salty Popcorn.

Now, here at The Madhouse, we're fans of both sweet and salty popcorn (the girls get really excited when we buy microwavable popcorn and pop it ourselves !) but I couldn't imagine what a mixture of both flavours would be like. Just as I'm not entirely sure that peanut butter and jelly would work together (even if generations of Americans swear by it), I wasn't entirely sure about this new flavour.

I poured it into a bowl and passed it around The Madhouse residents, asking them to describe the flavour. “Sweet” yelled Sophie, grabbing another handful. “Salty” yelled Madhouse Daddy Mike, grabbing another handful. “Yummy” yelled Juliette, grabbing another handul. “Well, you're all right” yelled me, grabbing a quick handful before it all disappeared into everybody else's gobs !

This is just one of the new products that Penn State Snacks have launched on to the market this summer. As well as the Sweet & Salty Popcorn that we tried, in 80g bags, there is also Monterey Jack Cheese Popcorn in the same sized bags, which sounds like another very different and surprising combination. They also have new Spicy Tomato & Chorizo Pretzels in a 175g bag and, due to popular demand, the popular Worcester Sauce Pretzels are coming back on the supermarket shelves in share-size 175g bags as well as handy 30g packs.

But that's not all ! Penn State are obviously unstoppable in the innovative and unusual flavour stakes. They explain : “In a bid to refresh and add to the existing range, the growth will continue later into the year with the introduction of the only bottom coated milk chocolate pretzels on the market, as well as an addition to the seasonal range with the festive Gammon & Mustard Pretzels.” Gammon & Mustard Pretzels sound lovely but, once again, I'll need some convincing for chocolate coated pretzels ! Despite this mention of chocolate, Penn State explain : “All our snacks offer consumers the health benefits of a low-fat, low-calorie snack, without compromising on taste.”

Even if I'm sceptical about some of the surprising new flavours, I have to say that I've loved all of the Penn State Snacks that I've sampled so far so I'll be keen to try them out and see what we think of them. I'm hoping to be pleasantly surprised !

The new Worcester Sauce flavour pretzels are available to buy now in ASDA. Chocolate pretzels will be available from October in Morrisons. The original range is available to buy in most major supermarkets.

Star rating : 4.5/5

RRP : popcorn - £1.29 for 80g bags ; pretzels – 60p for 30g bags and £1.29 for 175g bags ; half-coated chocolate pretzels - £2.49 for 100g bags

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