National Soft Pretzel Month, celebrated in April, gives soft pretzels the celebration they deserve. For convenience stores, April is the perfect time to explore the endless options and versatility of soft pretzels. No matter how you serve them—salted, with dips, as a sandwich, or rolled in topping—soft pretzels are a great way to add customization and buzz to your menu.
If the holiday isn’t enough to excite some operators, recent menu trends might. According to Technomic, over the past two years, menu mentions of pretzels have increased 14% across all categories. To sweeten the deal, one of the largest gains for soft pretzels has been in the dessert category, with an almost 70% increase in menu mentions. Most often, dessert pretzels are paired with sweet flavors such as caramel, chocolate, cream and vanilla to create a sweet and salty dessert option.
With the wide variety of soft pretzel forms on the marketplace, including pretzel melts, rolls, sticks, traditional, filled varieties and more, celebrating National Soft Pretzel Month has never been easier. If your store has traditional soft pretzels, spice up your foodservice offering with a variety of dips or toppings, such as gourmet mustard, upscale cheese dips or Sriracha and other trendy sauces. But don’t forget the most basic topping of them all—salt—because 71% of all consumers prefer salt on their pretzels.
If you’re looking to liven up your menu with a heartier customizable option, soft pretzel melts may just be the meal solution for you. These delicious, handcrafted melts include such combinations as chicken bacon club, Philly cheesesteak or turkey provolone wrapped in a soft pretzel crust. Wrapped in an ovenable, microwavable film, these melts take little time to prepare and are perfect for an on-the-go snack.
If portable, handheld pretzel snacks aren’t enough, J&J Snack Foods’ 24-ounce Soft Pretzel Sandwich should have your customers talking. This monster of a sandwich carrier starts with a presliced, 3-pound (24 oz.) soft pretzel that becomes the bookends for layers of oven-roasted turkey, sharp provolone, spicy mustard, lettuce, tomato and onion.
Though this 24-ounce size doesn’t come close to the largest recorded soft pretzel, which was 842 pounds, it packs a whole lot of flavor. Operations in and around cities such as New York, Philadelphia, Harrisburg, Scranton and Cincinnati should consider featuring pretzel promotions during National Soft Pretzel Month, as those states are top consumers of prepackaged, frozen grocery-store soft pretzels.
Whether you are already using soft-pretzel products on your menu or you are new to the twisted game, April National Soft Pretzel Month is the perfect time to put pretzels on your menu. Happy National Soft Pretzel Month!
This post is sponsored by J&J Snack Foods