Double Pretz – Blueberry Cheesecake
Glico has been making both Pocky and Pretz since the 1960s, and they’ve always been similar, yet distinct from each other. While Pocky is typically the line with biscuit sticks covered in chocolate, the Pretz line is the one with biscuit sticks covered in flavouring. Pocky is usually the sweet to the savoury of Pretz. It seems with more recent offerings, while Pretz is still the more “naked” of the two, they are dipping their toes more into some sweet flavours as well, without getting into the chocolate coating that is Pocky’s wheelhouse. As someone who has grown up as thinking of Pretz as the salty, savoury snack, this is a bit of a strange thing for me. Like that one friend you’ve always considered only platonically, but something drastic changes suddenly and you begin to reevaluate them in a romantic light. Or is that just me? Moving on.
Today’s flavour is part of a new line called Double Pretz – there’s two sides to each stick, one that is the plain, classic Pretz that I’ve come to know and love, and the other is flavoured to simulate blueberry cheesecake.
Each stick looks like it was very uniformly coated on the single side. You know what? It kind of looks like a blueberry cheesecake dessert in stick form. Bonus points on the presentation. The bluish purple hue accompanied by the sweet smell of blueberry syrup is quite sweet and enticing to the senses.
Glico has mastered the texture of their biscuit sticks. They have a nice crisp snap to them, and break cleanly. The insides are fairly light and have an almost airy feel to them. Kind of like you’re not eating much. These make for a nice light snack, but if you’re hungry, maybe reach for something a little more substantial than these. I reckon I can finish two or three of these packs before feeling even remotely full or satisfied.
The flavour is fairly typical of blueberry flavoured snacks. It’s got a very floral blueberry taste to it, and isn’t too sweet. It adds a nice mild sweetness to the otherwise bland biscuit, and gives it a pleasant flavour. While the cheesecake part doesn’t really come into play, the way the flavour and texture work together does remind me of a nice blueberry pastry, like a danish. Unlike Pocky that delivers flavour through chocolate, Pretz does it through the powder. That’s probably why the flavour is a tad milder for sweet flavours like this. If you’ve ever had the typical flavours, you’d know that powder and salt works great for savoury flavours.
While I wouldn’t exactly consider this a good recreation of blueberry cheesecake, I do think it makes a good job of making a nice light snack that simulates a blueberry based pastry, like a danish. If you like blueberry or Pretz, this is a must try. It might be weird for you, as it was for me to think of the typically savoury Pretz in a different light, but sweet Pretz is just as wonderful, and is a change I can get behind.
