Glico Spicy Nori Pretz

I'm a sucker for salted snack treats in Japan that put a little red chili pepper on the label design. In fact, I'm unlikely to look much further once I see it's shiny redness and that's why I bought these giant seaweed (nori) pretzels (のりー味かぶりつきプリッツ) despite not being a great fan of nori. I found these at a 7-11 outside of my immediate home area for 103 yen ($1.15).

These are part of what translates as the "ringside" series of Glico snacks. Previously, I reviewed a Giant Pocky which was offered under the same label and I still don't know why it is called that or if I'm translating the words properly. All I know is that these are 30 cm. (11.8 in.) long and a little over 1 cm. (.4 in.) wide. The package contains two pretzel sticks stacked on top of one another in a long plastic tray. One of my pretzels was already cracked apart, but the other was in perfect shape.

The ingredients for these include soy sauce seasoning, seaweed flakes, and a host of pretzel-like things like yeast, flour, and shortening. They look and smell like whole wheat flour was used. The package says that they include wheat protein so that may account for the more robust wheat flavor. There are 3.1 grams of protein in them and 140 calories if you eat both sticks (and you would if you bought them).


Since they have little green flecks of seaweed on them, they also carry the faint smell of nori. They're a very hearty-looking pretzel with lots of visible spices and salt. The truth is that they really are not proper pretzels but more like the bastard child of a pretzel and a cracker. The texture is softer and more cookie-like than a conventional pretzel, but it's still crispy. This was very flavorful with a mix of spices that came together well. The heat ends to hit you at the end and accumulate as you eat more, but it's not like jalepeno heat that starts to seriously burn more and more. My mouth didn't feel overly hot by the end of the second pretzel.

I liked these quite a lot because they were flavorful and the texture was really satisfying. If you're looking for a hard pretzel experience, these might not fit the bill. I should also note that the seaweed flavor is present, but not as strong as eating a cracker wrapped in nori so this isn't for fans of intense seaweed flavors so much as nori wusses like me.