Dollar Store Review: Pretzels and Coffee Beans

I love buying food from the dollar store. It's kind of like cheep gambling. Will it be good? Will it be terrible? Who knows. But it's only a dollar, so what the hell. Throw caution to the wind. Or whatever.

Chocolate is always more of a gamble then other products. I mean, you can't really screw up a bag of mixed nuts, but bad chocolate can often have the consistency of chalk or the taste of cardboard. And that's if you're lucky. Sometimes it's much, much worse. And the odds are stacked against you: More often the not, it's awful. Even though this is something I know this from experience, I'm still more likely to grab something chocolate then anything else.

I bought these Chocolate Covered Pretzels, hoping for the best. Sorry, I guess they're actually Chocolatey Covered Pretzels. Chocolatey. That word makes me nervous. It's like the manufacturer was thinking, "No false advertising here! Haha, fooled you! We never said it was CHOCOLATE covered. Read it again! It's clearly marked chocolatey. Whew boy, we are ever so clever!" As I opened the bag I was preparing myself for something terrible. Or possibly worse the terrible, since even terrible chocolate usually refers to itself as chocolate, doesn't it? I pulled the first pretzel out of the bag. Looks like a chocolate covered pretzel. Good, full coverage of the chocolatey coating. I sniffed it. It smells as you'd expect a chocolate covered pretzel to smell. Finally, I took the plunge and took a bite. It was...actually not bad.

Now, don't get me wrong. They're not the best chocolate covered pretzels I've ever eaten. I mean, come on, they cost a dollar. But the chocolatey coating was acceptably chocolate-like. Creamy consistency, not at all cardboard tasting. Overall, pretty good, and definitely worth the price. I'd buy them again.


At the store, I also grabbed some chocolate covered coffee beans. Oh, wait, sorry, chocolatey covered coffee beans. Sorry. There's that word again. I'm no longer regarding that word with complete dread, as my previous taste test proved that "chocolatey" is not a synonym for "awful". Even so, I'm still not filled with a sense of confidence when a company chooses the word chocolatey over chocolate.

They smelled of coffee and chocolate, which is a good start. The chocolatey coating is not as shiny as it appears in the picture on the pouch, which is also a relief (shiny chocolate often means it'll have a waxy consistency). I popped one in my mouth and let it sit there for a minute. The chocolate was creamy and chocolate like. Actually, it was better then the pretzels. I crunched into the bean, and was greeted with a pleasantly strong coffee taste. If you've ever eaten non-gourmet or bulk chocolate covered coffee beans, then you know what these were like. Much more then I expected from something from the dollar store that describes itself as chocolatey.

So, my gamble payed off. This time. Do you ever buy food/snacks from dollar stores? What kind of experiences have you had with it?