Our Winner Is ...

RGL! RGL, please send me an email at rochesternypizzaguy@gmail.com with your name and mailing address and you'll be getting a gift certificate from 2 Ton Tony's, good for a one-topping sheet pizza and 30 wings.

Thanks to everyone who participated and keep watching for more giveaways soon! And thanks to Tony Proietti for this generous donation.

Product Review: Pretzel Perfection

Writing this blog is by no means a for-profit endeavor, but one perk is that from time to time I get offered free samples of food products. So even if they're not directly pizza-related, if they sound like they might be good, I typically accept them.
They're not all great, but I haven't yet run across a true clunker. If I did, I simply wouldn't review it. I'm not going to accept something for free and then bad-mouth it.
But this last one was good. Really good.
I got two, all-too-small samples last week from Pretzel Perfection®. The samples I received were the Salted Caramel and the Pacific Trail clusters.
The Salted Caramel clusters are pretzel sticks bound together by a mix of caramel, sea salt and dark chocolate. The Pacific Trail recipe contains dark chocolate, cranberries, blueberries, currants, cashews and sunflower seeds.
In my family, I preferred the Salted Caramel, my daughter liked the Pacific Trail better, and my wife was equally fond of both. But we liked all three.
I like sweets, but I also like salt, and although I'm not always big on certain combinations, these worked for me. The salt paired very well with the dark chocolate, and these didn't feel overly indulgent or filling.
I liked the Pacific Trail mix too, but just not as much. My daughter liked them better, I think, because she doesn't care so much for salty foods, which is probably a good thing. But imagine trail mix with pretzels and chocolate thrown into the mix and you'll have a good idea of what it's like.
One nice thing that surprised my is that Pretzel Perfection® Clusters, like all their products, are gluten free. That doesn't matter to me, personally (I do review pizza, after all) but I have a friend who genuinely cannot tolerate gluten, so I know how serious an issue gluten is for some people. I'm glad to run across truly good products that are free of gluten, and these were very good. These pretzels are made with a variety of non-wheat-based starches, and I didn't miss the wheat at all.
Check out Pretzel Perfection's website for more information about their products, including some holiday pretzel clusters. At this point, I don't believe these are available locally, but you can purchase them from their website, and on Amazon. Unless you're buying a large quantity, the shipping costs can be daunting, but for those with gluten issues, you may want to order a bunch. And I hope they start to show up in local grocery stores.

2 Ton Tony's Giveaway - FREE sheet pizza and 30 wings!

Tony Proietti, the proprietor of 2 Ton Tony's, has graciously agreed to donate a gift certificate good for a one-topping sheet pizza and 30 wings, to be given away to one lucky reader. This will be good at either the Irondequoit or Spencerport location.

To enter to win, simply leave a comment, any comment, at the end of THIS blog post (not the accompanying story or my Facebook page). One week from today, November 29, I will choose a winner at random. A nice post-Thanksgiving gift for somebody!

You don't need to leave your full name or mailing address, but if you win, I will need to be able to identify you as the winner, and to make sure the gift certificate gets to you, so you must include some identifying information in your comment--an email address, registered screen name, etc. If you don't want to post that kind of information for all to see, then email me at rochesternypizzaguy@gmail.com. Anonymous comments will not be accepted, and multiple comments will not increase your chances of winning.