Jill Fromer - Photodisc

It’s awards season, so this week everyone’s asking who’s going to win the top prize: Best Pretzel.

The average American consumes about 1.5 pounds of pretzels a year, and the annual U.S. pretzel industry is worth over $550 million. So this is important stuff.

A dedicated team at Slashfood tested more than 110 different bags of hard pretzels to find out which brand topped its rivals. Although they concluded that pretzels are “a very personal thing,” they did highlight a number of characteristics deemed vital for the perfect pretzel.

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In order to win a category, the pretzels had to be crunchy, have the right ratio of salt-to-pretzel, not have an odd or chemical aftertaste, not be too dry, and (if appropriate) be full of the right kind of flavor.

To make things easier they split it in to categories. Here are our top 10 favorites.

1. Sticks: Bachman Flame Baked Pretzel Stix

2. Extra Dark: Unique Extra Dark “Splits”

3. Honey Wheat: Bachman Honey Wheat Pretzel Splits

4. Flavored: Snyder’s of Hanover Hot Buffalo Wing Pretzels

5. Old Fashioned: Snyder’s of Hanover Olde Tyme Pretzels

6. Gluten Free: Glutino Pretzel Sticks

7. Multi-Grain: Trader Joe’s Pumpernickel Pretzel Sticks

8. Unsalted: Bachman No Salt Added Petite Pretzels

9. Rods: UTZ Pretzel Rods

10. Traditional: Bachman Flame Baked Twists

(Via Slashfood)